When will the weight loss stop?

[Sheila]

Lilia, with such painful sciatica it would be a good idea to get an MRI of your lower back. Before I got sick with CC, I had 2 back surgeries because of disabling back pain. Others have said that their back pain decreased when they changed their diet. I think these are two different issues. If you have herniated disks, stenosis etc, diet won't help much. If the pain is caused by inflammation, diet may indeed help diminish pain.

You might also want to try gentle yoga or physical therapy for your back pain. Try to avoid things that exacerbate your pain and use care when lifting anything heavier than 20 lbs. Most back injuries improve over time with physical therapy, ice and heat, cautious exercise, good diet and appropriate rest.

Good luck.


Sheila W

[Patricia]

Lisa: great idea with the plantains. I haven't had any in years, but back in Connecticut we had Puerto Rican friends who prepared them for us. They cut them into slices and fried them in olive oil, served with a bit of salt sprinkled over them. They were delicious! I will look for them. How do you like to prepare them?

UkuleleLady: I downloaded the myfitnesspal app and started tracking. They really make it easy to track food! What a great program!!

Tex: Thanks for the histamine tips. I was sorry to read in a different post that you came down with the flu. I hope you will feel better soon, and that it won't trigger an MC reaction!

Lilia: is your back pain still that bad or was that in the past?

I agree with Sheila, and yes, I love gentle yoga. When I last saw my GI, I mentioned to him that I barely exercised, just because I did not have the energy (and I exercised a lot before I became sick), but that I did go to yoga. He said that yoga was probably the worst exercise I could choose. I was so surprised and asked him why. He said it would overstretch things. I told him I was going to a gentle yoga, which also helps with relaxation and stress reduction. He said to just be careful. The yoga class I like to attend is so gentle, I don't think it can hurt anything but it makes me feel so much better.

I hope to slowly build up the exercising without burning too many calories. I am looking forward to more walks with my dog, especially if the weather turns nice.

Love, Patricia

[mcnomore]

Patricia, I was on almost the exact same diet minus sweet potato and olive oil and went from 150 lbs to 111. This scared me so I decided to examine how much protein I was eating. I weighed the lamb and discovered that although I ate it three times a day, the amount was only 3 oz.

I increased the amount to about 7 oz and have now included quinoa and olive oil with each meal as well. My weight is now 114.

Tex has always emphasized how important it is to eat enough protein in order to heal as I remember.

Also, whenever I try to eat sweet potato I have problems as well, but can't figure out why.

[Lilja]

Lilia: is your back pain still that bad or was that in the past?

I agree with Sheila, and yes, I love gentle yoga. When I last saw my GI, I mentioned to him that I barely exercised, just because I did not have the energy (and I exercised a lot before I became sick), but that I did go to yoga. He said that yoga was probably the worst exercise I could choose. I was so surprised and asked him why. He said it would overstretch things. I told him I was going to a gentle yoga, which also helps with relaxation and stress reduction. He said to just be careful. The yoga class I like to attend is so gentle, I don't think it can hurt anything but it makes me feel so much better.

I hope to slowly build up the exercising without burning too many calories. I am looking forward to more walks with my dog, especially if the weather turns nice.

Love, Patricia

Patricia,
My back pains are even worse, but I can have good days in between, and that makes me suspect diet, or failure to follow diet.

In addition, I was assaulted by my ex boyfriend in August 2013. He kicked me in the butt, in the back and in the legs until I fainted. I never told this to anyone, other than my GP and my chiropractic, since such cases of "family violence" most often are abandoned by the police, in lack of evidense. And I have hid it from friends and family out of shame...

My GP now thinks that I have a "nerve root inflammation" in the nerves in my butt, and he has ordered an MRI.

My legs hurt to the point that it feels like I have burned myself. I have been able to sleep in spite the pains, but now I can lie in bed until the birds start singing at 05 a.m. without being able to sleep.

I also have been to my chiropractic, and it helped for 1-2 days. Among other things, he put his hands and laid his whole bodyweight and pressured on each side of my stomach, close to the hipbone. When I got home, BANG!, I didn't reach the toilet.

I think my pains are a mixture of the injuries, nerve pain because of the years of D, and maybe also some food intolerance.

Lilia

[Greengoddess]

Patricia, I have had many of those pains, including the ones on the ball of the foot. There was a post on the right abdominal pain which suggested the ileocaecal valve syndrome. It disappeared after I learned the technique for massage. I wonder how many of us have dodgy valves? I think I did even since I was a child.

[tex]

Lilia,

I'm so sorry to hear that you were physically abused. I'm not a neurologist, but I suspect it is very likely that your pain is mostly a result of those injuries.

Tex

[Lilja]

Tex,

Thank you for your kind words.
I didn't see any doctor or seek any help until 6 months after. My concern was to realize what had happened, try to cope, try to come a little further mentally and physically, before I felt able to relate to the world outside.

If I had come earlier, I could have had surgery and diminished the injury to my hamstring and some other muscles in my thigh, according to my GP. But now, things are what they are, and I have to make the most of it. I have faith.

Lilia

[Patricia]

My dear Lilia,
That just made me so sad today when I read that you were abused by your ex boyfriend. My husband's sister was physically abused by her (now ex) boyfriend. She wouldn't tell anybody for the longest time because she felt ashamed and she was afraid we would love her less because of it, which couldn't be further from the truth. I don't think there is any reason to feel ashamed. The only person that should feel ashamed is the abuser! Definitely not the abused victim. I am sending you lots of love and hugs and healing thoughts!
Please keep us posted on the MRI.

mcnomore,
I still don't know whether sweet potatoes are good for me or not. I definitely know they help me go to the bathroom if C hits. I am currently trying to figure out what the cause of the constant inflating and deflating of my intestines is. As I mentioned before, I can not just feel it in the front, but also on both sides of the spine in my lower back, and sometimes the inside of the spine (like an alien kicking in there). I am wondering if it is maybe the cashew butter or the peeled apple that I both have had for a few weeks now. I just started leaving those away again. Other than that I just eat fish or meat (mostly lamb) with regular potatoes/rice/sweet potatoes and sometimes overcooked cauliflower/broccoli. It is a very simple diet, one would think it's not that hard to figure out what is causing the issue?! But it isn't easy either When I had the ultrasound last week because of the gallbladder polyps the radiologist wrote that he could not see the pancreas area because of all the overlying air in the intestines....He did see the polyps in the gallbladder, though, and now my gastroenterologist wants me to see a surgeon for a consult.

Greengoddess
It's comforting to now that other people have those pains, not that I would want to wish them on anybody. I still do not understand how the pain can travel in the body, pop up here for a little bit, only to disappear and pop up in another spot.
My PCP had sent me for a urology consult because of blood in my urine and atypical cells in the urine cytology. I saw the urologist last week. He said that microscopic blood in the urine does not worry him, neither do atypical cells. He said there are 4 categories of cells in the urine cytology: normal, atypical, suspected to be cancerous, and cancerous. He only worries about the latter two categories. I had also told him about the pain in my right groin area. He decided to do a cystoscopy right then and there in the office (which was not half as bad as I had feared, and it was normal), and he also sent me for a CT scan with oral contrast to look at the intestines and IV contrast to look at the kidneys. Both were normal (thank God!), so he said I did not have to come back. What he did say, though, was that there are a lot of nerve and pain connections in the abdominal area, between bladder and intestines, and he said the pain could very well be caused by the colitis. He said that those nerve and pain connections were not really understood yet at all by doctors.

Love, Patricia

[Lilja]

My dear Lilia,
That just made me so sad today when I read that you were abused by your ex boyfriend. My husband's sister was physically abused by her (now ex) boyfriend. She wouldn't tell anybody for the longest time because she felt ashamed and she was afraid we would love her less because of it, which couldn't be further from the truth. I don't think there is any reason to feel ashamed. The only person that should feel ashamed is the abuser! Definitely not the abused victim. I am sending you lots of love and hugs and healing thoughts!
Please keep us posted on the MRI.

Love, Patricia

Thank you Patricia, for your kind words.
Lilia

[Sheila]

Dear Lilja, My heart aches for what you went through with your brute of a boy friend. It takes courage to admit that something like that happens and speaking about it helps ease the burden of guilt and embarrassment. As has been said, you are the innocent party and your boyfriend is worse than a coward.

From my experience, burning pain is a symptom of nerve damage and it takes a lot of time to heal. Deep bruises can remain painful for a long time. I think chiropractic that is done intelligently is very helpful as is massage, acupuncture and gentle yoga. Soaking in a tub of warm water and Epsom salts is beneficial, too. Being able to release anger and resentment caused by the beating will help. When you forgive an abuser it takes away their power over your emotions. When you hold anger inside, you tense your muscles and they cannot heal.

Lots of hugs and good wishes for healing, Lilja.



Sheila W

[Lilja]

Hi Sheila, Tex and Patricia,

Thank you for your warming words.

The pains in my lower back, the sciatic pains and the pains in my hips are so much better. I suspect that some of the relief is due to me having less inflammation in my body.

However, I still struggle with walking for more than 5 minutes, and it's impossible to tell whether the pain comes from my hips or the sciatic nerve.

So now I have accepted to take som shiatsu sessions.

Has anyone tried shiatsu for pain relief?

Lilia

[Patricia]

Dear Lilia,

How has the shiatsu massage worked out for you?

I visited my parents and my sister in Switzerland in June. I was there for ten days. A good friend of mine who is specialized in traditional Chinese medicine suggested that she do intensive treatments during my visit. I thought, why not? I had seven sessions with her during my stay. They usually involved acupressure, acupuncture, and tuina massage. On one of the days one of her interns did shiatsu massage. Personally, I did not care that much for it. I really liked the tuina massage and the acupuncture, though (that's just my preference). The symptoms in my right leg (tingling, burning, feeling like it goes to sleep, heavy feeling, sometimes the temperature in my right foot feels off) were gone after each treatment! I thought that was quite impressive. The symptoms would return after a few hours to a day, but disappear once again after the next treatment. That's why I decided to continue with Chinese medicine here in Pittsburgh.

Love, Patricia