The results are in!

& the lingering question I have is, how much Vitamin B is ENOUGH? Because I've been taking my supplements every day for many months, & thanks to Costco, I have beef at least once/day, and yet, this test says I'm STILL short on B6 & 12! I'm low on CoQ, tyrosine, plus some hormones or things that help with mitochondria, burning fat for energy, something that helps with detox, T4 for my thyroid, & yet yep, plenty of bad bacteria. So she took me off the pills for my skin since I'll now be a pill-popping maniac-- in addition to my vitamin B complex, 5HTP, selenium, and zinc, we're adding the CoQa with B6 & 12, & 4 pills 3 times/day for the gut bacteria. No alcohol (SIGH, & I have a Xmas party on Saturday), but also VERRRY limited-to-no caffeine, limited sugar (which is why I went with my craving and got a cafe mocha). Oh! & SOMEHOW I may not be getting enough FIBER? ALL I eat is lots of veggies with my meat, for chrissakes! So I'm taking fiber stuff too. The big relief? I was SURE I only had $100 left in my bank account (after getting a new winter coat that will actually help keep me warm, a new hat because the fun with 2 pom-poms got lost at a bakery), & a sweater because fuck it, I wanted to buy something fun! I don't get paid 'til the 13th, so we've a ways to go before that money comes in. But the ATM tells me I have $300! Don't know how, but VERRRRY relieved I have more than $20/week.

Anyway, the doctor thinks once this bacteria is cleared up, my skin will be, too. HA, my skin will not be deterred in its mission of sucking for as long I'm alive unless you throw pills at it! Plus, you know, stop eating like a human being. THEN it's much less grouchy. "Ruined Jen's life with fucking insane dietary restrictions? WELLL, my work here is done!"

& yet, yet AGAIN, I found out that the Xmas party, being thrown by a woman I've really only met twice, will have lots of paleo options! & for the dessert pot luck, someone asked about the diet restrictions to see if she could make something that works. & on top of that, I decided to go to the Xmas cookie exchange this year, I'm just not going to take any cookies... except for Rin's, who's also coming & making paleo cookies for my very own pain-giving ass! So SOME upshots. Plus this regimen for the gut is for 2 weeks (though she only gave me meds enough for 1 week, so I'll have to go back next week, because I'm in Korea so OF COURSE I WILL!).

A final note is that last week I brought my favorite middle school boys & the one girl some pumpkin pie (none of them have had it, nor of course turkey). I wanted to bring some in for Jessy, my fav middle school girls' class, & then Jennifer, their Korean teacher (who is great, btw), mentioned SHE'D never had pumpkin pie either. Why keep the remaining Costco pumpkin pie in my place when there are so many people deserving of tasting pumpkin pie? So here's hoping it thaws in around 4 hours. We'll see what they think!

Here's how the boys reacted, though this is mainly how I've now found that Korean kids react to aerosol whipped cream in general-- they can't quite get over the sound or concept.