Coronavirus Interruption

In mid-March, the whole world shut down.  Las Vegas shut down all non-essential business on March 18th and California actually did the same the week before.  With that, I received a call on March 13th, that both my March 25th (ERG) and March 30th (retinology) appointments were cancelled since their clinics were closing for 1 month.  Their earliest appointments were June 17th and 19th! 

Obviously, I took the appointments, but I was devastated.  This meant continued vision loss for 3 additional months, potential delayed treatment, and so much unknown.  I am not one to wallow in grief or get stuck in negative thoughts for long, but this was day challenged me.  I laid in bed all afternoon and mostly cried.  I really wasn't sure how to move forward.  I am always one to expect the best but prepare for the worst, but this was not something I was prepared for.  It was a difficult pill to swallow knowing that nothing would be done for an additional 3 months and I would literally have to watch my vision continue to worsen knowing that there was no reversing any damage that occurred.  I was emotionally destroyed.

By the time my husband got off work, he forced me to get up since laying in bed never solved anything.  Of course, he was right but I was still in a foul mood.  I slowly resolved that there was nothing I could do to change this situation so I better do what I could to help myself.  With this, I began to research alternative treatments for autoimmune diseases and came across the autoimmune protocol diet.  While it had no evidence in autoimmune retinopathy other than anecdotal reports from patients, it did have strong evidence for ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis.  So beginning of April, I decided to give it a try.  Next post will be describing the diet rationale, foods, and experience.

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