Poop Question-Sorry Tmi

[CajunChic]

I've been gluten-free for a year now. My damage at dx was only marsh 1. So not much, should be healed, right?!

I was hit with cc on Tuesday and symptoms started Wednesday. I ate a couple salads throughout the week (one on monday, one on tuesday, and one on thursday)and on Friday I pooped whole lettuce! It looked like I chewed it up and spit in the toilet. I've never had that before and eat salads regularly and this never happened. Not to mention, I had the big D wed and thurs. so I was surprised to see undigested food on Friday morning.

I thought undigested food happened when the damage is bad. I don't have follow up scheduled bc my dr just said go gluten-free and be well! You know how that goes...

Normal?

[chocominties]

Pretty normal.  Sort of normal.

 

Let's talk fiber first, because that's part of the issue here.  Fiber is hard to digest.  If there's going to be something left in your stool, it's going to be the leafy greens.  I once bought something called "nira" thinking that it was a totally different vegetable.  I sauteed it with some meat and pooped out green worms for three days.  I didn't digest a bit of it.  My gastro swore that this was normal, and said that there was nothing weird about finding whole vegetables in your stool (or blobs of mucus, for that matter).  I always found that it was worse when my colitis was acting up, and that I didn't always see undigested foods in my stool, but YMMV.  Or my gastro's MMV, I guess.  I tend to see lettuce, corn, black beans, sometimes carrots ... and I would say that both my UC and celiac have been fairly under control for almost two years now. 

 

Also, I should say that inflammation in your digestive tract is just going to make matters that much worse.  The food may not spend as much time as it usually would in the usual places, and so it won't get broken down at all.  When I was younger I had a lot of trouble with getting sick right after eating, and a salad for lunch meant lettuce in the bowl 30 minutes later.  It just went straight through.  Which probably isn't normal at all, but I was told it was and that blah blah I was just too weak if I couldn't deal with a little rapid-transit diarrhea ...

 

Anyway, I found it helpful when my colitis was really acting up to go low-fiber and eat bland, easy-to-digest foods.  It was just nicer on my digestive system and gave it a rest for a while.  Since I wasn't really digesting ANY of the high-fiber stuff anyway, moving to applesauce or cooked vegetables meant that I was digesting the foods a bit before putting them in my mouth.  And that helps the guts heal and rest.