dlp252

Corinne that's FANTASTIC!!!!! Congratulations!

I did see some positives myself, my BMs are now nearly normal which is fantastic all by itself, lol. I did still have some problems, the most bothersome was severe burning in my stomach. I'm wondering if some of my problems aren't connected with my enlarged pancreatic/bile duct...if it can't squirt out the necessary enzymes or the flow is restricted, it might be responsible for some of my ills. I'll have to ask my doctor when I see him.

I'm still following everyone's progress here even though I'm not strictly doing SCD (so I guess not doing it at all then, lol). I've very interested in the corn thing.

Do they have to list preservatives on the labels? I'm pretty sure these don't have preservatives, but I have to double check.

I may try eliminating corn derivatives myself. I don't usually eat obvious corn anymore, but I'm sure it's in a lot of the stuff I DO eat in the form of derivatives. I usually eat frozen fruit which I get from Whole Foods...mostly it's stuff that has been peeled, but I do buy frozen cherries...would they wax those? The only other fruit I eat semi-regularly is bananas and sometimes apples, which I usually get unwaxed--even before I knew about all this I never liked the thought of eating waxed fruit, lol. I also eat a lot of salt...I use sea salt at home, but not at work... So I'm thinking corn may not be my main problem, but it certainly could be a part of it.

I was going to try to eat nothing but meat and veggies this week, but I was weak, and have been eating other stuff.

Ha, I did the candida thing as well. The one thing it did was to help me NOT get so many sinus infections, but as soon as I'd start adding stuff back, wham, I'd get a sinus infection again. I too think it was something other than candida...gluten was definitely a part of the problem, as was casein, but there's obviously something else...now I just have to figure that out.

Donna,

On my endoscopy, there was just slight irritation in my stomach. The barium x-ray was normal as was my colonoscopy, but it wasn't until they did the camera capsule that they found the small intestine ulcerations. If you really want to know what's going on in there you might want to ask for this test. There is some risk because my camera capsule actually got stuck for 5 days (probably because of inflammation or something)! It's supposed to come out within 24 hours! If it hadn't come out on its own, then I would have had to have major abdominal surgery to locate and remove it. My dr. said next time (to check on healing) he would do a CT scan first to make sure the passage was clear (the CT scan wouldn't show the ulcerations but it could show strictures or thickening of the bowel wall which would impede the capsule).

Anyway, stick with the SCD for awhile. It seems to be working so far for me, but like many posts I've seen I'm afraid to jinx it by being too optimistic!! :-)

Christine

PS - What test showed that the bile duct was enlarged? I had my gallbladder removed a couple years ago and I've often wondered if some damage was done during that surgery.

I think I will ask about it--I see him again on May 8 to discuss the results of my biopsies. He could see (barely though) the enlarged duct during the first endoscopy but couldn't get to it because the scope he used didn't articulate enough to get close. I had the second endoscopy with better equipment so he could look closer and get biopsies...the biopsies from this second scope are what I need to see him about. He had two biopsies done...one said it was completely benign and the other said that it was benign but showed signs of precancerous changes...he is having the pathologist look at it again to be sure.

I would have never known if I hadn't been having so many digestive issues, lol. In fact had I not complained about my gluten intolerance he may have not suggested the first endoscopy (although he might have because I do have GERD symptoms too). I originally went to him for the colonoscopy only.

I was having the burning pain after I started the SCD also. I hadn't noticed it too much when I was just gluten free. I did the camera capsule test and so I do know that I have ulcerations and hoped that the SCD would help me heal. It seemed that the diet was making it worse, though. HOWEVER, after 3 weeks the pain is going away and I feel much better. I backed off the fresh fruits and that seemed to help. Now, I can tolerate them more and I've been making some awesome recipes from the Grain Free Gourmet. Even bread made from just eggs and dry curd cottage cheese (Souffle bread). I do still get mild pain sometimes, but then for my next meal, I'll stick with meat and cooked vegetables and it gets better. Over time I think I will be healing.

Christine

That's good to know! I just had two endoscopies and neither showed any ulcerations in my stomach, although I did have a polyp there which they removed. In fact, my entire digestive system (he also did a colonoscopy at the same time as the first endoscopy) looks really good except for the bit of damage at the bottom of my esophagus and an enlarged bile duct near my pancreas. Maybe I just didn't give the SCD enough of a trial. I still do cook all my veggies, but I did increase the fruit, so that might be it. Two days ago I went back to basically meat and veggies, although I've been eating things like mayo and the odd pickle here and there. I'll cut those out too and see what happens.

Now, I'm getting burning pain in my stomache. It woke me up at 4 and I couldn't get into work until 11.

The same thing has been happening to me...it was so bad last night that I couldn't get comfortable. I woke up at 12:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. It's been happening a lot lately too...I kind of went off the SCD to see if that would clear it up (because it seemed to get worse after I started that), but it doesn't seem to be helping. I finally took a Prilosec OTC this morning to see if that helps. I used to get that bad burning in my stomache only once in a while, but it's been happening so much lately that I've started to worry. My endoscopy showed to DO have a little damage at the bottom of my esophagus and now I'm worrying (which makes this worse I think, lol) that it will get damaged further. The scarey thing is that I have the head of my bed raised so this isn't supposed to happen in the middle of the night, grrr.

I have a Palm T|X as well and like it very much. I've downloaded the Clan Thompson lists, but also have some excel and word files on there...seems to work fine.

Gosh Dani, I'm so sorry you are sick again!!!!

Rachel, I'm so happy you aren't sick again!!!!

I'd be interested to know how that went for you - I had an AWFUL time trying to eat there...

Well, I won't say it was easy, but I survived mostly. I took a lot of my own stuff with me like Bumble Bars, Lara Bars, home made trail mix and a jar of natural peanut butter. Our room had a refrigerator so I was able to eat my bumble bars with peanut butter for early breakfast, then we'd go eat at one of the diners that was just a half block from our hotel. They had a great low carb burger which I modified to be completely gluten free. Inside the park I ate turkey legs and was so happy to see they had lots of fresh fruit at little stands. I had a bad stomach pain on two days...it was hard to tell exactly what it was from. I had the turkey leg both days, but also ate at the restaurant both days and on one of those days had McDonald's french fries. I took the trail mix and some of the bars with me into the park for snacking just in case I couldn't find anything else to eat.

The hotel we stayed at was really great about making me a great lunch the first day we were there...my two friends were actually jealous of my lunch, lol.

Okay, well I made the goat yogurt and I tried a little bit this morning but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BITTER! I mean, BITTER! And it wasn't really that thick. Did I do something wrong, or is it supposed to be like this? ANd I have a problem with casein too, but I keep hearing that for most people with casein problems, they can have the goats milk. And my stomach is so bloated everyday of my life, I feel like maybe this would help it? Who knows. Hopefully because I have found no cure for the bloating yet. Maybe I'll go out and get digestive enzymes today or something......anyone have any good results with those?

Don't know about the bitter...I found the goat milk to be way more bitter than soy milk for instance...the goat yogurt was more tart than normal unsweetened yogurt, but I don't know if I'd call it bitter. I bought Stoneybrook Farms (I think) goat yogurt and it was runnier than normal yogurt...I kind of like mine really thick, but it was okay if I added lots of stuff to it. I sometimes would strain it through cheesecloth to separate the liquid from the more solid stuff...that takes a few hours or overnight though.

I was eating both goat yogurt and greek yogurt for the few months before I sent in my Enterolab tests, so I'm not sure if the antibiodies would have been from the regular or the goat yogurt. I know my allergist (before he retired) told me he though goat milk or yogurt would be okay since over my lifetime I probably hadn't had that much of it to build up antibodies...I don't know though...I ate quite a bit of it in the last 4 years.

I can eat a whole jar in one hour by myself.

I was originally going to say something close to that because I seriously CAN eat that much in a day, lol.

Okay, thanks. So I can eat it without adding anything to it and it is still edible...? I hope I can tolerate it, considering I have the whole casein problem. But Donna, you do too, right? And it doesn't bother you? I bought a yogurt machine and just got it on Monday, so I finally get to make it. Everyone keeps talking about the advantages of it, so I thought I better try it if it can help speed up to process of the healing. And it will also be great to add something sweet and different besides having mostly meat and veggies. Right now I can't really tolerate fructose, and I can only have small amounts of almond butter at a time. But I guess that's how nut butter should be eaten! hahah, I just get carried away because I love nut butters!

Oh, I LOVE nut butters as well...I can eat a whole jar in a week by myself. I haven't had any goat yogurt since I found out I was intolerant to casein...I keep thinking I want to try it, but I'm afraid, lol. If I make my own (and I DID buy a yogurt maker), I was going to try it with coconut milk and a non-dairy yogurt starter. I think if I knew for certain eating it wouldn't damage my intestines I'd eat it in a minute and just live with any discomfort, lol.

But I am wondering how this goat yogurt is going to taste without adding fruit to it......anyone eat it like that? It looked good this morning when I checked on it. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Think of it as something like sour cream. I used to buy the store bought goat yogurt, and I thought it was a little more tart than a normal unsweetened yogurt--I almost always added some type of sweetener, but I didn't think it was too bad plain either.

Get your attn? LOL Is that like running into a pack of vehment PETA folks and screaming "BEEF! ITS WHATS FOR DINNER!" ? LOL

Anyways, since I have never had a postive test for any food related issue. (A zero IgA, a 0 IgE, Biopsy failed to find anything, and so on). I am left with the old stand by of the DIET as a diagnostic for whats wrong with me.

I realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy hate to admit it, but dairy being gone from my diet now I am very sad to admit, I think I am diary intolerent (even though got a 0 on IgE for both casien and whey). That being said I though back to my tripple gluten challange I did. Each was done with the assumption that dairy was not an issue, so I took it form the angle "if Im gonna get sick its not gonna be over something bland and icky, give me PIZZA! CHOLOATE CAKE!!" etc. All of which had dairy and gluten in them. So realy I did not isolate gluten well enough for the challeges becuase my base assumption that dairy was safe was as wrong as it gets.

So now that I have been gluten-free since decemeber, I need some dairy free gluten to test with. Im gonna end up being mostly gluten-free becuase of my son (he did have postive blood work) but it be nice to have one less thing to worry about.

So any suggestions for easy to aquire (Im heading to Kroger for our weekly donation to thier employee's salaries) this am, so anything that a normal grocery store carries would be good. Heres the thing, I do not want even the slightest trace amount of dairy. I have good reason to believe that even the amount of dariy in something like Lays Staxx would set me off. But it should be high in gluten , just to be sure I got enough gluten to be a fiar test.

Oh, you got me good, lol. I was coming in to say "NO, DON'T DO IT, DON'T DO IT".

Hum, that's tough even bread has dairy I think. The only thing I can think of might be cream of wheat cereal, or wheat chex or something like that, but I'd really read the labels because they sneak dairy in like they sneak gluten in sometimes. Maybe wheat germ and/or bran...cream of rye....wow, that's tough...I think giving up dairy was SOOOO much harder for me than giving up gluten foods.

Donna, I have an appt. with him before I have the test so I'll be able to find out more. My mom was the one who talked with him and she said I definatelty have to get cleaned out again for the new test. Its not the one where you drink the smoothie...I've had that one twice already...that one was a CT scan. I'm not quite sure what this one is.

Bummer! I definitely think the Fleet Phoso is what made me so sick last week. I expected fo feel bad the day of the procedure, but I was dizzy and slightly nauseated all last week after the procedure...I didn't have to do that this time and today I feel fine...could also be because I told the nurse who was going to give me the sleepy medicine that I was sick last week from SOMETHING...maybe he did something differently because he said he would talk to the doctor, so I just don't know. I do know that Fleet stuff is NASTY whether or not one has an allergic reaction to it...

I had my first colonoscopy yesterday due to family history of colon cancer. I was really drugged up so cant remember anything. My Mom was telling me tonight that the doctor said he couldnt go high enough into my colon because of I have a really sharp turn that he couldnt get the scope past. He said its not that common but it sometimes happens in smaller people. So from what I gather he told my Mom I have to have another procedure to check out the upper half. I think a barium something or other....maybe an ultrasound? I'm not really sure but I have to get myself cleaned out again.

Thats what I'm really bummed out about. The procedure yesterday was no big thing but the fleet stuff I had to drink caused an allergic reaction cuz I'm sensitive to the preservative in it. It made my head swell. I knew I'd react to it when I looked at the ingredients but figured since its a one time thing I'd just deal w/ it. Now I have to do it again! I wonder if theres another way to get cleaned out w/out drinking that Fleet stuff. Theres gotta be another way.

Some other stuff the GI told my mom is that I have a slow digestive system. I dont have food allergies...I have food intolerances (Duh)....and the best part...I have IBS.

I guess I'll find out more when I see him in 3 weeks. Does anyone know anything about what I have to do to check the upper half of my colon? Has anyone ever heard of the scope not getting past a sharp turn?

I saw him yesterday for an endoscopy (my second). You actually may not have to do the bowel cleanse, and if you do I'm sure there are other methods. A co-worker of mine just had something done and they gave him two large bottles of something that he said tasted like a banana smoothie. They then x-rayed his abdomin. Do you see the doctor again before the procedure? His scheduler is really nice and helpful too, maybe she can tell you more, and I think she'll send info, but you can ask to make sure.

I had my colonoscopy and endoscopy last Monday (3rd), but he had to redo the endoscopy because the scope he used couldn't reach something he needed to see...so I went to El Camino Hospital yesterday where they have scopes that articulate more. I had to do the colon cleanse last Monday, but didn't for yesterday's procedure...I just had to fast for 8 hours.

You all are doing great! I'm still off the wagon. I intend to go shopping tomorrow morning to get more stuff because I'm running low on legal stuff...but I have to have a second endoscope tomorrow so I'll probably just have some legal chicken soup and a little diluted juice when I get home tomorrow. That should be all I need, but at least if I do my grocery shopping tomorrow stuff will be here if I need more.

Hi Donna!

So what happened? How did you fall off of the diet? How are you feeling? I'm really liking this diet now that I'm starting to get a handle on the portions I can and can't handle. It's really amazing because I don't have that HORRIBLE BACK HEART BURN, KNIFE PAINS at night anymore. And I even have my 'monthly friend' and I don't look like I'm pregnant! Okay, I need to stop before I jinx myself. I hope I already haven't!

I had to have a colonoscopy and an endoscopy last Monday...besides the prep the day or two before, I started feeling sorry for myself, lol. After the scopes, the only thing I felt like eating was Thai Noodle bowls. I did have some of my legal chicken soup, but I think the Thai bowls opened up the old cravings thing. I then proceeded to buy one of my favorite gluten/casein free candy bars and eat that. That just started a snowball, lol. I do really need to start again because my whole system has been really messed up since the scopes. I had C for 3 days, then D for a couple, then C now D again...I had such a bad pain in my intestines yesterday all I wanted to do was lay down.

Up to that point I was doing very well, and was able to eat all of the items you mentioned plus some frozen fruits that were blended up with some diluted juice into a sorbet (most of the fruit I was using didn't have "skin", so I think that's why I got away with that).

I bought a yogurt maker too, and think I'll try to make some with coconut milk if I can ever find some without additives.

Well, I haven't been on the site for a while because I've been doing this SCDiet. I've been doing the mailing list for SCD and have found lots of nice people who've helped me and talked to me about what I need to do next on this diet. It's pretty cool because one of the ladies who was very close friends with Elaine herself was e-mailing me with TONS of people in my area (NYC) who are on the SCD and can help me, and TONS of people with Celiac that are doing the diet and can help me, and TONS AND TONS AND TONS of REAL LIGIT doctors in NYC who believe in the diet and suggest it. Not homeopaths or anything, ACTUAL MAINSTREAM MEDICAL DOCTORS WHO WORK WITH COLUMBIA, BETH ISRAEL, ETC. And guess what, since I found this all out, I FEEL GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BETTER THAN EVER EVER EVER!!!!! It's been almost 5 weeks now.........how is everyone else doing??????

Dani, that's fantastic!!!! What are you eating now? I've fallen off the wagon a bit since last week and need to get back on I think. I've had a rough couple of days, lol.

Ha, well, you might be safe on the surprise thing unless you have an emergency...I think they usually like to have the stomach empty before they do it. By-the-way, I had one last Monday and it was just fine...I slept through it...had it at the same time as my colonoscopy, and whatever sedative they gave me, just made me sleep through the whole thing. I do have lovely pictures though.

Can't help with questions though since I'm just now going through the first round with this doctor. I see him tomorrow for the results of my scope and I'll ask him about retesting.

Artichoke is legal, I'm betting on the beans. They're evil for sending lots of undigested resistant starches down to the GI tract for the beasties to feast on.

Yah, kind of figured...I only had 1/2 cup, and I rinsed them really well from the can juice, but I still think that was too much, lol. I did buy some beans and may try those once my current distress goes away, but I'll do the full soak like Elaine suggests next week to see if that helps...suddenly I've discovered I LOVE beans, lol. I'm 50 years old, and never liked them much, but all of a sudden, yum. I have eaten them in small (1/2 cup) portions, and haven't been bothered, but I think my system was already on overload from the stuff last week. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, lol.

Is wild oats just like whole foods? Whats safeway?

No Wild Oats in my area, but from what I've read here, it's similar to Whole Foods, geared more towards health food type store than mainstream grocery store. Safeway is a large chain, mainstream grocery store.

Yep, I like Whole Foods as well. I like Trader Joe's for a few specific items, but generally not to do my main shopping.

ETA: Although I wish they opened earlier, lol. I used to love Safeway because they opened very early in the morning and I could get in and out quickly.