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I think it's out for me. Yesterday I had duck. I had cramps, but had taken Norco, so nothing happened. This morning I ate some stewed apple to take my meds, and had cramps etc., and then the most watery D I have had for a long time, with pieces of recognizable, undigested food.
I feel HORRIBLE, both physically and emotionally. When will it give me a break! I feel as though I might as well eat what I like because it's not letting up what every I do.
As I write that I know how it sounds. And I know I will get all the encouragement to carry on because I WILL get there. I know I have to carry on.
Right now I am in the toilet practically between every typed word. SO tired, and it's not stopping.
Where is my imodium?
OK, I need to do the tests and try to work it out from there. Mary Beth?
At this point your body may be reacting just because it is reacting. Not every food that messes you up now will *necessarily* trouble you later. I know you're struggling just to find something (other than stewed apples) at this point. When my symptoms were as pervasive as yours, *everything* but chicken broth made me sick. I realize chicken broth is not your friend - my point is that I can now eat many, many foods that I could not eat when my symptoms were running the show.
I realize this isn't much help, quite honestly. But I do think the MRT testing will be more useful when you can actually eat *at all* without either C or D. The MRT test results still require you to test each and every food, and at this point, I fear you might be ready to cross foods off the list forever that need only to be banned temporarily. I can't even guess how to assess the extent to which Norco might be playing a role in garbling your food research efforts.
Huge sympathetic wishes for a speedy end to the D, without a recurrence of C,
It may be time to consider taking Entocort. I know there's a risk of getting C, but you seem to be getting it anyway. You'll probably get a reprieve from the D with Entocort, anyway.
Gloria
You never know what you can do until you have to do it.
No, not forever. I am hoping I can eat some things down the road. Particularly poultry!
I have to call the drug rehab department and pain management so I can get off the norco. I have to find some other way to control the pain. I'm never going to heal if this goes on.
The D comes back when I eat something that causes it. Otherwise it's C all the way. I really don't know what's worse.
Today I feel so rotten. Pain in the LUQ at the side in the ribs, a feeling like an elephant sitting on my abdomen, and pain in the mid lumbar part of my back, ABOVE where the injury is.
I SO don't want to take Entocort. Given my reactions to meds I will probably have all the side effects possible. I wish I could find a doctor who understood this stuff.
I think your instincts, to find a way to undo the Norco dependence and consequences, is a good one. I hope you can find some help along the way - maybe the drug/pain-management people have some insight in that area.
I wonder whether you might not be having D more often, if not for the Norco? It's such a confusing picture (quite honestly, not just your situation, but certainly yours is frustrating). Sometimes after something is solved, it seems so obvious in retrospect. (Well, gluten, for me!) But it isn't, till it is. I hope that time is coming for you soon.
Probably, but I can tell when something has "done it" in spite of the Norco. My question is whether some things cause D, and others cause c, both being part of MC? i don't know what's doing what. And how I stop it. I SO don't want to take entocort, but I might have to if this doesn't settle down. Today I feel so sensitive. I ate sole and potato for lunch, and felt HORRIBLE. I took imodium, so the D has stopped, but there is such tenderness between my L&R rib cages. I know whatever "did it" is still active.
"But it isn't, till it is". You are so right. I wish just gluten, or GK+DF, or GF+DF+SF, or GF+DF+SF+RF and so on would do it for me.
I don't know why my sensitivities would include beef on the intermediate level when beef seems to be fine, while turkey and duck are so bad.
Your experience trumps the Enterolab "11 antigenic foods panel" - in my opinion. If beef works, then, maybe it does? (Or lamb? Can you tell how much I love lamb?)
I think even "normal" people, after C may tip over into D - the body will fight for equilibrium, sometimes in pretty crude ways. My guess - based on my path, which may not be yours - is that the same foods may cause either C or D depending on what else is going on. It's a pretty complex equation (duh!), and I would share your reluctance to add Entocort to the mix - but it's easy for me to say that, because I'm not experiencing your symptoms right now.
How's your hydration? That was a huge problem for me, early on. I know it's a particular issue for you, as you have to watch your electrolyte balance like a hawk...
Have you tried good old-fashioned prune juice? (I happen to adore prunes and prune juice, and my husband makes a traditional Polish stew with prunes that I am a little terrified to re-attempt... but the winter season is coming...)
Hey, Lesley - I just thought of you on Zizzle's 'magnesium' thread... topical magnesium might be pretty gentle, compared to oral magnesium. I mention the source I use on this thread, but here's the context: http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... highlight=
Also, less powerful but readily available: Epsom salts. Just soaking your feet in hot water with Epsom salts might have a *very* mild laxative effect - adding it to a hot bath, somewhat more so (but still mild). Many of us have magnesium deficiency (which is why Z is so shocked that her result was normal!), and standard blood tests don't detect this, as only a minuscule amount of our body's magnesium is actually *in* blood serum.
In addition to malabsorption, typical dietary magnesium sources probably read like a list of "things we avoid when our MC symptoms are horrible"...
I LOVE lamb, and have been eating it over the last few weeks.
Hydration is fine because I am watching it, as you say, like a hawk. I am drinking electrolyte enriched water from TJs (need some more, note to self) so my electrolytes are WAY better now. Strange that they would be fine, though still slightly low, when I am having so much D!
I tried prunes when I had C going strong (lamb with prunes and apricots - YUM! Sould be served with couscous). They didn't help much, but I love eating them anyway.
When this attack of D goes away (and though I am not having D I know it's because of the Imodium) I will try again with the prunes. And some more fiber. And maybe juices again. Something has to help!
I use Epsom salts in a foot bath almost daily. At least when I go to the pool. Haven't taken it internally. I know I need to get the underside of my tongue scraped. Maybe when they do that they can also test for Sjogrens (from the salivary glands), which I am sure I have since I have all the symptoms. Not that it makes any difference because the only treatment is steroids.
You know what's funny? We do a lot of tagines, but when you wrote 'should be served with couscous' I had kind of an involuntary YUCK reaction. WOW, as my best friend said... I have crossed to the other side ;)
I don't do Epsom salts internally. I have taken tiny splashes of my magnesium mix in a glass of water, when the leg cramps were severe, but never enough to disrupt/cause D.
I can't summon a yuk reaction, though mashed spuds are sounding better to me with tagines, and curries. I still mourn couscous and rice etc.
If I could eat corn I might feel less mournful.
Tzimmes can mean different things. There is tzimmes with meat and carrots. If it has prunes it is called flaumen tzimmes (flaumen = prunes in yiddish). There is tzimmes with only sweet carrots, or prunes and carrots. I must make it when I feel better!
Lesley, let's not start the tzimmes wars, lol! I know people who have serious in-law issues around this sensitive and delicious topic . (But the kugel wars are much worse - clearly the potential influence of gluten...)
Every Passover there would be a discussion about matzoh balls (those I will mourn with my chicken soup!). The bullet kind or the fluffy ones. My SIL's mother made the former, my mother made the latter (from a box). I WAY prefer the fluffy ones.
Kugel, latkes, babke, you name it. The wars go on. I LOVE all that food.
Visit the Microscopic Colitis Foundation Website
. (But the kugel wars are much worse - clearly the potential influence of gluten...)