Ingredients

When you need a little bit more than just gluten free.

At the end of September of 2012, my fiancé, at the time, and I were at our destination wedding/honeymoon in the Dominican Republic.  A friend of ours noticed something strange in my neck that they had not noticed before. It was a rather large lump that when I turned my head to the side you could see the lump move up and down as I talked and swallowed. As you can imagine, this created a huge panic inside me! As soon as we got back to the US, I went straight to the Emergency Room to establish care, get X-Rays, anything to try and get a handle on what was going on. Several X-Rays, Ultra Sounds, Biopsies and specialists later, I was told that I had cancer and would need emergency surgery to remove the mass from my neck.

In November of 2012, a hemithyroidectomy (removal of half my thyroid) was performed, removing the large fist sized mass and part of my thyroid was removed. The mass had glued itself to everything in my neck: my vocal cords, esophagus, thyroid and nerves.  The good news? The mass was benign. The bad news? I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that would change the trajectory of my life entirely, I just did not know it yet. Less than a year later, my new husband was having an affair and left me for someone else. “You are not who you said you were” he said.

My world was thrown into further and utter chaos. You see, I had been married before him. This was the 2nd time I had been through infidelity breaking my marriage apart. This marriage was “promised” to be different and he would never do to me what I had been through before.

So, here I was starting all over again, but even harder with a new diagnosis that I had no idea how to navigate. With loads of in-depth research on my part, trying to speak to doctors who understood my diagnosis, specialists, labs, listening to other patients struggling with the same symptoms, side effects, I knew I had no choice but to try and figure out how to live this new “lifestyle” and try to live it to the best of my ability.

Enter in: Aunt Janny.

I am known to my nieces and nephews as Aunt Janny. I have helped raise each one of them in some way shape or form and spent many years testing out my recipes on not only them, buut also my sisters and my family. They were going to eat what Aunt Janny eats whether they liked it or not! LOL. And somedays not LOL.

So, here we are, YEARS later. Removing trigger foods, adding in nutrients and trying to understand the way that my body absorbs, utilizes and digests food. Truth be told? It is STILL a battle for me every.single.day. BUT I am in a much better space physically, emotionally, mentally and psychologically than if I had just laid down and accepted my diagnosis. Doctors still to this day do not know what to do with me lol. And yes, I truly eat Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Egg Yolk Free, Corn Free, (and even other trigger foods for me) EVERY SINGLE DAY!

I CANNOT EXPRESS TO YOU HOW MUCH I AM SO GLAD THAT YOU ARE HERE! And I hope my pain can somehow bring you comfort that you are not alone, and that I hopefully have taken out some of the guess work for you by offering foods that remove so many of the triggers that are associated with autoimmunity! OR even if it is just that you are wanting to eat healthier!