This post has taken me more than a week to write! If you follow my Instagram or Facebook you know I have been dealing with a really bad iritis flare. This is technically my 4th time with iritis in the past 3 years and 3rd time since October of 2014. Even though I am HLB-27 positive I still feel there has to be more at play from an environmental standpoint than just my genes. I have been thinking hard about what was different during my 3-year lull and what has been going on since October that would cause a flare to continue for so long, and continue to get worse becoming resistant to standard treatment.
During my 3-year lull I was vegan for a year and pretty much plant based gluten free for the rest of the time. I ate little meat if any. Not a huge shift to my current diet however, I eat more meat today than I did back then. I personally don’t feel this has much to do with it given I was living with daily arthritis pain. No iritis, but pain all over my body. The autoimmune protocol has changed my life in regards to my body pain. Sometimes I forget I even have ankylosing spondylitis because physically I feel so great. The other thing I thought about was exercise. Fitness was a huge part of my life. I never missed a day and many times worked out more than once in a day. During my pregnancy I was unable to workout and it has taken me 2.5 years to get back to where I feel like I am somewhat fit again. I say somewhat, because even though I am back in my daily running routine I still have a few lbs. to lose and could be doing more. Either way I am extremely happy with the progress I have made from a fitness perspective and I know it will only get better from here.
So what has changed since October? The only thing I can think of based off of what my eye doctor has mentioned is could it possibly be related to the two stomach bugs I have picked up in the past 6 months. I had to take Cipro twice since December. Cipro is a very strong antibiotic and kills off the good and the bad bacteria in your gut. I made sure to use a really good probiotic when I took it and for a month after however, I’m not sure what difference it has made. Not great to be on it ever, bad to be on twice in less than 6 months. I have been researching and I am finding so much in regards to bacterial overgrowth, salmonella and E. coli infections leading to flares if you have an autoimmune disease or even being the environmental factor to set one off in the first place. For me I already had an active autoimmune disease, but could my recent gut infections be to blame for my extremely bad recurrent iritis flares?
The other possibility is some sort of bacteria or infection in one of my previous root canals. I meet with my new dentist on Thursday and from what I understand I will have a series of x-rays done which should be able to show any abnormal activity. I am super intrigued by this and can’t wait to report back with the findings.
And last but not least stress! My eye doctor brought this up as well as my Mayo Clinic doctor the last time I saw him. I really feel I work hard to control my stress but know it can sort of be a subconscious thing. Life is stressful, whether good or bad stress and each of our bodies deal with it in a different way. I have a busy life working full time, being and Mom and keeping up with my creative outlets.
Because my iritis has progressively gotten worse over the last 2 weeks my eye doctor recommended I get into my rheumatologist at the Mayo Clinic asap. Luckily I was able to get in with my doctor’s nurse practitioner this Friday. I am hopeful yet scared at what they will recommend. The idea of taking an immune suppressant drug scares the living daylight out of me. I’m looking forward to Friday from the standpoint of understanding what the next steps are so I can tackle it head on. Whatever Friday brings I’m ready.
Now lets chat salads! I have literally been living on salads all summer long. They are so refreshing, simple to throw together and filled with tons of vitamins and minerals. I approach my salads like I do my smoothies. Basically just throw together whatever sounds good or is in the fridge. I think you are going to love this Arugula, Avocado Salad With Cherry Vinaigrette. The cherries have been amazing the last few weeks so have been doing all sorts of things with them. Making a vinaigrette seemed like the perfect way to do something a bit different with such beautiful, sweet cherries. In addition to arugula and avocado this salad also has pea shoots and raw pepitas. I added grilled chicken for additional protein but can be omitted to make vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian. Enjoy!
- 1 small container of arugula
- ¾ cup of cherries
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp champange vinegar or vinegar of choice
- ¼ tsp sea salt + a sprinkling
- 1 tsp raw honey
- ¼ cup raw pepitas
- 1 avocado
- ¼ cup pea shoots
- Optional: 1 medium to large chicken breast
- If adding grilled chicken season with a sprinkling of sea salt and grill ......
- To make the cherry vinaigrette wash ½ cup of cherries (reserve the other ¼ cup for topping the salad) and cut in half, remove pit and place in a food processor.
- Add olive oil, vinegar, raw hone and ¼ tsp sea salt to food processor.
- Process on high until all ingredients are fully mixed and you have a salad dressing consistency.
- Wash pea shoots and set aside.
- Cut avocado and set aside.
- Take remaining ¼ cup of cherries and slice in quarters, remove pits and set aside.
- Spread arugula on a platter and top with optional chicken, avocado, pepitas, pea shoots and cherries.
- Drizzle cherry vinaigrette over the top and serve.