Genie75

All About Me

This is a long story, but describes my struggles with "eating". I have at times been said to have an "eating disorder", as my daily eating escapades are so complex as to baffle even the most tuned in person. Most of my family and friends, have sort of given up, and left me to my own vices. I am the healthiest and happiest when I feed myself. Although sometimes, even I myself mess that up also.

Approximately 10-12 years ago, I'm not sure exactly when, I started having chronic diarhea. To me, it seemed to happen over night. As a normal person would do I went to the doctor. I was told that I had IBS, and that she would send me for no testing because most people's tests come back negative and they usually have IBS. To be quite honest with you, at that point in time, I had no idea what tests she was referring to. I was not up to speed on digestive disorders, or the various different tests, or anything. All I wanted was information on how to eat to try and stop the diarhea.

From there, things actually got worse. I started reading and trying to help myself. I was very lost. Nothing I did help. I got worse. I had actually thrown up one night, after only eating a small amount of Chinese food. I had no alcohol whatsoever. I did not have food poisoning. It was very unusual. Went back to the doctor. It seemed to give her a moment of pause, but since I had only thrown up the once, she dismissed it. And let me tell you I avoided Chinese food for a long time after that, and I was suspicious that maybe it was because my bf's plates were not clean enough LOL

Things got worse. I developed a hiatal hernia. I had real bad heartburn. I did not go to the doctor. I did not know I had a hiatal hernia. I just tried to treat it myself with over the counter medications and a food diet I purchased on the Internet. The diet I purchased emphasized to eat very healthily, veggies, etc, and your own home-made bread. So I started adding in whole wheat home-baked bread to my diet, and much to my dismay got sicker. Now even drinking milk, would run right thru me. Everything I ate ran right thru me. I really was at a loss. This continued on for a while. My son was used to me taking off at the drop of a hat to look for a washroom, and constant bathroom breaks. I stopped going to jogging class when I had to detour into the bush, because I had to suddenly go. I was losing control of what seemed my whole life.

So I carried on this way for I do not know how long. It is all a blur. I did not keep a journal so I really do not remember. It was just more or less trying to get thru each day. I was very fortunate that I worked at a job where it did not matter when I took bathroom breaks, otherwise I would not have been able to work.

One night while attending a support group for an unrelated matter, I was complaining about my eating diffulties, and this one lady recommended Dr. DAhamos Eat Right For Your Blood Type. So I found out my blood type, and purchased the book. The blood type for type O was difficult, in that no glutens were allowed. Until I purchased that book, I had never heard of a gluten. I was overwhelmed by the diet, and I thought to myself, some more stuff to cut out of my diet. I had already cut milk out long time ago. It was very surprising. If I stuck to not eating glutens for a month or more, the diarhea actually went away. But as soon as I got better and it went away, I would start eating them again, thinking I was cured. And then shortly thereafter I would be sick again.

Based on that observation, my new doctor sent me to a GI to have a small bowel biopsy. They found a hiatal hernia, which was the cause of my nausea. As for the small bowel biopsy, it came out negative. I was disappointed with that cause I seemed to notice a correlation between eating glutens and being sick. I had asked my doctor how much gluten I had to eat before the test. She said to eat them for one or 2 weeks before. I did eat them, but I was scared to eat them. So I did not exactly eat a ton of glutens for the test.

I had the biopsy done twice, 2 years apart, and each time, negative for celiac.

I continued on with my pattern of not eating glutens, and then eating them when I was better. When I say that I would eat them after I was better, I am talking about very small minute amounts. They still made me sick.

In frustration, I called up the Celiac assocation of Canada, and told them that I get very sick when I eat glutens, but all my tests are always negative. Much to my surprise, she told me that I am a self-diagnosed Celiac. I had never heard of such a thing. She said that I had to eat glutens for anywhere from 6 weeks to 2 months to get a positive result on my tests. There was no way I could do that without getting very sick. So I am a self-diagnosed Celiac and have had to come to terms with the fact that I will never know for sure that I am a Celiac by having positive test results. That was difficult for me to accept. I went 100% gluten free now for the rest of my life, but there are still times I am in denial and am tempted to start eating them again, for the plain and simple reason that I do not have a positive test result for Celiac disease. However, all I have to do is remember how sick I was, and remind myself that I do not want to be sick again. It is not worth eating the glutens, only to be able to eat nothing for a long time till the diarhea stops.

Anways, there is more to the Story, but no more time to continue. Suffice it to say, my IBS got really bad. EAting gluten free no longer stopped the diarhea now, and my IBS was really bad. I finally found very delicate soluble fibres that work on my system, to stop the diarhea. I also developed a spasming colon in the left side. It flares up whenever I eat anything that is too much roughage like broccoli, etc. I follow Heather IBS diet for the soluble vs insoluble fibre. And although I have very different IBS triggers than Heather does. her underlying principle of ingesting soluble fibre first before anything else, makes a huge difference.

Will write more later. Will add Heather website address. Bye