I’ve been missing in action here at the blog, and I stopped reporting on my experience with intro. I apologize for that, but the depression just got the best of me there and I had to take a break and recuperate.
During the time of depression I spoke with a friend who is doing GAPS, who suggested that I look into testing my adrenals as the place to begin with the cherries on the cake. I have listened to so many podcasts by Dr. Natasha that they are beginning to blend together in my head, but I think she did mention the cake analogy on the interview that I did with her. At any rate, she says GAPS is the foundation – the cake – and some people do very well with GAPS, but others have to add to the cake, they have to add the frosting and cherries.
I’ve been doing GAPS 17 months, and I have seen a lot of healing as seen in my six month update and my one year update, but when I was feeling the depression I started to feel like I need to do something else. As I mentioned in my post called When Sleep Takes Precedence Over Blogging there are some things that I may need to address which could be holding back my progress in healing. My friend mentioned a place to start could be my adrenals, and I thought that sounded simple enough, so I ordered the test. I ordered the Female Circadian 24 hour test from Sabre Sciences. It cost $249 for the test and shipping back to the lab. The kit included six plastic vials with a piece of cotton inside. You chew on the cotton to get it wet with your saliva and then send back to the lab to get your results. The cost of the test includes a consultation with one of their doctors.
I have been taking the saliva samples today, I have to take six in a 24 hour period, every four hours: 8am, noon, 4pm, 8pm, midnight and 4am.
So far I have been right on the dot. I was sure I missed taking the 8pm sample… I took a very late afternoon nap and I woke up at 7:35pm. I was completely certain that I’d missed taking the sample by 35 minutes. The lady I spoke with told me if I did miss one of the time slots to just take the saliva at the same time, the next day. So I wrote down on my paper that I had missed the 8pm sample and I went and sat at my computer. Thankfully I brought my phone with me (I’ve set the alarm on my phone to go off when it’s time to take the next sample) and it started to sound at 7:55. This is when I realized with some surprise, that I had in fact not missed the 8pm sample.
Now I need to make sure I don’t miss the midnight and 4am samples.
I have never tested my adrenals before, so I don’t have anything to compare with my test results.
It was pretty cool when the lady was explaining to me to be sure to drink 5-7 glasses of water the day before the test and she asked me how much water I usually drink in a day. I told her I only drink water and she said that was good and many people who want to take the test are drinking soda and coffee [affiliate link] regularly.
Of course these two things have an impact on the way our body functions.
I thought to myself how cool it was that I can say I don’t drink coffee or soda.
There is a form included with the kit, with questions. One of those questions is what foods do you not eat? And as I was writing down the main GAPS illegals, it occurred to me as if for the first time I really realized that my diet is so clean. I’m one of “those” people who eat healthy!
Well, my kind of healthy. Because some people have different ideas about what foods are healthy.
I’ll have to let you know my test results when they return, I think it will be at least a couple of weeks until I hear anything.
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