I'm posting this to hopefully be an encouragement for those who are flaring and thinking they'll never be "normal" again; and also for myself so that I can look back in the future and remember what happened.
I just came out of the longest flare I've experienced to date. This flare started February of 2017, and I immediately went off gluten, which has brought remission in the past. However, this time just going off gluten was not enough. After a few months of half heartedly trying to go off gluten and dairy, then gluten and eggs, etc. I finally went "whole hog" and went off gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, fiber, etc...the diet that's in the "guidelines to recovery" thread.
Since I didn't start on the serious diet till October, it took me several months to get the flare to stop. In the meantime, in December, I also had the Enterolab test done, and I discovered that chicken (of all things!!) was causing me to flare as well. So in January, I finally figured out that I needed to stop eating chicken (along with everything else I was still avoiding) and the flare finally stopped. I was afraid to even try any of the triggers for a couple of months after the flare stopped, so I didn't start reintroducing foods till March (after the retirement cruise for my husband, which we'd scheduled years in advance for February 2018). Fast forward a little bit to today. I'm still "normal" and am only avoiding gluten at this point. I feel like I've got my life back again, although, every time I feel like I have to go to the bathroom, I worry that it's going to be D! I'm still a little gun shy about eating chicken, but I've successfully reintroduced everything else with no adverse effects. I do know that I will never eat gluten again. And no NSAIDS, of course, because that was my problem to begin with.
I have to say that I also think supplements were causing me problems. In the early days of the strict diet, I went off all supplements except D3. I tried adding magnesium in a couple of months later, with horrible results. I also tried adding in Turmeric. Bad idea. So, to this day the only supplement I take is D3. I also soaked my feet in epsom salts a lot, but now that I eat broccoli and raspberries and other magnesium rich foods on a regular basis, I think that's a better way to get magnesium. Epsom salts do help my neuroma (numbness in my foot).
So there it is. So happy that the flare is finally gone for now, and praying that things will stay well.
Feeling good :)
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arizwldcat
- Little Blue Penguin
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Feeling good :)
Kris
Good update Kris!
Keep it up ;-)
It's always good to hear success stories no matter how long one has been a part of this forum, or how healed one gets
Keep it up ;-)
It's always good to hear success stories no matter how long one has been a part of this forum, or how healed one gets
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
Dx LC April 2012 had symptoms since Aug 2007
Good for you, Kris. And good point about the supplements. I agree that it helps to stop taking them — especially if the diet doesn't seem to be getting results. If you stay away from gluten and NSAIDs permanently this time there's a very good chance that you may be able to stay in remission without any setbacks.
Thanks for sharing.
Tex
Thanks for sharing.
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.
