My Wife is Hot...and A Whole Lot More!

Whoa...so I've known that my wife is smokin' hot, an amazing cook, and that she can kick my butt, for a long time. She's got a knack for making people smile, she'll be your best friend in a day, and she's got the kind of "alternative girl" (anybody remember the band Homegrown?) spirit that I just dig - known that too. What I didn't realize is that I also married a woman with the will power to pull her hotness out of bed everyday and take care of two little monsters - two very rad little monsters if I do say so myself - and one overgrown slug all by herself, every day. Mel, here's to you for making it happen while I've felt like little more than - well, an overgrown slug for the last 6 months.

This post is also an opportunity for me to give everyone an update on how I've been doing lately and further introduce you to the adventure that has been my health for the last 6 months. Many people ask me or Mel about how I'm doing, and we're finally moving in a positive direction, so this is a perfect time to let everybody know what's been going on, not to mention a perfect time to brag a little more about Mel.

Here's the details:
For review, Mel wrote a little about what has been happening here

• 6 months ago I started dealing with some heavy chest pain and fatigue
• Went through a mound of tests before the cardiologist said they didn't think it was my heart (still trying to figure that one out).
• 3 months ago the chest pain, muscle & joint pain, and fatigue had escalated to a ridiculous level (defined as the level that you turn in to a giant slug).
• 2 months ago I was diagnosed with Chronic Mononucleosis - whew...at least we knew why I was so tired.
  
• 4 weeks ago we learned that Chronic Mononucleosis was a lot more than we had first understood. You can find a short article on the condition here
• Basically, what I thought was going to be 4-6 more weeks of feeling bad turned into what could be more like 2-4 more years.
  
• After lots of advice and prayer (Your doctor will tell you, "Well, I would recommend lots of rest and water." - Thank Doc), I was convinced that the answer was getting even more serious about nutrition.
• Lots of research lead me to a bunch of information that I would have considered "crazy" a couple years ago.
• Due to the detailed information and preplanned "helps" available on the site, we decided to follow a plan laid out by Dr. Mercola
• We began juicing vegetables. You've never lived until you've had the chance to down an Asparagus, Celery, Spinach, Cucumber juice (actually, it wasn't that bad). Nope, I'm not touching any fruit or carrot juice due to the sugar content.
• We cut all Gluten out of my diet, started eating lots more vegetables, and we've become regulars at the local Good Earth market.
  
• Aaaaaaaaaaaand...two and a half weeks later I feel a lot better (kind of the difference between "somebody just beat me with a stick" and "somebody just gave me an Indian Burn"). Without giving you a full digest of my day, it's easiest to just leave it at that I'm really optimistic that we're going to beat this A LOT sooner than later.
  
• I'm becoming convinced that we can't really take nutrition too seriously. Whether or not I become a nutrition missionary has yet too be seen, but I'm sure I'll be adopting many, if not all, of these principles as lifelong habits.

Now you know.



This is also on opportunity for me to say thank you. We've had friends mow our lawn, bring over dinner, watch our kids, offer advice and more. Mom, Mel's been off-the-charts amazing, but I think we both agree we couldn't have done this without you. (How many moms think it would be fun to watch their children move out only to find out they have to go play Mary Poppins at their kid's house?) Kind words and encouragement have meant the world. When everybody (seriously, everybody) in the neighborhood says, "Just let me know if there's anything we can do," you begin to realize that you're going to either have a "Who wants to help the Mealeys?" raffle every now and then, or you're just going to be grateful for all of the positive energy coming your way. I admit, I've gone with the latter option. Thank you all again.

One more time - Mel, I love you. Thank you.

Christian