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Thanks, everyone, for your posts and support!! I am really depressed and feeling very sorry for myself at the moment. It really helps to know that you're all there rooting for me. I tried eating a little turkey and some plain rice last night. I didn't want to eat at all but my poor husband is really concerned. I just got over a case of the flu and haven't eaten any solid food for at least a week. Bottom line is the turkey and rice had me on the commode until after 1:30 in the morning. I took some Pepto Bismol and it finally slowed things down enough for me to sleep. However, I can tell my guts are gearing up to give me holy old hell for that move! I get horrible bloat and almost unbearable stomach pain if I take meds that stop the D. My boss is a great guy and is trying to keep me out of the field as much as possible this week. Today I do have an inspection and a sampling walk down so I will have to leave the building. I took some more Pepto so I can get through the day without downloading in my pants, but I'm going to pay for it. I feel so horrible.
I did buy Tex's book and have been reading and re-reading it since I got it. I've been gluten free for around a month now...I think. But ever since the "fish incident" I've been getting sicker and sicker. I wish I could have gotten in with my PCP. He's a good doctor, but has WAY too many patients. I had to go to urgent care when I had the flu and they always say "follow up with your primary care doctor". Right. In three months or so. What good is that going to do??? I just want to go home, get in bed, and NEVER get up again! But, my husband's next job doesn't start for two more months and we really need my income. What a mess. I'm going to try and see if somebody can see me (even if it's that boob GI doctor I just fired) so I can at least get the stool cultures done. Maybe they'll find something and I may be able to get a handle on this massive flare. I can't take much more of this. I'm hurting, sick and weak. And I'm getting really tired of listening to my guts rumble and complain, too! I wish they'd just shut the hell up cuz the whole darned world can hear them!! It's embarrassing cuz it went on all through a two hour meeting yesterday!
Also, I do still have my gallbladder. My mom had problems with hers and had to have it removed. Could that be part of the problem? I guess I won't know until I see a doctor. I'll keep you posted on the ongoing poo saga...
Gallbladder disease tends to cause a severe pain just at the bottom of the rib cage, near center, that can also be felt in back. The pain develops soon after eating a fatty meal and lasts for several hours, commonly causing nausea, and sometimes D. I suspect that Martha asked because whenever someone has gallbladder surgery they tend to have bile acid malabsorption (BAM) for half a year or so (sometimes indefinitely in some cases), and in those cases a bile acid sequestrant will help to stop the D that BAM often causes.
I hope that your day is not totally intolerable.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I have no pain like you're describing, Tex. However, I have had pain, on and off, down low on my right side. It comes and goes but it can really put me down when it happens. I'm hoping it isn't my appendix. I need to quit messing around and get into a doctor. The Pepto is helping, and I got our of the sampling walk down and inspection (thank God). I'll be able to spend the day safely at my desk listening to my guts singing Ava Maria all day in between trips to the ladies room. This is truly the pits!
I absolutely hate the rumbling as well. I sat in a meeting the other day and my stomach was gurgling and churning. My husband and I watch TV and he is always looking over at me as my stomach rumbles away. Sometimes his does as well. Perhaps they are talking
I don't normally get stomach pain but if I use tablets like Imodium I get stomach pain. I was diagnosed with a bug about a year ago but it hasn't shown up on my latest tests. I hope you get it all sorted out very soon xx
‘I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.’ – Martin Luther King Jr
I often had that same pain in the lower right quadrant of my abdominal cavity. I'm not sure why that happens, but it does for some of us. MC inflammation is often more concentrated in the terminal ileum and the right-side colon. The doctors always insisted that diverticulitis was causing my pain, but diverticulitis occurs mainly on the left side in the sigmoid colon.
Sometimes onlookers (or rather, onlisteners) mistake those noises for extreme hunger, and some members here have been told they need to go eat something. The noise is a nuisance, but there's not much we can do about it until the reaction settles down.
That's good news that the Pepto is helping, and you're lucky that your guts sing Ave Maria — mine sometimes tried to perform the 1812 Overture, complete with cannons.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
There are 2 strains of stomach bugs going around. Sadly my middle one is on the second strain. The first one is feeling rough with D and nausea and indigestion/reflux for about 5 days for a normal person (me 2weeks). The second is throwing up nonstop for 12 hours, we experienced that on Monday night with my middle child. Maybe you are experiencing this that's going around. I know it's in Colorado too....
Make sure you start taking vitamin d3, the sooner the better. It will help in healing. Many say that extreme high doses can lessen the flu.....
The antibiotic that caused my colitis, completely destroyed my gallbladder early on too. It was intense pain below my ribs on the right side. It shot straight through to my back. I slept in fetal position for a long time, until I found a new dr that would actually check that for me. It was a horrible pain!
So hope you are feeling better today! Just curious where you work?? I worked for a nuclear power plant and made sure all the water coming out met EPA guidelines that ran into the TN river.
Maybe try potatoes now, just dry with salt.
Hang in there! We are all rooting for you!!!
Martha E.
Philippians 4:13
Jul 2008 took Clindamycin for a Sinus infection that forever changed my life
Dec 2014 MC Dx
Jul 15, 2015 Elimination Diet
Aug 17, 2015 Enterolab Test
Dec 2015 Reflux
Sept 2016 IC
HI Kim....I've been racking my brain thinking back to episodes of what you are referring to.
I would make Bone Broth (I recommend Cornish Hen and it has good flavor) with nothing but broth and add sea salt so that you drink it comfortably.
I know this is just liquid, but your body doesn't want to handle anything at the moment it appears. If once you calm the gut down enough with broth so that every other part of your body relaxes too perhaps you can introduce a safe food it accepted before the fish fatality.
If you are cross contaminated with gluten/dairy/soy/egg for any reason this could be why you are not healing very well regardless of the flu situation.
We need Zinc daily to help ward off viruses so what is left of our immune system can do its job.
We need our Magnesium and VitD3 good doses of them.
We need to de-stress as best we can - no drama period.
I sure hope your body responds to healing soon!
Hugs
Erica
To Succeed you have to Believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a Reality - Anita Roddick
Dx LC April 2012 had symptoms since Aug 2007
Things were tough there for a while but I had stool cultures done and did not have any nasty things growing in my guts...thank God! I believe it was simply stress, and a dose of food poisoning, that made things so terrible there for a bit. I have a stressful job and several stressful situations in my personal life right now. I stayed with safe foods, since my last post, and for five whole days I had reached NORMANS! It was amazing and exciting! It's been so long that I almost forgot what a turd actually was...then all the sudden TURDS AHOY!! For five straight days!! I was so stoked! I was also doing much better with the bloat and nausea which was really a blessing.
Of course that was too good to last. I got bad sinus and ear infections, from my allergies, so my doctor put me on a course of Keflex. Antibiotics just tear me to shreds and my guts are now in total chaos again. It's so UNFAIR!! But my ear, and the left side of my face, were burning and aching so badly I had no choice but to start on a course of antibiotics. The burning in my left cheek, which was driving me insane, is starting to abate. I'm on my third day of the meds and am supposed to stay on them for a week. At first it was a lot of horrible, explosive D with the added enjoyment of terrible gas and bloat. I am doing a lot better than I was on day one of the meds but am still having issues. That first day my poor guts were like "What the hell do you think you're doing?? You can't put that poison in here and get away with it!!!" Of course they were right. After reaching that delicate balance with my safe foods, which took a couple of months of hard work, I'm having gut issues again from the meds. No fair, no fair NO FAIR!! I guess my luck just isn't the greatest. I had a bad detox with the gluten, but then slowly started getting better and better. Now all my new and good intestinal flora are going to be destroyed by the Keflex. Then it's back to square one, I guess. Hopefully it won't take me as long to get back to where I was just a few days ago. I started doing yoga again for the stress, which really helps, but yoga isn't going to offset the effects of that stupid Keflex. Oh well. I'll just have to tough this out and stay with really simple safe foods. Hopefully I'll bounce back quickly because I want to have TURDS AHOY again!! One consolation is that I know for sure that diet DOES work. This is just an unfortunate setback.
Also it seems that it takes longer to heal in general...period. It doesn't matter from what ailment be it virus, sprain, bruise, you name it. So keep the patience regimen going...there will be light at the end of the tunnel. I keep telling myself that all the time
You got a glimpse of healing and that is all it takes to affirm we are on the right track at times.
Cheers
Erica
To Succeed you have to Believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a Reality - Anita Roddick
Dx LC April 2012 had symptoms since Aug 2007
Thanks for the update. It's good to hear that the culture results were negative. with Erica — once you experience success then you not only have proof that you have the know-how needed to control your symptoms, but you also have increased incentive.
Antibiotics can be quite a challenge, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do. I hope it won't take long for you to get back on track after the antibiotic treatment is over. Please keep us posted.
Hugs,
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I have been wondering how you were doing. I know you had a bit of a set back with the antibiotics but gee it is exciting to hear that for those 5 days you experienced 'normality.' If you have been there once you know that you can get back there. Now you have the advantage of knowing exactly how it was that you got there. It sounds like you will have much better days ahead. That is really exciting and it is very encouraging to me
‘I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.’ – Martin Luther King Jr
I took some more Pepto so I can get through the day without downloading in my pants, but I'm going to pay for it. I feel so horrible.
The noise is a nuisance, but there's not much we can do about it until the reaction settles down.
with Erica — once you experience success then you not only have proof that you have the know-how needed to control your symptoms, but you also have increased incentive.