I often wonder what goes wrong first. I seem to have several explanations to my problems, but I can’t quite discern what affects what.. I mentioned that I was having tests done for my adrenal glands and digestion. Well, I am pleased to report that my digestion is in a good way. However, in the words of my nutritionist, my adrenal glands most certainly are not. Let me give you a bit of background to help explain. The adrenal glands are situated just above the kidneys and are responsible for helping you cope with stress. This can be fear, anger, anxiety or excitement. Our adrenal glands will produce adrenaline to help us cope with this. If we are under a particularly heavy load of stress for any period of time then our body is constantly pumping out adrenaline and the adrenal glands become exhausted.

I can’t say that I have ever thought of my life as any more stressful than the next person I know. But my nutritionist seems to think that there has to be an ongoing stressor that has depleted my adrenal glands to such an extent. The normal range of daily hormone output is 21-41. Mine is 7. She says it’s amazing that I even get out of bed each day. Granted, I have 2 small children, but they are mostly like angels, so I can’t blame them. Yes, we came to Chile for 6 weeks and have been here now nearly three years and have never had a plan for more than 3 months ahead in all that time. But we have loved our time here in Chile and have used the opportunity of living in a foreign country to the max. Then there was the earthquake, but that was only earlier this year, so it can’t be that either. A funny thing though, since the earthquake, wherever I am, I can feel the earth moving. It is a strange sensation. Someone sits on the sofa next to me and it fells just like a tremor. A particularly big lorry goes by and things rattle. I feel myself tense and look around for everyone else’s reaction, but of course, they are sitting totally relaxed just as if nothing is happening, precisely because nothing is happening. I even feel like the beach moves sometimes. And when we were just in England where earthquakes are just about unheard of, things still seemed to be moving!

Talking of England, I have just had a great trip back to visit family. Unfortunately I was unwell with a type of flu in the first week, which kept me in bed for a few days with sweats and a raging headache, but other than leaving me with a horrible cough which is now into it’s third week, I managed to shake it off for the second half of our trip. I had enough energy in that second week to, with the help of my parents, entertain 4 small children for 4 days and rush around buying things I can’t get in Chile, celebrating Mary’s 5th birthday with friends and a trip to Thomas Land, as well as catching up with friends. By the time I had flown back here to Chile with the girls by myself, I was totally exhausted. My cough worsened from the change to winter and the smog that blights Santiago and I stayed in bed for much of the first few days I was home.

The diet continues and I am now into the 6th month of 12 of this gruelling programme. I don’t pretend to be the goodie two shoes that I should be. There have been unfortunate moments of lapse, when the lure of a piece of birthday cake or a nice glass of cold Chardonnay has got the better of me. But after this length of time I should have the nasty little bugs under control and am allowed to, within reason, stray on occasion. It could be now, that the adrenal gland problem is looking like a continuing candida problem. Many of the symptoms are the same or very similar. So, when my supplements arrive here, I will rip open the package and start taking them with much hope and anticipation of an improvement. In 4 months time I have to have a retest so that there is no over correction occurring, so it will be interesting to see what changes might happen during that time.

I have had a reasonable run of time with no leg symptoms to speak of, until today. Even when I was so exhausted last week, I was encouraged that my legs held up. 2 days ago I started feeling pretty miserable, just very low. I don’t seem to have much control over my emotions these days and can overreact sometimes over nothing. The next day I was fine, feeling much brighter and happier. Then bang! Today, I had a quiet pootle to the shops, came home to rest a bit, and when I went to get up to have lunch with my girls who had just got home, I could barely stand. Why? I have spent my afternoon limping around, with the aid of crutches, generously on long term loan from our church, trying to keep my feet warm. I find that when I am under an attack, my feet are as cold as if I have been hiking in snow for a day and got damp feet. Nothing can make them warm. And today, for the first time in months, my left leg has been trying to leave me too.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.. I should be entertaining 2 school friends in the afternoon, one each for the girls. Hopefully they will just entertain themselves!