News about my mother's MC problems

[moremuscle]

Hi all,

A little while ago I told you I needed you all to cross all fingers for my mother; she was just about to take the leap and become dairy free - she has been gluten free for 15 yeears but she is still symptomatic..........

Well, I spoke to her yesterday and she has DONE it, she is dairy free now, WOW!! She says she feels better but although she isn't as direct about talking about these things as we are here in the Forum I still managed to get her to say directly that she still has diarrhea. Sigh!!

I feel like I am such and expert with my diet now but my mother doesn't listen to her daughter!! It's difficult to give her advise w/o being rejected so I have to go ever so easy on her. If I can make her think it was her own idea it works much better.

She told me that she has started eating a hummus with her potatoes - I asked about the ingredients. She said she didn't know - so there you have it!! Gotta KNOW those things, Mom. OK, so I told her that often if the hummus is middle eastern it will contain yogurt (dairy) - and hummus often has lemon (she is citrus intolerant). I urged her to either start making her own hummus or buy one that has an ingredient list on it so she can be sure it is w/o her triggers. I think she agrees on this issue. It is tough, isn't it!!

Her doctor has told her to take vitamins twice per day in order to make sure she gets suffiecient nutrition. His advise is based on the fact that she has diarrhea. If it weren't for the fact that most supplements contain triggers that gives us MCers with multiple intolerances diarrhea the advise would make a lot of sense. However, I think I managed to make my mother understand my point: That the vitamins may in fact be one of the triggers for her diarrhea. If she quits the vitamins and the hummus she might end up changing her life!!! Wow, think about it - 15 years with diarrhea and she isn't even on anti depressants. I would LOVE to see the diarrhea clear up.

I can't wait to call her in a week or so and ask if she has noticed a change after quitting the vitamins.

My mother is not connected to the internet - she doesn't have the kind of help and support that I have (YOU, my friends). She is obviously not getting anywhere with her doctor(s). She is the kind of person who will do what the doctor says - that's why she keeps taking the vitamins; she doesn't experiment much with her diet - she doesn't think my opinion counts for much (in her view I am in many ways as crazy as my dad) - the only reason she listens just a little bit to what I say is that I have my diarrhea under control; perhaps she could learn a thing or two.........

I am very excited that I finally convinced her to try to be dairy free. She has claimed over and over again that she doesn't have a problem with dairy. Now, finally she says she obviously has a problem with dairy. I hope she sticks to her guns now.

I had to share this with you.

Via my diagnosis my mother is finally getting some help to understand and to handle her situation - she is not Celiac, she has MC and she is intolerant of many different proteins, just like me and many of you.

Love,
Karen

[hazel]

Good for your Mom, Karen. I can't believe she's been having this 15 years and hasn't torn out her hair or something worse. I really hope this will be the thing that changes it for her. And good for you, being patient!


for Mom!

[tex]

Karen,

Hey, it's good to see you back here again. We miss you when you're absent, and we really miss your support and insightl

Good work! You're right, it's extremely tough to convince parents, or many other family members, for that matter, to listen to you about health issues. For some reason, they're more inclined to listen to a stranger, than a family member, or even someone they've known all their lives. Sigh.

I hope she sticks to the course. I can't beleve she has put up with D for 15 years either. I had the problem for about 3 years, but it was so bad just before I started the diet, that I'm not sure I could have tolerated it for another 3 years, let alone 15.

You're a good daughter, and I'm glad that your patience and perseverence is finally beginning to pay off.

Love,
Wayne

[barbaranoela]

Karen---agree with Wayne's comments----

Very happy for U and mom---(yup,sometimes parents dont want to hear the advice from their children---they *hear* but it takes them time to apply the given advice!!!

Wellness to both of U--


Barbara

[annie oakley]

Hi Karen, Missed you! I am happy for your Mom.......I have given alot of dairy up and am thinking also of giving it all up, I hope your Mom feels better dairy free, I keep thinking that dairy has a LARGE effect on our systems. Let us know what happens will you? ANd don't stay away so long. Love Oma

[moremuscle]

Thank you again for your support -

I think the 15 years has been up and down; my mother has eliminated most processed food from her diet and the gluten has been eliminated for all of those 15 years so I think now that she has quit the dairy it should be just a few small steps and things will fall into place where her diet is concerned.

Oma, I encourage you to take the next step and eliminate all dairy; what can you loose? So many other things can take the place of the love we feel for dairy - fall in love with a different kind of food or a different kind of feeling of well being.

Love,
Karen

[Jean]

Karen,

I know what you're going through! I've tried a new tactic, I wrote a letter to my sister's doctor. I made it very scientific and sited Dr. Fine's site. I explained how I eliminated my symptoms, which are very similar to my sister's, with diet. I don't know yet if it will work, but I figure it can't hurt.

Love, Jean

[moremuscle]

Jean, you wrote a letter to your sister's doctor?!!
I suppose you haven't received a response from him/her?
I will be curious to hear what happens - most important is that your sister starts to move in direction of solving her problems. AS long as she keeps looking to her doctor for help and answers I am afraid she is not going to find much she can use.

I spoke to my mother again Saturday. I have very positive news and I am happy for the moment. In addition to now being dairy free and telling me that she is sure the dairy was worsening her symptoms she has stopped taking her supplements - she has been off the supplements for approximately a week now and she tells me that she can now control her BMs...........

As Polly has said so often: Happiness is a dry fart! Ain't that the pure and simple truth.

When you get such powerful results from your elimination trials you can't help sticking with them, can you? I think she is going to listen a little more to me now than she used to; but she is still looking to her doctor for more advise and wisdom. Why? The guy doesn't know that she has MC - he doesn't recognize diet as a means of controlling her symptoms. For 15 years he hasn't been able to help her and yet, she tells me she is asking him for advise - she says to me that she wants him to test her for the food intolerances I say she may be suffering from. I asked her as politely and patiently as I could why she wants to waste her time "dancing" with the doctor. Why? Does she expect him to change?

Well, I am very happy that her explosive diarrhea has stopped and perhaps she can now move forward with a diet that is better for her needs. I asked her to try to learn to listen to her body and really pay attention to what happens in the body - I told her it would be more important than listening to some more bad advise from her doctor

I can't help wondering if she will see an improvement in her arthritis if she gets her diet under control after all these years - it would be good if she could get some relief; it is mostly in her extremeties, the hands and the feet; swelling and locked joints. She has had a thyroid imbalance since she was 18 - she is now 68. All of these things are probably connected.

Thanks for listening, again.

Love,
Karen

[tex]

Hi Karen,

That's very impressive. Good for her.

You're right, of course. If dancing with the doctor for 15 hears didn't accomplish anything, it's time to find another dance partner. LOL.

I'm sure you're probably right about the thyroid and arthritis problems, too. I'll bet she will see some improvements, as her body continues to heal from cutting out the rest of the food intolreances.

Love,
Wayne

[starfire]

Wow, Karen!!! Good work and Good luck to your Mom. Mine won't listen to anything I say (she's 82) and she is going to do whatever she wants. She believes it is too late for her to "feel better".

Anyway, I know you are so happy and I hope your Mom will continue to heed your advice.

Love, Shirley

[celia]

Bravo for your Mom and for your patience and your persistence. Really give yourself some credit even if your Mom has totally come over your way yet. It is so wonderful when our food elimination efforts pay off. If you want, you can tell your mom that I had all the traditional allergy testing done and nothing turned up. I did have mild reactions to corn, mushrooms, bananas, coconut, and pecans----but nothing they consider a "real" allergy. Even the allergist himself said that the skin testing is not very reliable. Celia.

[moremuscle]

Good Morning,

Celia, I am sorry you had to go through all the skin tests; the experience from the Potty People is that they don't work on us as far as diagnosing our problems. My mother has already had many of those skin tests too; in the past - remember she has been dealing with the system for 15 years already.

Shirley, I laughed at your description of your mother - she isn't the least bit stubborn is she
Well, you on the other hand have come a long way and we are all very impressed with you!
Do you mind me asking if your mother is smoking at the age of 82? I read somewhere recently that longevity is more a matter of genetic predisposition than anything else. Many Centenarians have had very bad habits all their lives and yet they have outlived all their friends. I think that perhaps it is still wise for those of us with worse genes to try living a healthier life style in the hopes that some of all the modern life style diseases won't get us until much later in life. I am a little obsessed with this issue Kind of wouldn't mind getting to be older than my dad who passed at 60.

My mother has very good self dicipline when it comes to sticking with a diet - I have to compliment her for that. The only problem seems to be finding the right diet and she has been extremely stubborn about giving up dairy because her doctor says she doesn't have a problem with dairy. DUH! Unfortunately, she has a case of what the doctor says is always right. When she was 18 the doctors basically saved her life when they finally diagnosed her thyroid problem. She was suffering such ill effects from that that she was loosing her muscle and her hair - she was so weak she could no longer carry her bag to school; at the time she started taking the thyroid medication her condition improved fast and she was healthy and gave birth to 5 children - only around age 56 did the food intolerances and the diarrhea start. I think she believes in the doctors based on the fact that they saved her life. Can we blame her?

Love,
Karen

[starfire]

Bless her heart, Karen. I imagine she did/does put doctors on a pedestal. It's wonderful that she has the willpower to stick to a diet. You must have inherited it from her.

My Mom never smoked. You'd think I might have heeded that example but I didn't. Wish I had now.

MY Mom..........subborn.............If I knew a stronger word for stubborn, I'd use it!!

I'm afraid it runs in the family too!!

Love, Shirley

[Momster]

You Mother is lucky you have persevered with trying to help her.
Us Moms have a hard time listening to our children. We think because we are older we should know more that them, but in fact, we can learn from everyone else around us if we just open ourselves up to it.
Having said that, Peggy will tell you I sometimes drive her crazy and my Mother drove me crazy because she wouldn't listen either. Well, I'm trying to be more open to hearing what my knowledgeable girls have to say. They are pretty smart cookies and do have some good advice.

I'm happy to hear things are getting for your Mother - I hope someday she will see the light about her Doctor, but it's hard to change a person's way of thinking.

Good for you for working so hard with her.

Have a nice day - Momster

[moremuscle]

You ladies are clearly both very well aware of your own limitations as humans in relation to others be it your mothers or your daughters; we daughters may not always have the best way of giving advise and showing proper respect to our mothers

Love,
Karen