Houston, we have a solution

Maybe.

In regards to the milk issue.

But before I go there, a couple of you commented on eating milk with certain foods.

Just so you all understand my deep and undying love for milk, it is such an intense relationship that there is no such thing as a food that doesn’t go well with milk. Whether it be sour cherries or pizza or salad or bbq or strawberries or chocolate. In the world I live in, milk is every bit as amazing with any kind of food.

Now that that’s out of the way, on with the show.

So far, in absence of drinking milk, I have felt wonderfully well. And even though it has only been a week or so, that’s saying something. Because these pains were happening on a daily basis. So to have a string of consecutive days of pain-free living is a God-send.

I have also been noting whether other dairy products produce a similar result. So far I am in luck, I can eat others just fine.

But. I got the test results back on my levels of vitimin D. The normal amount of vitamin D someone is supposed to have in their system is between 30 and 100 (not sure what the measurement is).

But after a long, cold Minnesota winter with sun that is not strong enough to provide most people with sufficient levels of vitamin D, my level is at 18. This is a cause for concern.

So in anticipation of lower levels, she had origionally told me to grab a vitamin D suppliment and take 1000 internationl units (IU) of this vitamin daily.

Now that the results are in, she wrote me prescription for a vitamin D suppliment that has 50,000 international units.

Whoa.

And to give you idea of how much that is, the average person needs only 400 IU of vitamin D daily to acheive the daily intake recommended. So this pill supposedly provides me with 125 x the daily amount needed.

And here is the interesting thing. As I was searching around online for possible effects of vitamin D deficiency, I learned that having a deficiency would inhibit the body’s ability to metabolize calcium.

Hm. Go figure. This just might have something to do with why it has been difficult for me to drink milk.

And some might say that other food products have calcium, and to that I respond that I don’t consume those other foods with the frequency and in the amounts that I do milk.

And this also explains why this happened to me when I was younger – but eventually was able to drink milk again after a few months.

So hopefully after 2 months of taking mega doses of the suppliment and spending time in the warm summer sun, my levels should be back up a bit. And thus, I will be able to drink milk again.

This is the first time ever that I think a doctor has done something useful for me. Even though she found the connection by mistake because she was checking my vitamin D levels for a totally different reason, it worked out for me.

So I will keep an eye on things. And if things don’t start to get better, I will be exploring some of the suggestions you all made such as ulcer, lactose intolerance, drinking different kinds of milk, etc.

I’m off to go sit in the sun!