Hello, I'm new...

[celia]

Greetings,

How nice to find such a supportive and warm-hearted community!

I was just diagnosed with mild LC about a week ago. My health challenges began in May of 2004 with a major 5-day gastro-intestinal event. I erroneously thought it was a flu, and didn’t think much about it when I got better the following week.

Slowly, over the next 9 months, I had a radical downslide and perplexing progression of new and varied symptoms. All forms of pain (burning, stabbing, electrically shocking, etc.) and excruciating morning stiffness predominated, but I also had symptoms in several other body systems. GI symptoms were a smaller part of the picture. My PCP was clueless. I thought I had chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia.

Early on, I was fortunate to read a book by Dr. Neal Barnard called Foods that Fight Pain and started to experiment with my diet. Cutting out wheat very significantly reduced the stiffness. Over the next few months, it became abundantly clear to me that food triggered my various symptoms, but figuring out which foods took another year of trial and error. More and more symptoms subsided as I slowly cut out more and more foods. But, I was at the point of pulling my hair out because I still was not sure what I could safely eat.

I finally tuned into the fact that it was whole classes of foods, the opposite of what I had surmised to date, (sugar including fruit, and starches including whole grains and starchy vegetables) after researching ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis with symptoms similar to my arthralgias. In September 2005, I tried the London AS diet, a no starch diet, and this brought the best results yet, although I still have to exclude fruit and probably dairy from that basic diet. I don’t have AS, but the no starch diet was a turning point in the right direction.

When I got the LC diagnosis last week, it was like the last piece of the puzzle clicking into place. At this point, I can control the majority of my symptoms with diet. I am also working with a terrific naturopath who has me on a good set of supplements to correct my nutrient deficiencies from malabsorpption. She has now put me on Sea Cure, which is an excellent supplement for healing the gut. There is a lot more I could say, but this is already too long!

I am very grateful for the opportunity to be part of this group, and pick up more tips and information and kind vibes on this roller coaster journey of healing. Thanks very much to everyone for creating this space.

Warmly,
Celia

[Mars]

A warm welcome to you Celia! I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to join our family of those with MC. We are a careing bunch of people here. We not only discuss diets, symptoms, medication and associated illnesses but we comfort and help those who just want to drop in and say "hi"!

I'm impressed with your determination to track down and eliminate those trigger foods. We are here to help you continue your journey to good/improved health.

This site is designed to help you find answers to the questions you have and will do everything we can to answer those questions you are not able to find the answers to within the site.

Good luck with your continued heath and once again, welcome to our group.

Mars

[Polly]

Hi, Celia and to the family! We are so happy you found us!

I am amazed that you were able to do such a good job of figuring out your food triggers. And yes, docs are rarely much help in our experience when it comes to food triggers.. It IS incredibly difficult and especially initially when one is having constant diarrhea (D). You must be very adept at doing research/detective work!

I am not familiar with Dr. Barnard's book but will check it out. Many here have found that they are sensitive to gluten, and some of us (myself included) have multiple food intolerances (MIs) in addition to gluten. Sigh. It took me a lot longer than it took you to figure out all of my intolerances. Of course I was the first MCer here to discover a problem with MIs. You can see my list of intolerances to the left of this post. A number of us follow the paleo diet (hunter-gatherer or paleolithic diet). I am interested to learn more about your discovery realted to whole classes of foods being the culprit. What are some of those classes?

I also have LC and have managed it entirely with diet. When I was first diagnosed 5 years ago, I had quite a "collection" of various aches and pains. I had decided that feeling stiff and achy every morning was just a consequence of getting older. WRONG! Once I eliminated the offenders, the pains went away. Dairy in particular gives me neck/shoulder pain and headaches. Gluten makes me lose focus, become irritable, and makes my ankles and wrists and fingers ache. Quite a few folks here were able to get rid of their aches and pains with diet control.

Well, I don't want to take up too much time......plenty of time later for future chats! Congrats on the success you are having manging your MC. We LOVE to learn from each other, so we are doubly happy that you are here.

Love,

Polly

[starfire]

Celia

I'm so impressed with the way you have educated yourself about all those things. You are to be congratulated.

I'm LC also. Don't know what I would have done without these great people.

Shirley

[tex]

Hi Celia,

Welcome to our internet family. We're very pleased that you've joined us. With a disease like MC, the more viewpoints we have available, the more we can learn, and consequently, the better we can all keep our symptoms under control.

One of the big advantages of a group such as this, is that when someone describes their symptoms, everyone understands exactly what they mean, because we've all been there. And, we do care about each other.

Please feel free to ask anything you want, and post about any topic that interests you. Again, welcome to the group.

All my best,
Wayne

[Matthew]

Celia
I will welcome you again even though we have already met through PM's. The support here is the best thing that ever happened since the year I spent making a lot of discoveries on my own was pretty lonesome.

So glad you posted. Your experience will help us all.

To your continued recovery

Matthew

[JJ]

Hi Celia! Welcome to the group! I'm so glad you found us....take care...Jill

[Momster]

Hi Celia and Welcome.
I'm one of the few members who does not have MC, but joined to support my Daughter who does. I have learned so much in the nearly 4 years since I've joined this wonderful group of peoplle and along the way, made many friends.
I, too, am very impressed at how you took your health into your own hands and the work you did to find out how to help yourself.
I'll pass along a from my daughter, Peggy, who is lounging on the beaches of Mexico for two weeks. We'll be getting some glowing reports from her when she gets back, hopefully well rested, tanned (not burned) and recovering from an accident in September.

Talk to you soon.

Love - Momster

[Lucy]

Hi Celia,

Welcome! Did you see the introductory parts of this site when you "checked in?"
What was your initial impression? Just curious?

Your approach is an interesting one. Seems as though I just heard Dr. Bernard's name mentioned someplace recently. Interesting.

Perhaps you can give us a little run-down on ankylosing spondilitis, and it's symptoms sometime.

Nice having you aboard!
Yours, Luce

[Jean]

Celia,

I, too, am impressed with how well you did on your own. I have LC and many food intolerances; gluten, soy, dairy, corn, rice and citrus.

I hope you post often! Here and in the discussion about food room. With luck, we may be able to help you get some of the foods you gave up back. Which is always wonderful. I've found that some of the foods, like fruit, seemed to be a problem until I found my other triggers.

WELCOME!!!

Love, Jean

[MaggieRedwings]

Hi Celia and Welcome to the family!

I applaud your determination in finding your food triggers and I am sure you were glad to finally find the missing piece of the puzzle - not glad for LC but glad you then knew all of the factors.

I, like Polly, am intolerant to a good number of foods and being a vegan struggle to get all of the nutrients into my system. Would be curious as to your naturopath minerals & vitamin regime. I am trying to get a handle on that now since tofu is no longer an option for me.

Again, welcome and glad to see you here.

Maggie

[kate_ce1995]

Welcome Celia,

I was diagnosed with MC and had been fighting aches and pains for a few years, but the docs all said I just needed to stretch more. Well, thanks to this supportive group, I decided (for a whole host of reasons that I won't bore you with) to try a gluten free diet. Low an behold, even though my MC was relatively under control through a change in pain reliever (I was having a problem from ibuprofen), my aches and pains got better! It was such a relief as I was only 30 at the time.

This is a wonderful group and we've all become great friends around not only our MC but our other shared interests as well...pets, kids, gardening, crafts, etc, etc, etc.

Katy

[annie oakley]

Welcome to our warm and happy family, This is a great place to be. Hugs Oma

[harvest_table]

Hi Celia,

A very WARM WELCOME ABOARD, from chilly Alaska!

Love,
Joanna

[celia]

I am overwhelmed (in a good way) by everyone's warmth and kindess. Thank you! I will respond to some of the questions I received over the next few days.

Thanks again, Celia

P. S. Strange, but when I checked the forum on Monday and this morning, I didn't see any new posts since the 27th. So, apologies, but I posted my intro again! But then, magically all the posts from the 27th forward appeared. Hmnn...