This article won’t make sense unless you read Part 1 first.

At the end of Part 1, things were looking pretty bleak. Almost overnight, my health had turned from pretty darn good to in the miserableness realm and it became my norm for the next three years.

Sadly, we were convinced there was nothing to be done.

Let me back up a moment, because this information is important to the story. I was to take the medication until my chest x-rays were clear. After a year, I was informed this had occurred and I could cease and desist. Another interesting note is after all this medication, monitoring, blood tests, etc. there was no follow up scheduled. No this is what you need to do now. Just okay, you’re done. Thanks for the memories.

Now back to where we left off … during those subsequent years, I was living between two different states, Hawaii and Florida. In reality, that was actually fortunate since we could ascertain my environment wasn’t the issue for my continued health problems, but rather something happening internally.

In addition, we discovered my allergies seemed worse in Hawaii. It was there I learned what a huge problem mold was for me, particularly after a rain. I had to increase the allergy shots dosage and frequency to two shots twice a week.

During this period of time, my memory is a little foggy. I am not quite sure how I ended up on the steps of a fairly well-known physician. Perhaps it was my Mom or maybe my sister who made the appointment), however, I do distinctly remember being 16 years old and becoming a patient of Dr. John A. McDougal. My introduction and association with Dr. McDougal was the first time in my life I learned diet and nutrition played an important role in our health.

I went to Dr. McDougal for two reasons: my allergies and my migraines.

During our consultation, while reviewing my medical history, he was shocked and appalled I had been prescribed the aforementioned medication. The reason being it had been discontinued years earlier (in other words, it shouldn’t have been available for me to use). He advised us to check into this since we might have a case against the doctor and the clinic. We did and discovered the doctor had passed and they couldn’t locate my medical records.

For that time period, I had extensive allergy testing. It included but definitely not limited to the scratch testing. I honestly don’t recall in detail all that went on, but it was long and arduous. What I do remember is the impact it had on my health from that point forward.

Test results indicated a dairy allergy (among other things). I didn’t have to eliminate it entirely, however his suggested regimen required me to skip dairy one day out of three. For example, I could eat dairy on Monday and Tuesday, but then skip Wednesday.

Apparently my body could tolerate dairy up to a point. Then it became saturated and required a day to reset. If I did not do this, my body treated dairy as a toxin and would purge or expel it from my system by throwing up. Sorry, I don’t mean to be gross.

I don’t know how he developed this plan, but he did. Moreover, I was shocked to find out it actually worked! To this day, if I consume dairy three days in a row, the resultant effect is a migraine. Fortunately and almost always I abide by this practice and don’t have to suffer the consequences. Occasionally, since I am human, I lose count of my dairy days and sure can tell when I do! ::giggle::

At the time, Dr. McDougall was developing and finalizing his vegetarian/vegan diet plan. He provided me a food list of what to eat and not to eat. But remember, I was 16 and having fun in school and with my social life, so I pretty much ignored it. The exception was the dairy thing. With that and the allergy shots, I was gaining ground and feeling kind of good again.

Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.

What I didn’t know was allergy shots work for a time. Then our bodies build up a tolerance and the shots need to be changed or adjusted. Quite frankly, I was getting sick and tired of being poked four times a week and when it came to being re-evaluated for another round; this is when kismet stepped in.

I moved from Hawaii to Pittsburgh, PA.

This is when the story gets even better … stay tuned for Part 3 next Monday!