Brazil and Back

Two weeks ago, my husband and I just took an amazing vacation to Brazil, a trip I have been wanting to take since I was in the fourth grade. It was one of the top three vacations I've been on. What made it so amazing was how relaxed and care free I felt the whole time. Other than a small luggage mix-up, I really never felt an ounce of stress and because of that I felt amazing! I think the reason I felt so free was I had no cell phone service and no internet. I was completely disconnected from the rest of the world, it was wonderful...it was better than wonderful!

For those of you who are wondering, I tried to hold true to my anti-inflammatory diet but it was really hard to do. What made it so difficult was the fact I do not speak Portuguese, so customizing any of my dishes was pretty much impossible. Even with these complications, the only time I really broke from my diet was at dinner, so I think I did pretty well! This last week though, I completely fell off the band wagon.

So How Can I Stop the Inflammation?...

Since Behcet's is an inflammatory disease I decided to do some research on what causes inflammation. After all, how can you manage something that you don't understand? Now before I jump in, I just want to clarify that I am in no way, shape, or form a doctor or a dietician. I am a Marketing Specialist with a very inquisitive mind and a drive to manage my BD from all angles. I found a lot of factors contribute to inflammation, but that diet can play a major role. Perfect! I can totally control my diet. Thus, I've been reading up on the Anti-Inflammation Diet.

If you have done any research on anti-inflammatory diets you will find a bunch of contradictory information, luckily I found some constants that have been proven to cause inflammation:

Journey to the Diagnosis

I have always been incredibly healthy. The few times I did get sick was when I was in college, and both times I had the flu.

Flash forward through college, to 2007. I was 24, and not much had changed. I still worked out every day, I had a few beers here and there, just a typical 20-something, but I was probably the healthiest I'd been since high school!
So in July when my lips 'broke out', for lack of a better word, I just assumed I was having an allergic reaction to a new lip product. I took a few Benadryl and Advil (for the pain) , drank a lot of smoothies (because I couldn't eat normal food) and spent some time convincing my boyfriend that no, my lips weren't melting off (although that is exactly what it looked like).
Within about two weeks my lips cleared up and I went about my normal business...

Until right before Thanksgiving of the same year, 2007.