Advice needed, starting over at square one

[AngelaCamille]

Hello,

I was a member of this page years ago when it was potty people.com. I was diagnosed LC in 2012 after a divorce, becoming a single mom of a 12 month old, and a horrible stomach bug. I also over-did nsaids. The info on potty people helped put me in remission and for the past 5 years I lived relatively freely. I still ate gf/df and organic. I ate a little soy and eggs and mostly whatever I wanted. I had to quit coffee because 1 sip sent me running to the toilet.
So summer of 2019 I had a colonoscopy and barium study to try to find the cause of new stomach pains. The only thing they found was my LC. That bout of stomach pain and I was ok again until we moved to Costa Rica September 2020. I started to have d here and there. I didn't worry too much anout it but we did put a water filter on the house, 2 actually. By December it was pretty frequent so I was tested for parasites. None were found but they gave me a dose of treatment in case. I have been in a constant flare sine New Years Eve now. I got some relief doing low fodmap. I mistakenly ate gf df pizza 2 nights ago with a small amount of pepperoni and it kept me up with WD all night and into the next day. Yesterday as I was desperate for help I finally remembered this page! Total brain fog i guess. So I fasted for 24 hours. My first meal was well cooked rice with salt. My next 2 meals were the same with carrot well cooked into it. I am roasting a chicken now with just salt and olive oil. I will take the chicken off and boil the carcass for bone broth and plan to eat bone broth with rice, chicken and carrots for the foreseeable future. I also plan to visit an immunologist and a holistic psychologist (lots of stress this year). My questions are: can I try squeezing lime in my water? When can I try green bananas? I moved here and want to enjoy the fruit. Also I found colloidal magnesium here. It is hard to get the same supplements we had in the states.. Could I try taking it in this highly inflamed state or should I wait? Should I try a little ACV?
I am so happy you all are here. I poured over the suggested treatments and meal plans and success stories yesterday. So much great information and I hope today is day 1 of healing. Oh I have also started a food journal and more vit D.
I appreciate having you all to go through this with!

[tex]

Hello Angela,

Welcome back, although I'm sorry you needed to come back. I'll try to answer your questions if I can remember them. It's difficult to pinpoint what your problems might be, because excessive stress can trigger MC, and so can a lot of other things. You might even be reacting to the water. The surest way to get back to remission and stay there would be to order the EnteroLab tests. But you can also do it by trial and error, since you're already gluten-free, if you pay close attention to your journal, although it may take longer.

As far as lime is concerned, most of us react to citric acid, when we're in a flare, but you might be able to tolerate a very small amount, as long as you don't overdo it. Bananas should be safe, as long as you don't overdo it, but if you seem to be reacting to them, that suggests that you might be having histamine problems. If you are, it might pay to read the section on histamine issues.

It also means that you would have to eat potentially high histamine foods such as chicken and fish, only when they're very fresh (or fresh frozen). Otherwise they have to be stored in the freezer, not in the refrigerator. Histamine continues to increase in foods at refrigerator temperatures. Barely-ripe bananas are medium histamine level food, but ripe bananas are a high histamine food. That also applies to bone broth made from chicken. It would need to be divided into individual servings, and frozen (in Ziploc bags), not stored in the refrigerator. Turkey is much safer than chicken, and it doesn't have the histamine problem. So if you're able to recover eating chicken and rice, then those foods might be safe for you. If you continue to react, you might be sensitive to either the chicken or the rice, in which case you would probably save a lot of time and misery by ordering the EnteroLab tests.

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

I hope this helps,

Tex

[AngelaCamille]

Thank you so much Tex!
I will try to get the EnteroLab test. Not sure if I can get that here in Costa Rica. If the chicken and rice doesn't help, I will try turkey. They sell ground quinoa here to, it is like thin flakes of quinoa that are popular in Peru. Would that be a good swap for rice? I will freeze my chicken and brith portions like you said, and I will check out the histamine info. I will wait a few days before trying bananas.
Thank you so much for all of your info on these forums!

[tex]

You should be able to get the test kit delivered to Costa Rica without any problems. Quinoa is a safe substitute for rice, but it's a mighty bland food, in my opinion. You're probably a much better cook than I am, though. Make sure it's labeled gluten-free, or kosher, because those are safe. Years ago, it was often cross-contaminated with gluten, but there probably aren't many brands left with that problem, these days.

Tex

[AngelaCamille]

Thank you so much Tex!

The quinoa glakes are gf and kosher, and have no other ingredients so I had them this morning. I actually haven't pooped since the day before yesterday, so that is interesting.

My other questions are:
Should I take apple cider vinegar?
Can I take oral colloidal magnesium or wait until more healed?
Is cinnamon ok in stage one eating?

Thank you a million times for your help! I am a reiki master and I am sendi g you and this entire board healing reiki energy

[tex]

There's really no reason to take apple cider vinegar. Some people take it to supplement stomach acid, but the pH of ACV is only about 4.5, and the pH of gastric acid is about 1-1/2 to 2-1/2, so the ACV provides little benefit for assisting digestion. Taking Betaine HCL is much more effective, for someone who's deficient of stomach acid.

I'm not aware of any evidence that shows that colloidal magnesium is any better than any other form. Consequently, I'm not familiar with it. The form of oral nagnesium that we've found to work the best for us is magnesium glycinate (chelated magnesium). We all react differently, so I can't predict whether or not you would be able to tolerate it during recovery. That would depend on the dose, and your sensitivity to it.

A small amount of cinnamon might be safe, but I wouldn't overdo it.

Tex

[AngelaCamille]

Great, thank you Tex! The colloidal magnesium is something a holistic Dr. here had. I haven't been able to find other good types here yet. U will wait until I am more healed to try it.

[Gabes-Apg]

i buy alot of my vitamins online from i-herb
they deliver internationally and cost wise are cheaper than retail here in Australia.

there are very good GF, SF brands available.
if you cant find reliable products in costa rica then see if iherb delivers to costa rica