New symptom: D at night

bluckii · Post by **bluckii** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 2:57 am

Hello All,

About a week and a half ago I started experiencing D at night. Usually my D has always been a morning to early afternoon thing then it would subside. My kids went through a stomach bug that caused them D at night and I am assuming I got it too, however, they are all better and I am still suffering.

I was diagnosed with L-MC in Nov. shortly after a big move half way across the country. I have had ups and downs since then. When I first started having problems Immodium would help, now it does not. I did a round of Budesonide which seemed to help until I got a sinus infection and I think the anti-biotic caused me issues again.

Someone told me to try taking an iron supplement (I'm anemic anyway) and that helped immensely. I had also cut out dairy and sugar. I have celiac disease so I am already on a gf diet. I felt like I was nearing normal but then my mother in law came and I binged on every yummy thing imaginable! I mean I was eating handfuls of chocolate covered almonds accompanied by cake and potatoes chips and dip. Not to mention eating hefty amounts of her delicious fried and fatty foods.

Only a few days into my binge did I start experiencing D. I got so stressed about eating after that, that I ate very little which caused me to have severe panic attacks that lasted all day!

It wasn't until a few days later that my kids got this bug that caused them diarrhea that I started having issues at night. My doc gave me an anti-depressant that is suppose to help bind up my bowels. It worked for 3 days and now I am back to having watery D, and at night again.

I am scheduled for sinus surgery to remove a polyp next week and my GI wants me to wait until after that before we try any other treatments because the antibiotics I will be on will mess me up again.

In addition, we have just bought a house and are moving in 4 weeks, I also homeschool my children and so I am under quite a bit of stress. We moved our family from CT to KY in order to give our children a better life. We are far from family and friends and I have been quite sick since we got here and because of that I am having a hard time transitioning to our new place.

My question is this: Could that virus that my kids had coupled with my poor eating choices AND stress here cause this? And why the sudden change in symptoms? My D was always like clock-work. As soon as I gained consciousness I'd have to hit the bathroom and then I'd go a few times after breakfast. Now, I am also going at night, starting at 9pm and sometimes going until 2am.

Post by **tex** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:42 am

Brooke,

I am not a doctor, but here is my assessment of some of your symptoms:

The fact that you crave chocolate and almonds enough to binge on them, and your panic attacks after you restrict eating are clear signs that you are very magnesium deficient. Both chocolate and almonds are considered to be magnesium-rich foods, and an acute magnesium deficiency can result in episodes that mimic panic attacks. Been there, done that. Magnesium deficiency is known to be associated with IBDs, and it's a common cause of depression. An untreated magnesium deficiency can make MC symptoms worse and possibly even trigger flares. Significantly increased magnesium intake is the solution.

Treating MC with an anti-depressant is like treating cancer with opioids — it can mask the symptoms in some cases, but it does nothing to resolve the cause of the problem.

I have no idea how you might be able to accomplish this, but IMO if you are going to be able to get your inflammation under control, you need to find a way to cut yourself some slack to reduce the physical and emotional stress under which you are living, so that your body can heal. After you heal, then you can get on with your life. But as long as you continue to ignore the fact that you have a debilitating disease and you continue to push yourself to the limit, recovery may be a lofty goal.

Stress is a known prerequisite to MC (at least it's known to those of us who have been members of this discussion forum for a while), and severe chronic stress can trump any treatment used for MC.

It's a fact that most of us who have MC are perfectionists and overachievers. Initially we overlook or try to ignore the fact that our demanding lifestyle is the reason why our body is screaming "Tilt!", and we try to continue at a level that our body is unable to tolerate. But unless we downshift a gear or 2 and give our body a reason to heal, how can we expect to recover?

Your symptoms are becoming worse because your intestinal inflammation is becoming worse. Stress levels continue to build while you postpone adopting a safe recovery diet for your MC. That's a double whammy situation. We have to respect the disease or in effect, it will not respect us.

I wish I could tell you that there's an easy way to stop all your symptoms so that you can continue to do everything that's expected of you without interruption, but unfortunately MC is a very unforgiving disease, and it's not easy to treat. It can definitely be controlled, but that takes a lot of dedicated hard work, self-control, and attention to detail. We have to embrace the disease rather than to begrudgingly learn to live with it. In the process we have to learn that sometimes we have to say "No", because we are simply not physically able to do all of the things that everyone expects of us because of our past behavior as overachievers.

But the good news is that after we control the inflammation so that our digestive system can heal, we can also prevent the development of additional AI diseases that tend to develop as a result of untreated long-term chronic inflammation.

Tex

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 1:12 pm

in my opinion, Night time accidents is one of the cruelest aspects of life with MC

in line with Tex's reply above, the inflammation levels in gut are getting worse, this is your body saying - things need to change
and sadly there is no easy way/quick way to stop what is happening

I get that timing of all this kinda sucks. based on what you have shared these are my suggestions;

- can you postpone the sinus surgery? the anesthetic and antiobiotics are high risk to make things worse
- consider getting script for cholestramyne - quite a few have had good success with this med, it is way cheaper than using entocort.
- given the level of stress/anxiety and your reactions to what is going on, a MC safe anti anxiety med might be worth considering, Elavil. this might take a couple of weeks to start to provide benefit but this will help with the timing of the move.
- Live on soup/stews - easy to digest, low inflammation, and if you make them with home made bone broth they are gut healing it wont fix things quickly, but it will start to reduce the inflammation levels and the symptoms will reduce
- take high doses of Vit D3 - 10,000 iu per day for 4 weeks.

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 4:48 pm

Hi,
I would take every opportunity to also take an Epsom Salt bath (with a good 2 cup dose dissolved and soak for 20 minutes).

If you can get on order some LifeFlo Magnesium lotion or oil (vitacost.com is a great place for price) I'd work on getting that extra External magnesium going on my body in conjunction with the VitD3 Gabes has mentioned. The Epsom salt soak will work great and you can alternate these topical treatments of the supplement until your body is ready for the Internal kind (Drs Best - non-buffered found also at Vitacost.com).

Your body is screaming at you right now.....do your best to take time out for yourself.
Hugs
Erica

bluckii · Post by **bluckii** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 9:32 am

Thank you all for your response!

Tex, you are so right on about the perfectionist! That is me! I don't like that I don't have control and that I can't just go, do and eat what I want. I realize I need to get my stress under control, my hubby has been a blessing and has taken over some of the cooking for me and when he can helps the kids with their schooling. I am becoming more optimistic and I am starting to "accept" my disease.

We have an Amish family down the road that sells a HUGE selection of supplements and homeopathic items. I was able to buy some magnesium oil from them and started using it. The bottle suggests 32 sprays a day which is equivalent to 400mg taken orally. Should I take more being that I am deficient? Should I spread out the "sprays" throughout the day or just put it all on at once? I also take 10,000 IU of vitamin D with K2.

Has any of you heard of Juice Plus or Sunrider Foods? They are whole food supplements that are easily absorbed... do you think this will help or do you think I should wait until I start healing some?

thank you so much for your time! javascript:emoticon('

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Post by **tex** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 10:46 am

Brooke wrote:Should I take more being that I am deficient? Should I spread out the "sprays" throughout the day or just put it all on at once?

The magnesium RDA for women is considered to be 320 mg, and of course we only absorb a fraction of the magnesium to which we are exposed, especially if most of the exposure is during a very short time frame. And after our reserves are depleted, it takes a while to rebuild our supply of magnesium that's normally stored in our muscle cells. So yes, more is better, but spreading it out during the day is important for absorption efficiency. Our ability to absorb magnesium is limited by various factors, such that the more we take, the less we absorb from the extra amount in the dose. IOW, if we take high doses at one time, more of the magnesium will probably be wasted.

That vitamin D dosage rate should allow you to boost your vitamin D supply to a good level within a few months. I'm not familiar with those food supplements, but most of us have found by experience that other than vitamin D, magnesium, and possibly some of the B vitamins in cases where symptoms have been present for years, the general rule is that the fewer supplements we take, and the simpler and blander our diet, the faster we recover. After we are in remission and our digestive system is working much better and absorbing more nutrients from our food, then we can reconsider whether or not we might need to add any supplements as we begin to expand our diet again. In most cases, by the time we recover we should be able to get our nutrition needs from our food.

You're very welcome,
Tex

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 2:19 pm

I have my magnesium spray in small bottles around the house. I spray the tops of my legs and stomach each time i go to the toilet.
spray bottle by the bed that i spray legs, arms, stomach, neck first up in the morning and of a night
spray bottle by the computer, spray neck, arms etc when I am at the computer...

putting them in places that you spend time during the day, makes it easier to incorporate regular spraying into your routine

crervin · Post by **crervin** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 3:03 pm

Ditto on the panic attacks. I've had several traumatic life experiences and never had any panic attacks until having D for a number of years. It was clearly vitamin issues. It will take awhile to get the d3 and magnesium deficiency resolved for you. But I can happily say no panic attacks for me in about 5 months....

I take 8000 units of d3 and between 500 and 700 mg of magnesium oil daily (spaced throughout the day). Also I worked myself up to it, not all at once. It's taken 7 months to get here. Sadly the inactive ingredients of B complex and multivitamins cause me to react, so I've postponed them for now.

Good luck and hang in there! I was there not too long ago. It felt like I was climbing Mount Everest then, and now it feels like I'm climbing El Capitan

.....

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 6:09 pm

Has any of you heard of Juice Plus or Sunrider Foods? They are whole food supplements that are easily absorbed... do you think this will help or do you think I should wait until I start healing some?

I have not heard of them but generally early on when you are struggling real foods are generally safest. Think protein (a lot of it), broth, potatoes or rice and overcooked veggies (minimal of the overcooked veggies.) No raw fruit and no raw veggies.

Welcome by the way. You are at the right place! If you don't have Tex's book pick one up on Amazon.

DebE13 · Post by **DebE13** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 8:00 am

Sorry to hear of your nocturnal issues. I can relate as that was one of my problems. I find that if I start getting too comfortable with those once-in-a-while-ok foods I start getting grumbles and night issues. For me, it's a clear sign that I am straying too far from my safe diet. It is a horrifying experience to wake up to an unexpected mess. I don't know if you've experienced that or not but it is something grabs your attention. It is draining to wake up to the need to run to the bathroom. Nothing is ever immediate for me, so if I slip, it will take time to regain safe ground. That is one of the reasons passing on some tempting treats has become easier. I can simply stop and remind myself that the short gratification of something tasty simply isn't worth the possible one to two weeks it may take to recover. Best of luck to you!