Newly Diagnosed

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AliciaM
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Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 3:52 pm

Newly Diagnosed

Post by AliciaM »

Hello,

I’m so thankful to have found this forum.I’ve been reading it all week and just started the book. I was diagnosed with lymphocytic colitis 2 weeks ago. It was a long road to get the diagnosis. One week I just got sick with the D. I thought it was the flu but it never went away. I tried eating the BRAT diet but it got worse. I had joint pain and nausea. I got so dehydrated I ended up getting an IV in the ER. I thought maybe I was going to die soon or had a very bad sickness. Colitis and Crohns runs in my family so I figured those were possibilities.

I had to wait a month to get an appt with a GI doctor. I wanted to heal so I read Dahlman’s book “Why Doesn’t my Doctor Know This?” I took his advice to cut dairy and gluten. After cutting gluten I started to feel better. The D slowed down. I ate only bland foods that didn’t make me sick. A month after seeing a GI doctor, I had an endoscopy and colonoscopy, and got the call from the nurse that I have lymphocytic colitis. I received no explanation, just that I needed to take 9mg of budesonide a day.

I held off a week on taking the pills. I don’t like taking drugs unless absolutely necessary, and I thought I was healing so well beforehand. Usually 1-2 BM per day and getting more formed. 3 days ago I decided to try the budesonide and see what would happen. I didn’t notice much difference in BM, but by Day 2 I was feeling extremely fatigued and foggy, beyond normal for me. I realized it was probably a side effect. Today (Day 4) I decided not to take the budesonide. Still felt tired and groggy all day, but I suppose it’s still in my system. From this point on, I’m going to try to handle this with diet only.

My safe food items are: white rice, chicken broth, chicken, white fish, salmon, hard boiled eggs, gluten free pasta, peanut butter (small amounts), strawberries, blueberries, mangos, melons, (small amounts on fruit), zucchini, cucumbers (no peels).

My not safe foods: ground beef, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, salad, anything with gluten

There are many unknowns at this time, and I hope to test potatoes again eventually among other foods. I need more ideas for safe foods. I realize we all have different tolerances on foods. Just curious what other people in the healing stage stick to. Also, does anyone find digestive enzymes helpful? I’ve been taking them usually once a day after dinner.

I just wanted to introduce myself and say thank you to everyone for sharing their story on this board!
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Gabes-Apg
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Post by Gabes-Apg »

Welcome!!!

If you read through the posts in the member success stories area you will see some indicators of what other ate/avoided etc.


As per the info in the guidelines to recovery area of the forum, stage 1 eating plan, we encourage people to find the proteins and veges that settle best for them and stick with that bland small amount of ingredients as long as you can,
What each person has depends on their location, what is readily available, what suits their cooking style etc, and most of all, that doesn't cause symptoms.

Hope this helps.
Gabes Ryan

"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
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Erica P-G
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Post by Erica P-G »

I just want to welcome you Alicia :smile:

It sounds like you have gained mountains of information regarding yourself and are many steps ahead of most of us when we got our diagnosis :wink:

All I can add is perhaps the Enterolab testing A1 C1 would pin point the absolutes to stay away from, that way you can get really good healing under your belt so you can begin the process of adding something in and trying to lightly expand your food list.
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
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tex
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Post by tex »

Hello Alicia,

Welcome to the group. As the other's have said, it sounds as though you're making good progress.

Finding additional safe foods sometimes requires some ingenuity, and it's best not to do much experimentation with trying to find additional safe foods until we're in stable remission. That said, if you feel that you need additional foods, the protein is relatively easy. Virtually any uncommon or wild-type meat is safe. Examples are lamb, turkey, venison, quail, pheasant, duck, goose, rabbit, alligator, emu, etc. But don't try bison because these days virtually all bison have some domestic cattle DNA due to cross-breeding. I don't know if that's true for water buffalo or not, but you probably won't find any water buffalo meat for sale in this country, anyway.

For potato substitutes you might try cauliflower or plantain.

I hope this is helpful.

Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex
:cowboy:

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.
nhotch
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Post by nhotch »

Hi Alicia

I have been in recovery since December 2017. When I first started my recovery. I would make sure I ate some type of meat protein for all three meals, What I mainly started eating (still do) was in the morning a banana, coconut milk with rice chex cereal and to get my morning protien I would also have bacon or ham. Lunch I would eat lays potatoe chips and a gf beef stick, For supper I would eat an organic bison patty or beef roast (always make sure the meat is fresh or frozen before cooking) with lays potatoe chips or sweet potatoe fries. I drink organic carrot juice with my supper that I make for myself. I also drink at least 64 oz of water a day. For snacks I find I can eat Jennies coconut macaroons (they are gluten, dairy, sulfite, soy, yeast & lactose free) cashew or sunflower butter on rice cakes or just have a spoonful of one or the other (helps my sweet tooth problem). The one thing I can no longer eat is chocolate. As long as I stick with the above diet I have had no flareups and my stomach feels great. I have one to two bm's a day and they are well formed stools. I plan on continuing this diet for another 5 months and hopefully by then my stomach will be almost healed and I can vary my diet some then. I also take Vit D3, magnesium glycinate and p-5-p twice a day ( with a.m and p.m meals). My energy level is high also so I must be doing something right. I have also gained my weight back that I lost too.

Take Care
Nancy
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AliciaM
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Post by AliciaM »

Thank you everyone for the friendly welcome and responses. I will check out the success stories more and possible the testing although I think I’d be fine with elimination testing once I get more recovered. I do feel everyday I’m getting better.

Tex, thanks for the ideas about the wild game. I love turkey, so I’ll try to see about finding some locally.. Are lunch meats considered safe or not? I would buy organic.

Nancy, thanks for the ideas. Rice Chex and rice cakes are good ideas for snacks. I do make my rice with coconut milk. I also cannot do bananas, and afraid to retry them for now because of how sick I got the past few times I ate them. I have tried a tiny bit of chocolate with no bad reactions but staying away from sweets mostly.

And I greatly miss coffee. Maybe I can do decaf one day.

Thank you!
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tex
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Post by tex »

Boars Head lunch meats are the only ones we have experience with, and they are safe. Many brands may contain undesirable chemicals, preservatives, or other ingredients. Be sure to ask them to clean the slicing blade though, in case they have been previously slicing something that's off limits for you.

Tex
:cowboy:

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.
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