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Hi my name is Loretta and I was diagnosed with CC this past June.
The first day that I had D was May 2nd and I waited almost a month before I called my doc to ask what I should do. His answer of course was get to a GI doc that day. I had had a skin cancer removed in April and was taking an antibiotic so the doctor was sure I had C-diff. After researching this I felt like Typhoid Mary! But the multiple samples of poop showed no C-diff. I had a colonoscopy on May 31st and the results said CC. The strange thing was that after the colonoscopy my D was reduced to only 2 morning movements. My doctor said that there are 3 meds he could prescribe but since I was feeling better I should wait before taking anything.
I was feeling OK for almost 2 months but the D got worse and I started looking for help through diet and came across Tex's book. I'm struggling to understand everything in the book and hope to absorb it all over time. In the mean time I'm hoping that reading posts here will help me. Tomorrow I will start the elimination diet. I must admit that such a limited diet is pretty scary.
Questions:
One of my symptoms has been hunger pangs even after having just eaten. I asked my doctor to test my thyroid levels but they were normal but he said my protein levels were low. Has anyone experienced unexplained hunger pangs?
What do you eat for breakfast on the elimination diet?
Welcome! It sounds like you've taken some great first steps! It's definitely intimidating to think about eliminating foods. I remember thinking, "If I can't have this, this and this, what will I eat?!" It really does get easier over time as you adjust mentally and get into new routines.
For me, breakfast now is more like any other meal (instead of thinking it has to be "breakfast foods"). I've been at this for quite a while, but most breakfasts are some sort of ground meat and cooked veggies in a skillet. I'm sure others will have more suggestions.
Welcome to our Internet family. Kristen is right of course. While some of us are able to eat eggs and bacon, for others, breakfast can look similar to any other meal. Adapting to the diet restrictions is probably easier if you focus on the foods you can eat, rather than focusing on what you can't eat. The foods that cause our immune system to produce antibodies are now poison for us, and if we recognize that fact, it usually becomes easier to stick to the diet. The human body readily adapts to changes, including diet changes — it's the mental challenges that are more difficult to overcome.
The cleanout solutions used prior to a colonoscopy often bring remission from symptoms for some patients, while for others, they just intensify the inflammation. Apparently you were one of the lucky ones who get to enjoy some relief after a colonoscopy.
Again, welcome aboard and please feel free to ask anything. Good for you, for beginning your journey to remission.
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 made it through day 1 and I hope I did it correctly. For breakfast I had an organic beef burger, baked sweet potato for lunch and organic chicken and boiled potatoes for dinner. Drank water and black tea through the day and had a banana . One thing that I read on the description of the E diet was to stop supplements. But I think that may be wrong. Should I be taking Magnesium and D3 while on E diet? And if so I want to be sure they are correct and that I take enough. My d3 that I have taken for years is Nature Made and contains soy so I need to find another brand. The Magnesium I started taking a year ago for leg cramps is Viva Naturals Chelated Magnesium Bisglycinate. The other ingredients in the Mag are modified cellulose, vegetable stearate, silicone dioxide and glycerin.
My 2nd day will probably be much the same and already I am having less D but I think that may be because I have not had fruit for 2 days.
One thing that has made this so stressful for me is that a year ago I went on Weight Watchers and have lost 117 lbs. I did this eating lots of fruit, salads and had at least 2 slices of rye bread a day. Now I have to totally change my way of eating. I think that the high amount of grapes that I ate may have triggered this condition.
Grapes skins contain a lot of fiber and most grapes contain a lot of sorbitol, which is a sugar alcohol (which humans cannot digest). Undigested sugars (or sugar alcohols) tend to be fermented by bacteria in the colon, producing gas, cramps, possible bloating, and diarrhea. I like grapes, but I simply can't tolerate them even though I've been in remission for over 13 years.
Most people who follow the GF diet properly, complain of losing weight. Unless you have a hypothyroid condition, it can be very difficult to gain weight on an MC recovery diet. Fruit contains a lot of sugar in the form of fructose, and MC patients have a problem digesting very much fructose.
As long as you do not happen to be sensitive to beef or chicken, your diet sounds fine. Normally, magnesium and vitamin D will help recovery and healing, so it's helpful to take them as long as you verify that their ingredient list is safe. The ingredients you listed for your magnesium supplement should be fine. The warning to discontinue supplements refers to non-essential supplements, especially supplements for which you have not carefully verified that all the ingredients are safe. If you have been prescribed certain supplements because you test deficient, continue to take them as long as their ingredient list is safe.
I hope that some of this is helpful.
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.
Hi Tex,
Thank you for your input and support. This forum is wonderful. How fortunate I am to have found it and can help myself feel better without drugs.
I hope to have good news about my condition in the future. Keeping fingers crossed.
Hi Retta.
I'm just going to jump in here to answer your question about feeling hungry right after eating. I, too, have had that problem for most all my life - I started to think it was just normal! But what I found through years of experimenting was that if I was eating a high carb meal or snack, I would be ravenous within minutes of finishing. I mean, like I wanted to gnaw my own arm off! So after that I never ate carbs unless it was accompanied by protein and fat and that helped a little.
What I have noticed in the last few weeks of being gluten-free is that that is not happening at all anymore! I guess it was the gluten/carbs that were doing it to me. If you have fat and protein with your carbs, do you still get hungry?
Sue
Sue
Diagnosed November 2004, Used Asacol and Lialda, sometimes worked, sometimes made it worse. Entocort always works but hate it. Remission only lasts 3-6 months and then back on Entocort. Enterolab test July 2017, now gluten free. Time will tell!
Thank you for your response about hunger pangs. I believe these unusual and intense hunger pangs started around the time that D started this past May 2nd. I do know if I went completely off my weight loss diet these past months i.e.: ate something that was high fat and carb I would not get the hunger pangs. This is my 2 day on the elimination diet and I am still having the pangs but I may not be eating enough. This diet is an unusual way for me to eat. I hope after I experiment adding back foods that I will have a better idea how to fill myself. My doctor suspects peptic ulcer. I'm don't think so. A blood test showed low protein levels. I'm not sure what that means.
Another thought is that sugar can make you hungry and I was eating a lot of fruit.
Thank you for your help. It is very appreciated. This forum is very appreciated.
Two years ago I was given the best advice about hunger....eat PROTEIN...period and add a safe over cooked veggie in there somewhere If we have gotten to the point that we want to gnaw on our arms that's pretty serious, lol, and I have been to that point!
I have bought the natural no nitrate roast turkey deli meat (you have to read the ingredients to make sure that it is just meat and celery flavoring for freshness) and when I didn't have my cornish hen bone broth soup created yet I would eat steamed white rice rolled in this meat just about anytime I felt hungry....or I would eat it plain, just the protein will be enough to stave off hunger feelings and as your body gradually rids itself of the gluten protein the hunger feeling gets better all the time until it is a true hunger.
Keep reading and your new eating plan will emerge, it took me some time too. I will never be perfect with this MC/LC diagnosis but I will continue to maintain progress one way or the other.
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
Thank you for your response about hunger pangs. I believe these unusual and intense hunger pangs started around the time that D started this past May 2nd. I do know if I went completely off my weight loss diet these past months i.e.: ate something that was high fat and carb I would not get the hunger pangs. This is my 2 day on the elimination diet and I am still having the pangs but I may not be eating enough. This diet is an unusual way for me to eat. I hope after I experiment adding back foods that I will have a better idea how to fill myself. My doctor suspects peptic ulcer. I'm don't think so. A blood test showed low protein levels. I'm not sure what that means.
Another thought is that sugar can make you hungry and I was eating a lot of fruit.
Thank you for your help. It is very appreciated. This forum is very appreciated.
Take care,
Oh, definitely the fruit! When I treat myself to a piece of fruit after my lunch, I am starving by the time I get back to the office. When I don't eat the fruit at lunch, I don't even think about food for 3 or 4 hours. but damn, I love fruit!
Sue
Sue
Diagnosed November 2004, Used Asacol and Lialda, sometimes worked, sometimes made it worse. Entocort always works but hate it. Remission only lasts 3-6 months and then back on Entocort. Enterolab test July 2017, now gluten free. Time will tell!
Thank you for the welcome Erica. I agree that it will take some time to adjust to the Elimination diet and I am eating more meat in one day then ever before. Bone broth is something that I've never had. The only soup I've ever made is butternut squash or cauliflower soup. How many Cornish hens do you use to what amount of water?
Well I did it. Got through the first week of the Elimination Diet. I never thought I would have so much trouble keeping in enough chicken and ground turkey in the house. I've been eating 24 oz of lean protein at 3 meals adding basmati rice or potato, banana and apple sauce.
I believe the D has improved. I am having less trips to the bathroom and not the mostly water that had become my new normal. One of my symptoms was a feeling of liquid gushing through my body on my front left hip area. I noticed this week that I felt it less often.
I am really hoping that I get back to "norman" one day. If my D after 2 weeks on the E diet are still improved but mostly mushy do I do another week? Dying to have coffee with milk so milk will be my first add back.
Also are there food sensitivities to sugar? I would love to be able to add it to my coffee.
If you are not taking budesonide to "artificially" suppress the symptoms, it usually takes a while for the elimination diet to heal the intestines enough to completely stop the symptoms. You will have good days and bad days, but the bad days will become fewer and farther between as you heal. Some people see dramatic results within a few days but most of us require several months and many need about six months to reach remission. A few take a year or more to recover. It took me about a year and a half to be able to add back some foods, but back in those days very few people realized that food had anything to do with the inflammation, so I had to figure it out myself.
It took me about a year and a half on the GF diet before I figured out which other foods I needed to eliminate, and after I eliminated them, I reached remission in about two weeks. But as I mentioned, it took about a year and a half of healing before I was able to add back any foods (I was able to add back corn and dairy), but I discovered a few years later that I was producing antibodies to dairy, so I had to cut it back out — it causes me to have osteoporosis).
We lose much of our ability to digest carbs/sugars when MC is active. Sugar does not cause our immune system to produce antibodies — if we consume too much, the excess simply passes through the small intestine undigested, so that it is fermented by bacteria in the colon, causing gas, bloating, and diarrhea. The small amount in your coffee should not be a problem unless you are already consuming as much sugar as you can digest.
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.
If we have gotten to the point that we want to gnaw on our arms that's pretty serious, lol, and I have been to that point!