Rose wrote:HELP ME!!! Just kidding, I don't understand what is going on.
I truly wish that I could. You never cease to amaze me with how well you handle such adversity. You're a very inspiring individual, and I have no doubt that you
will find the key that will bring remission, if there is any justice at all in this world.
Transit time is defined as the time required for a "round-trip", IOW, a complete cycle - the time it takes for a specific item of food to go from the lips to the loo, so to speak.
I believe that many of us with MC, misinterpret that term.
The "urge to purge" is a very normal phenomenon, for most mammals, (and possibly all species, for all I know), because it's normal for the enteric nervous system to instruct the intestines/anus to make more room, as soon as it receives a signal from the stomach, that more food is on the way. This becomes a serious problem, when inflammation, or other issues, cause the system to be overly sensitive, and an otherwise normal "urge", is treated as a "purge immediately" signal, as is so commonly the case with MC. It often seems as though the food that was just eaten is being purged, (especially if we eat the same foods all the time, so that any undigested items look similar to to what we have just eaten, but I have a hunch that in most cases, it's the remnants of food that was eaten much earlier, that is being purged. That's not to say that it's not possible to have a very short transit time, because it does seem to happen, sometimes. It would be really extraordinary, though, IMO, for food to travel the entire 30 to 40 feet of the GI tract's total length, in less than an hour.
Bear in mind that transit time varies by the type of food, also. When we eat a meal, some of the items in that meal may be already entering the colon, before other foods even completely exit the stomach. It's definitely not a uniform, "en masse" process, where all food travels through the GI system at a uniform rate. That makes it difficult to make judgments about transit time, because really, we should be talking about "average" transit time, and even average transit time varies by individuals, in the general population, (and especially for those of us with an IBD).
I have a hunch that you may be having mast cell reactions, in addition to the usual T-cell reactions, typically associated with MC. For example, in that meal that included sqaush, squash should not cause any reactions for any reason, when well cooked. Fish, however, are prone to triggering histamine production, (which could result in a mast cell reaction, within your GI tract). You might consider the foods that you are eating from a histamine viewpoint, to see if there might be a connection. Here's a reference on foods linked with histamine production, and those that are not linked with it:
http://www.urticaria.thunderworksinc.co ... tamine.htm
It's also possible that you may have Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, (SIBO):
http://journals.lww.com/jcge/pages/arti ... e=abstract
It never hurts to "keep fishing", because there are definitely a few good GI docs out there, (from an MC viewpoint). Unfortunately, most of us have to do a heck of a lot of "fishing", before we ever hook a keeper.
Good luck with your appointment with your GP, and especially with searching for a new GI doc.
Love,
Tex
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