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[Gloria]

Welcome Teresa!

I agree with Hotrod that 3-4 weeks of Entocort isn't long enough to a) heal your gut and b) determine which foods are giving you problems. We generally find that it takes about 6 months before it's safe to wean off Entocort. I'm one of the Double DQ1 people that Tex refers to. I've been taking Entocort for 18 months and am presently at a dosage of 3 mg every other day. Some here are on a maintenance doseage of Entocort indefinitely.

I've found it helpful to keep a food diary along with the type and quantity of stools that I have each day. I'm better able to determine which foods are causing the D. Even though I don't normally have D anymore, I still keep the food diary because it's more obvious which food is the problem when I do.

You're fortunate to already be familiar with the gluten-free, casien-free and soy-free diet, the three most common intolerances amongst this group. You won't have the large learning curve that most of us have when we begin eliminating these foods. You're already ahead of the game!

Gloria

[TP]

Tex, thanks for the reassurance. My father in would be the first to admit he's not perfect and is just trying to be helpful I'm sure. He always errs on the side of caution, especially when it comes to his family. I haven't even gotten my hands on the pathology report yet, but I'll let you know when I do what he says.

Hotrod, thanks too for your reply. I'm going to have to look up Boswelia (was that it?) Hope it helps.

Gloria, I like the idea of a food/poop diary. I'm going to start one. I could swear after one day off gluten I feel better, but I may be kidding myself and it will be helpful to have some hard data to track as I embark on this journey.

Things were so good this morning that I even went to Jazzercise without taking Immodium.

I'm worried about my 4 yr old now. He seems to get D quite often, but his doc isn't concerned. He's had it since Christmas this time, maybe just viral in his case, but yesterday I told him I was doing Houlton's (his big brother) diet and did he want to do it with us. To my surprise he said yes and has stuck to it with us. Helps that he has always seen his brother eating things like millet bread, so it's not that weird. So I guess for now 60% of our family is GF CF SF and I'm planning to ask my GI doc about him. I'm ready to fire our family doc. I find myself questioning her judgement too much.

[tex]

Hi Teresa,

If you will do a search of this site, for the keyword boswellia, (accessible by clicking on the "Search" link above), you will see a lot of links to recent threads here.

That's good news on the fast response to the diet. Some of us are fortunate to have a much faster response time than others, depending on how much intestinal damage we've accrued.

There's certainly nothing wrong with someone using the GF diet, even though they're not gluten-sensitive. It's a healthier diet than the diet eaten by the general public, and proof of that is the fact that celiacs actually live longer than the general population, (provided that they follow the GF diet).

It's unfortunate that your family doc is not more responsive to your family's needs. On the average, most of us have found our family doctors to be much more understanding, and more willing to work with us, than our GI docs. Many of us have discovered that our GI docs seem to have the unfortunate opinion that since they have a certificate proving that they are an "Expert", that gives them the right to ignore any input by their patients, and since they already "know it all", they don't have to waste any time trying to learn any new information on diseases or treatment methods. A lot of GPs, on the other hand, seem willing to learn, along with the patient, when confronted by a disease with which they are unfamiliar. Of course, there are always exceptions, and there are indeed a few great GI docs out there, and presumably, a fair number of GPs, who aren't worth their salt, as the saying goes.

I hope your improvement is for real, and not just a lucky, "good" day. Of course, we'll take good days any way we can get them, while we're recovering.

Tex

[Mackenzie]

Hi Teresa!!! I'm glad you found this site, it has been very helpful for me. I don't have any info for you since I'm very new to all of this too, I just wanted to say hello and good luck to you!