Vegan? I sure don’t want to be.
This past spring I started a journey I never saw coming, I decided to use food as a prescription for health.
In my early twenties I began having abdominal pain once a month that would last for a few hours to a few days and I would end up in the ER searching for answers. Every test they ran came back normal and healthy but clearly something was very wrong. I started to feel like I was being wrongly accused of being a hypochondriac or worse a “drug seeker.” Neither was true, and the more pain I was in the more alone I felt. In 2000 I finally found a doctor who would take the time to hear me and put me under the knife where he confirmed I had scare tissue on my abdomen, cysts on my ovaries, and my fallopian tubes were being choked. After the confirmation of Endometriois I was put on birth control to regulate my cycles, but the hormones caused other problems that made me uncomfortable.
Fireman and I got married in 2003 and we were told by my doctor that postponing pregnancy for 5 years of our marriage might mean that I may not be able to have children. I was heart broken that this scaring would lead to infertility that Fireman and I changed our plans and tried having kids. J was conceived right away and my pregnancy was without much to write about, except to say I was able to have a baby and the abdominal pain stayed away for that time.
L was again an easy conception and pregnancy, but 4 years after having her I was awoken one night (while Fireman was on duty) to horrible abdominal pain. I could not move and called my mom at 5 am to tell her I would be calling 911. She came over and assessed that what was happening was not life threatening and I should just ride it out with pain medicine. I didn’t get out of bed for 24 hours and I said I would do whatever it took to get my body healthy without hormones, pregnancy or another surgery.
I spent the next few days researching what other women had tried to “cure” themselves with and discovered the unanimous decision was to stay clear of animal protein. Therefore I stopped eating meat, dairy, eggs, cheese, and fish. I lasted for most of the summer eating like this, but grew increasingly lazy in my food choices. Bread became the central focus instead of veggies, fruit, and nuts. I hated cooking, loathed grocery shopping, and figuring out a new recipe was to much work. I got bored and that lead to bad food choices, but my pain was gone.
Around the beginning of winter I started craving home cooked meals from the crockpot but everything I found to cook had meat in it, so I started adding it back in. Here and there I added chicken, pork at Christmas, eggs for breakfast and my 1st cycle after adding the animal protein I was right back where I started from. The pain was intense and was coupled with night sweats. I couldn’t believe how fast my body reacted to the animal protein and I didn’t want to believe it but what else could be the cause?
I don’t want to live without meat, but eating it means that I am in pain 1 or 2 days every month, and that can’t happen as a mom. I need to get my act together, find a cook book that will help me with simple vegan dishes, get over the fact that I might be making 2 meals at dinner, and realize this is a new normal. It might take a while of adjustment with family meals, restaurants and date nights but I truly believe I am healthier without animal protein.
So we will see if my plan works and my meals start looking like this;
This post is now part of the Whole Lotta Love linkup
As a Classical Homeschooling mom of two I have no idea where I find the time to be here, but I love this blog and like me it changes in appearance a lot, but the core stays the same. I adore my life and wouldn't change one crazy day of it. 
Oh gosh, poor you. What a horrid thing to have to deal with. BUT great news that you’ve found a solution to stop the pain. I’m a vegetarian (by choice) and have found – over the years – that there are marvelous things ‘out there’ for me to eat. Best best of luck with this part of your journey. x
Wow…that is a painful story to read.
The good news is that there are scads of vegan bloggers out there conjuring up amazing recipes. Sunny Vegan is one but there are many others. Maybe those can help you along??
Good luck…I can’t imagine giving up meat.
Fellow endometriosis sufferer here. I feel you pain, friend.
Good luck with the vegan diet. I really wish I could go that route too.
Stopping in from Kludgy Mom!
Oh, good for you. I’m not sure I could do it either, although I have no doubt it might be healthier.
I do not have Endo but we recently started trying vegan meals to be more healthy. I have been using Chloe’s Cookbook which I received as a gift. Everything seems like it needs a food processor. Definetly some of the most involved cooking I have done in my life, also lots of cleanup. That being said, everything so far has tasted great. Good luck with your journey. I hope your family will change with you, that will make things easier. Stir frys are easiest.
Cutting meat out of our diet would definitely be a challenge but slowly I’ve been doing it. So far nobody has noticed much.
It’s good that you’ve been able to find something without taking meds to help you!
This is a great blog for vegan recipes! http://86lemons.com/
It’s hard to change your lifestyle, but when you have serious consequences, it becomes more necessary. I have to be gluten free, but other than that, I eat way too much sugar and fat. It’s hard to be motivated to change because the consequences are weight gain and fatigue – uncomfortable, but not debilitating.
Just to say that I am trying to change too. It’s not easy.
Hi! I found you from Whole Lotta Love. Great post and you’re right about food, it can literally be the death of us or the medicine for us. I am a health coach and as I went through my studies, chose to give up dairy, meat and cut back on breads. I gained energy and lost weight and felt great. I have since also given up sugar for the most part and feel even better. I had a catering business years ago and love to cook, so changing the way I cooked took time. My two favorite cookbooks are Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s, Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Vegan Recipes and Kris Carr’s, Crazy Sexy Kitchen: 150 Plant-Empowered Recipes. Isa’s has lots of economical and fast recipes which I love, and Kris’s does too, but she also has some that take time and more expensive ingredients. Love them both though! My blog is about health and on Friday’s I post the Friday Foodie and share healthy recipes you might like as well. I hope you’ll stop by for a visit! And I wish you all the best on the new eating! Cheers!
What aggravates me about this is your pain, yes, but that it took so long to find a doctor to really determine WHY it was happening. I’m glad that you did and agree with the other commenters that it’s hard as hell to change your life, especially food-wise. But. It can be done. I wish you all the strength you need to get through and like Gigi suggests, find some vegan bloggers; there are loads of them now. Good luck!
Thank you Jane for your comment. It is encouraging to know ppl survive these diet changes.
:)
Thank you Jackie for your blog recommendation. I could get all the help I can get.