Chapter 21

The Slow Reveal

Joe and I had realized we needed to start educating ourselves on ingredients of the foods we were eating more. We began with the basics like Gluten and then high fructose corn syrup. The High fructose corn syrup had given both Joe and I what looked like a cyst in our groin areas and they had to be painfully drained. We began looking into all of the main foods we generally went to and we started making our changes.

Slater didn’t notice the changes as we found products to exchange the regular products for. We found that the fast foods were the worst decisions to go to so we began finding alternates. While I was at work I would refrain from eating anything near my work and only pick safer items. Not many noticed the changes around us so there was never much of an issue when going to eat with anyone. We were still eating many normal items and I was still not fully aware of any major issues.

Life kept going at work and I was getting busier and busier. The owners of the shop were noticing that I was making good money despite being sent to the “slow” location. Some of the other shops were hearing about it and now some of the other workers wanted to come to that location. The shop was right next to the  local State University and everyone thought I had just met a stroke of luck so when they transferred over to only be me with the same turn away factor, they became irate fairly fast. Young Blood and I made a game of watching everyone try to get clients and get shot down. We would ignore their bitching and keep in our good spirits playing in the store and waiting until they were content with distancing themselves. My clients had spread the word to ask for me by name so when I was called upon that was a given that the customer would be mine. Most of the other artists and piercers that worked with me would become jealous. They would get vocal about their disapproval of my client base beginning to rise in numbers. I felt bad sometimes and would try to give pointers but it would always fall on deaf ears. As much as I tried to make friends with the other artists I would always get the cold shoulder and even if I tried to give them clients I was usually still met with resistance. After a while I realized that no matter what I did or how much I tried to help or defer my clients I was not going to gain friends in the shop besides the counter kids. The counter kids were always great company to keep. They always kept you laughing and even if they were broke they never hated on me for my  larger income. I would buy the kids lunch as often as possible to help them in their hard times. Young blood became a good friend to Joe and I, occasionally babysitting Slater so we could have the occasional date night.

Joe was a stay at home Dad while I was working so that we could save to get the things we needed and so that Slater didn’t have to be with strangers everyday. They would come to the shop for lunch most days and every night after work we would do dinner together. Every day I left him with the truck we had bought from a local to take Slater to parks and enjoy while I rode a bike to and from work so that I could get exercise.

The ride was just perfect everyday to start my day and end it. It was an easy shot across the UNLV campus and it was fun to watch all the people on campus. Since I was trying to lose weight, Joe and I had also decided to get a gym membership so we could work out on my days off together. The gym had a daycare and Slater enjoyed the playtime.

Since moving to Vegas took us away from her eye doctors in Florida, the doctors suggested some in Vegas for us to follow up with and we had been mostly tossed around from office to office with appointment setting. We finally got an appointment with one of the doctors for her and when we went to the appointment with her records they had made a few comments about wanting to run more tests on her eyes claiming that there were inconsistencies in her records. Slater had her cataract surgery but they were worried about her retinal portion of her eye even though everything prior had no issues with that area. We had noticed that despite her cataract surgery she still had issues seeing with her bad eye.

And so life became a constant flow of work, exercise, and doctors appointments. Every moment free from any of the commitments was family time.

It was about a year and a half in Vegas when Sue called me to touch base and tell me of her recent crumble and dissolve of her marriage. Sue had helped me when I had nowhere to go when I had Slater, so I was more than happy to help her while she was trying to figure her life out. She hopped a plane and we welcomed her into our home so she could get on her feet.

Sue was a beautiful blonde with a body that most men drool over with a tan and blue eyes. I would be lying if I said part of me wasn’t jealous but I loved her for her amazing friendship she always displayed and was happy for her no matter what. When we went over the events of her marriage dissolution, I felt there was a true sadness but she was still in good spirits.

Sue became our roommate and went nose to the grind looking for work. She scored a job at one of the casinos and to help her I gave over the bike so that she could use it when needed for work and in between Joe and I would help pick her up on days where we juggled the schedules. We all balanced the schedules well so that we could make life easier on all of us. It was nice to have the company and Slater looked at her like an auntie.

Slater started Pre-K at the school next to the apartments so that every morning I could walk her there and see her off to Pre-K. I worked from 10am until 10pm usually 5 days a week and Sue usually worked the evening shift so every day Joe slept in and would get Slater from her Pre-K around 1 then spend lunch with her and they would go to the park until dinnertime. I would arrive home in time to tuck Slater in and then relax with Joe with a movie until Sue got home. We would all talk about our day and then go off to our beds.

Slater had made friends with some kids in the area so some days she would get to have play dates and the days I was off I would volunteer at the school to help the teachers with whatever they needed.

Since I was still on my dietary learning journey I had also begun looking into more and more natural foods and food sustainability. I had started gardening with the kids and even started a few projects at home to keep us learning with food sustainability.I was cooking and making more and more things from scratch while playing with recipes to make them more dietary friendly with gluten free options. I was losing weight and starting to feel much better on many levels. My energy was now at a constant level where I never got tired until it was bedtime. Even though I was gluten free, Joe and Sue still ate many normal items with Slater. I changed many of the everyday items over to what I thought were healthier options but I still ate a more strict level than everyone else.

Most of the time I didn’t think twice about eating differently. But when family came to town it was always prevalent when my in-laws would comment about my eating. No matter how much I would try to be accommodating I was met with disdain and side comments because I chose to eat differently.

At the beginning of going gluten free I saw the physical difference in my appearance and weight loss and energy. Over time I started feeling the internal difference when I ate normal foods. First I would get stomach cramping, usually slight and mildly painful but barely enough to worry about. Then I realized I would get acne and cystic nodes in my armpits and groin areas. Eventually it would create gut wrenching cramps and body aches and headaches. The more I cleaned out the faster I would see the results of eating dirty as I like to call it. Joe and Slater didn’t notice it as much but they were constantly getting more sick than I was with stomach bugs and fevers or coughs. Joe started getting cystic puss filled nodes randomly but we both noticed we would get them together with certain foods we would indulge in that were usually in the sweets variety.

It was a slow process but we both agreed to start completely converting all of us off of the synthetic foods and go for the natural ones all together. Sue was in on the change except for her love of mini candy bars. We all agreed to keep a united front when it came to Slater so that we could keep her healthy. The eye doctors had been bouncing us back and forth between specialists for different testings and in the time between multiple doctors one of the doctors vaguely questioned us about vaccines and a possible injury. That was when I realized I really hadn’t ever thought about the true dangers of any complications of vaccines, the only thing I had known so far was to make sure to ask for ones without sulfides since I had learned about my sulfide allergy years before when I had been in Italy. (There I could drink the wine but when I came home I instantly got migraines, it turned out it was an allergy)

I had started asking around to the doctors about the dangers but all I would get was the basic sheet they handed out. That was extremely unhelpful. So I decided to start my research into the vaccine world by looking up ingredients. I would Google the manufacturers pages and then the ingredient list. Then I would look up the ingredients and what they were known to cause for side effects. I looked into the side effects of the actual vaccines on their manufacturer information insert pages.

This was a slow process and I would do it in between work and life. I was already researching recipes and gardening tips constantly when I had free time but I never felt like I needed to really dive deep, it was very casual in my brain.

After a while Sue was getting antsy at the apartment. I could tell she really wanted more social life but life was busy and we were always just trying to find the balance. She started making comments about wanting sex all the time and out of joke and blatant disregard I offered her to borrow my husband. Never really expecting her to act on it, I casually said it as I walked out the door and off to work.

Joe and I had talked before, like most couples do, about who we would have sex with if we had the chance. I knew Sue was one of the people on Joe’s list but never minded much of it because I always believed if a person really wants to, they will.

While I was at work that day and Slater at Pre-K ,Sue decided to make good on the offer. Joe had caved and obviously jumped at the chance.

I got the call a couple hours later from Joe, nervous and slowly feeling the waters he joked..”So you know how you told Sue she could barrow me?” I already knew where this was headed.”Yes” I replied. “Well she took you up on that.” He replied trying to make light of it.