Now what?

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 11:25 am

I had chicken breast, some home made sweet potato chips, and tea for breakfast. 45 minutes later same reaction as I had to the egg and toast yesterday. Gurgling, mucousy BM, cramps...

Is this going to go away? Will it settle in time? The minute I take a Norco it will stop, but I will still feel horrible. The weakness, brain fog, fatigue. All present all day, whether I am in the bathroom or not.

Post by **tex** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 11:41 am

It took me a year and a half to reach remission, because I kept experimenting with everything other than gluten, but eventually I just cut out everything that seemed suspicious, and I saw improvements pretty fast, after that.

If you have a lot of damage from gluten, that can take a long time to heal.

Tex

jmayk8 · Post by **jmayk8** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 11:53 am

I have a sensitivity to sweet potatoes, could be that?

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:06 pm

I honestly don't know. I had regular potatoes last night and still had the reaction. This is worse than before, when I was eating goats milk with corn crackers, AND sweet potatoes.
I will make more soup today, and roast a chicken, or half a chicken.

Tex, given that I am eating only chicken, rice, potatoes and tea, oh and a banana every now and then (not today though, and I haven't chewed gum), what should I cut out or change?

Also, must I get rid of my pots and pans? They are the Costco brand, their anodized knock off for Circulon without the impossible-to-clean circles. I have had them for years. I don't know if they are porous. Do I need to get stainless steel? New dishes? Some of my silverware needs to be changed. I just want to know what to get when I head to Ikea. I know about chopping boards now.

hazel · Post by **hazel** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:11 pm

My safe breakfast:
4 oz. Gatorade (lemonade flavor)
1/2 C cream of rice cooked cereal (with a little smart balance and brown sugar)

If that goes okay I have the same thing for lunch!

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:16 pm

I'll try it. Is that enough protein? Means I have to get to the store. I have agave and maple, so I will use those until I can get brown sugar. I suppose they are all the same.

What about the chicken? Don't I need that for protein?

Thanks Kathy.

hazel · Post by **hazel** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:24 pm

Sure, if you want it have some chicken. For me, when I'm having a flare, I do better keeping my meals small. Lots of people say it's good to have some protein in the a.m. though.
Ps. The brown sugar is optional!

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 2:12 pm

Yeah, they say it's needed for healing. I need to go to the store to see if I can get it

Sugar, obviously is optional, but I am a sweet freak, so I probably wouldn't eat without.

Post by **tex** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 2:33 pm

Lesley wrote:Tex, given that I am eating only chicken, rice, potatoes and tea, oh and a banana every now and then (not today though, and I haven't chewed gum), what should I cut out or change?

That's difficult to say, since none of those are common allergens. You may just need more time to heal.

Lesley wrote:Also, must I get rid of my pots and pans? They are the Costco brand, their anodized knock off for Circulon without the impossible-to-clean circles.

Anodized surfaces shouldn't be porous enough to cause any problems, and that's a very thin coating, anyway, so I would think it should be OK.

Tex

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 3:26 pm

I also sent this in another thread, where I explained my electrolyte problem.

Just in case you don't see it - is this OK?

http://www.gleegum.com/sugar-free-ingredients.htm

I feel so horrible. Do you think the natural sorbitol in yams could be causing this flare?

Post by **tex** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:10 pm

Xylitol is the main ingredient in that gum, so there's a lot of it in there, (percentagewise). I have no idea how sensitive you are to sugar alcohols, but I would be afraid of it, (even though I'm in remission).

Sweet potatoes contain a lot of mannitol, another sugar alcohol. If you're stuck in a C/D cycle, and already having reduced motility because of a narcotic painkiller, the sugar alcohols will tend to contribute to the C phase, and after they ferment a while, your reaction will switch to D, to flush out the chemical byproducts of the fermentation process.

The sugar alcohols may be part of the reason why you're stuck in a C/D cycle, and it seems to be getting worse, instead of better. You're going to have C problems anyway, with the narcotic painkiller, but the sugar alcohols can only make it worse by guaranteeing that the cycle will continue to repeat. Sugar alcohols are polyols. Have you read the information available on polyol reactions, such as in this article:

Polyols Malabsorption
Polyol is a type of short-chain fermentable carbohydrate that is often poorly absorbed in people with IBS. Eating polyol may result in fermentation of these sugars by the bacteria present in your gastrointestinal tract, inducing your IBS symptoms. There is no test to diagnose mannitol malabsorption, but a test can be done to diagnose sorbitol malabsorption, another similar sugar-alcohol that is usually equally problematic for people with IBS.

Other Polyol-Containing Foods
If sweet potato triggers constipation, it is probable that other polyol-containing foods would do the same. For example, cauliflower, mushrooms, watermelon, apples, blackberries, pears, plums, avocado and cherries are rich in polyols. Stay away from sugar-free foods or diabetic foods sweetened with sugar-alcohols, including sugar-free chewing gums and mints. Read the ingredient list carefully to ensure you avoid these sweeteners; they may appear as sorbitol, isomalt, mannitol and xylitol.

Now, we don't have "IBS", of course, but just substitute "MC" wherever the article mentions "IBS", because I'll guarantee that if we can't tolerate some of the foods that "IBS" patients supposedly can tolerate, (such as fiber), we certainly can't tolerate foods that they can't tolerate. That's just my opinion, of course, but I'm convinced that it's correct. For someone with MC, polyols can cause either C or D, or both, (alternating C/D). When I was still reacting, they caused alternating C/D for me, but after I reached remission, they caused only D, (and they still do, even though I no longer have a colon).

http://www.livestrong.com/article/45947 ... stipation/

So to answer your question, yes, IMO, it appears that you're very sensitive to sugar alcohols, and I believe they're making your symptoms worse.

Tex

draperygoddess · Post by **draperygoddess** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 7:04 pm

I know it takes very little to turn my son inside out. One piece of gum would have sent him to the bathroom for hours when he was at his worst. He hasn't had a single piece in 5 years--it's just a risk he doesn't want to take. (He's 10 now, and I think that's some pretty mature thinking for a boy who usually ignores consequences at any cost!)

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 9:52 pm

Cynthia... your 10yo understands risk/consequences? That's more advanced than please and thank-you - way to go!

Y'all must be doing some very cutting-edge awesome parenting

- congratulations and high-fives all around.

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 11:27 pm

Cynthia, your poor kid! What a thing to have to go through in childhood! I agree with Sara though!

Tex - I didn't know you had a colectomy. Was that because of MC?

When I read about sorbitol in the yams I thought it must be the chips I made this morning The list of foods I can't eat grows like Topsy!
I had chicken and potatoes this afternoon, and tonight I am gurgling horribly, and have horrible heartburn in spite of all the powders and vit d. AND my mouth is dry as a bone. Can barely talk. I haven't had any gum. So what now?

I bought some rice cereal this afternoon in the hope it will be OK for breakfast. I don't know what else to do.

Post by **tex** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 8:48 am

Lesley,

Leslie wrote:Tex - I didn't know you had a colectomy. Was that because of MC?

No, I woke up one morning with massive bleeding. The problem runs in the family, on my father's side, and seems to affect males only. When it struck my father, the hospital gave him over a hundred units of blood before he stabilized. They then removed about half of his colon, and they thought they had the problem resolved, but a couple of days later, he bled to death in the hospital, during the wee hours of the morning. Apparently they couldn't replace the lost blood fast enough.

When they couldn't locate the source of the bleed in my colon, and they suggested that they might have to do a colectomy, I didn't argue with them, because by then they had added an IV into one of my carotid veins, so that my heart could pump the blood in fast enough to keep up with the loss. I was losing ground with the IV in my arm.

The colon's primary function is to recover water and electrolytes, so without a colon, there is very little water recovery, (only what the small intestine eventually "learns" to recover), so I regularly have dry mouth also. If I drink more water than my system needs, all it does is to just fill up my ileostomy pouch way too soon, so when I've already downed enough water that I'm sure that I don't need any more for a while, as my mouth gets dry, I just sip a tiny amount of water now and then, and sometimes swish it around in my mouth, and that works pretty well for me. It's especially important in the hours before bedtime, since I don't want to have to get up in the middle of the night to change pouches, if I can avoid it.

You might try that to help with dry mouth. Or you might try doing like they do in the hospital, if the patient can't have any water - swish it around in your mouth, and then spit it out, if you don't feel that you can afford to swallow it.

Tex