MRT and symptom update

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:36 am

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I posted about my MRT test so I thought I would give an update.

Let me start off by saying that I am convinced the MRT is accurate and helpful, IF it is closely followed. Of course, that is the hard part. Right now I am having one, sometimes two, formed stools per day. Every now and then my stools are a bit looser but I am still testing foods. I am not experiencing GERD or symptoms of oral allergy. I am hoping this lasts and means I am going into remission.

I had contacted that doctor at Harvard because I am convinced I have mast cell issues and he ordered 4 tests to be done when I am symptomatic - I haven't been able to do the tests because I am not symptomatic. I may get symptomatic right before my period - that seems to be a trigger, so I will have to wait and see. I am not willing to induce symptoms for the sake of testing. I did have a few minor bouts of tachycardia but it went away. I believe I have POTS (orthostatic tachycardia), which originally developed after my flu shot but went away. If I sit and drink lots of water and possibly a salty snack - the tachy goes away. Over the last 2 months I had 2 viruses that impeded progress a bit. The second one occurred at the end of August and may have been H1N1, but not sure. I did have GI symptoms with both viruses.

Here are the foods I am tolerating:

Fruits: grapefruit, banana, kiwi are the best. I can have small amounts of orange/clementine, lemon, lime, avocado, or honeydew. Berries don't cause D but I get bad upper GI symptoms from them. The FODMAP diet really helped in this category.

Veg: potato, carrot, yellow squash, bok choy, green onion, rapini, zucchini, winter squash and celery are the best. I can have small amounts of red bell peppers, sweet potato, eggplant, cucumber, corn and garlic. I need to re-test green beans - not sure about them.

Grains: rice, corn, quinoa, oats, buckwheat, and probably sorghum.

Meats/Protein: Lamb, chicken, pork, walnuts, pecans and occasionally beef, egg, sunflower seeds. I am avoiding seafood for a variety of reasons. Lentils didn't cause any problems other than too much fiber, so I am avoiding for now.

Coffe is OK (black - nothing in it - gave up rice milk as I like coffee better without it). Tea occasionally gives me upper GI symptoms so I am avoiding it. Olive, sunflower and canola oils are OK, but I mostly use olive. I can also tolerate Earth Balance soy free margarine but don't use it very much. We went out to dinner and I had a vodka with a splash of grapefruit and it's fine - totally gave up wine and other liquor, but I will try a margarita next time we go out for Mexican (without added sugar of course)

I can have fresh herbs, ginger, cumin, sea salt, and vanilla. I am avoiding yeast, spicy seasonings, sugar substitutes, food colorings/preservatives etc, chocolate and cane sugar for the most part (I do have muffins or cupcakes made from the Betty Crocker vanilla mix every now and then and these seem to be fine).

Yesterdays's menu:

Breakfast: Whole Foods 365 pork sausage (no nitrites) and sauteed zucchini/yellow squash, and black coffee

Lunch: 2 chicken fajitas (grilled chicken, sauteed red bell pepper, small amount of guacamole and corn tortillas) and a vanilla cupcake - we went to a birthday party (Betty Crocker GF yellow cake mix with Cherrybrook Kitchen vanilla frosting)

Snack: grapefruit

Dinner: Rice pasta with mild Italian chicken sausage (Coleman's - yummy and nitrite free), olive oil, garlic and rapini

Snack: kiwi

I am taking some supplements because I am not healed yet and my diet is still limited: I am taking a MVM for women over 50, fish oil, probiotic, calcium with added D, magnesium. I tend to feel better on days I exercise, so I am working hard at fitting that in as much as possible.

Mary Beth

JLH · Post by **JLH** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:14 am

Sounds good. Interesting that you can tolerate grapefruit better than oranges. I really miss oj. You can certainly eat a whole lot more than I.

I'm going to read up on the MRT test..........

JLH · Post by **JLH** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:16 am

I presume that you aren't taking any statin drugs because one can't have grapefruit with them.

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:27 am

Joan,

No statins, no drugs other than supplements . . . I'd like to kep it that way for as long as possible.

Mary Beth

Post by **tex** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:57 pm

Mary Beth,

You've apparently been pretty busy with all of this, but it seems to be showing good results.

Another member, Tessa, has been diagnosed with POTS. She seems to have a rather severe case of it.

Mary Beth wrote:If I sit and drink lots of water and possibly a salty snack - the tachy goes away.

That makes a lot of sense, since you probably have hypovolemia, if you have POTS.

I hope the good results continue.

Thanks for the update,
Tex

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:48 pm

My POTS was much worse initially. I was never formally diagnosed, only to say I had "autonomic instability". I read online how to deal with it and it seems to help. Right now I am having much milder tachy. Not sure why it's resurfacing now. Fix one thing and another thing goes wrong. Sigh.

Mary Beth