About two weeks ago - shortly after my last post -, a sharp-ish pain developed in my lower back. Resting and applying heat seemed to help a little at first, but the pain is now constant and includes a burning sensation in my hips which radiates down my thighs. I cannot walk or stand for more than a minute or two without really intensifying the pain. That, along with some moderate stiffness has me in bed about 95% of the time where I work on projects (thank goodness for yarn and knitting needles!) when I can sit up, rising only when necessary to prepare food or use the bathroom. Yep, it blows. But I am still grateful to have my pain medication which does take the edge off, making this ordeal a little more bearable :)
My stomach itself remains pain-free, tho my guts have begun to ache and my lower abdomen is slightly swollen. This is confusing since the new foods I recently added to my diet are virtually starch-free and not highly acidic. A delayed reaction, perhaps? Hmmm... better get my lab coat on and do some iodine testing. In the meantime, I'll remove the new foods and see if the discomfort and swelling subsides.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Grateful
Day 79 of living starch-free. I can eat like a horse (and do..lol) without fear of unbearable pain. The only time the pain returns is when I've accidentally ingested something I shouldn't. I learned this the hard way with an over the counter ibuprofen. All in all, things are much improved. My energy levels are still low, as it is difficult to ingest enough carbohydrates on a starch-free diet to obtain the fuel I need to function well, and my weight has not gone back up despite ingesting mass quantities. Yet, I am grateful. It's so amazing how much we take for granted. Seemingly mundane things like the ability to eat or drink are things we don't seem to appreciate until they are taken from us.
Update 3
August 26, 2013.
Unable to eat solid foods, I resorted to putting beets and carrots in the blender and squeezing the pulp through paper towels to get a bit of juice to drink. But, as with everything else I had ingested in the last year, this too began to cause unbearable pain, and I was quickly back to where I had started nearly a year earlier. Weakened to the point that I could barely stand, and swimming in my clothing from a 15 lb loss in weight, I truly feared I may die before the handful of doctors I was working with could find the problem and fix it. In desperation, I turned to the internet in search of ways to heal stomach erosion. Site after site, article after article...they all said the same thing: Remove starch from your diet. There it was, on the screen of my laptop, the glimmer of hope I'd been seeking for the last 364 agonizing days. I spent the next several hours scouring the web for starch-free foods, and assembled a list of items that were already in the house.
August 27, 2013
After fasting on tea til the early afternoon to give my gut a reprieve, I began tentatively trying little bites of the foods from my list, and by that evening was chowing down on a plate of steak and mushrooms without any stomach pain whatsoever! I was so happy I cried!!
Update 2
August 27, 2012
A new set of symptoms popped up out of the blue. Severe stomach pain after eating, nausea and vomiting. For an entire year I visited emergency rooms, my primary doctor and GI specialists. They took blood, and urine....shoved tubes up my butt and down my throat...biopsied one end of my gut to the other.....pumped me full of radioactive dye and oral contrast and stuck me in multiple scanners. Celiac, H. Pylori, Diverticulitis and liver and gall bladder issues were ruled out. Erosion of the stomach lining and a benign polyp were the only concrete findings, though the cause remains unknown. Acid reducers, anti-nausea pills and pain medications did help in the beginning, but lost their effectiveness as time went on. Keeping a daily food diary and removing the foods that caused me the most pain gave me some hope of finding the irritant responsible, but by summer of 2013, I was eating only bananas, rice and apples. Things seemed pretty bleak, and by about mid August, I was no longer able to ingest any solid foods without worsening the pain.
A new set of symptoms popped up out of the blue. Severe stomach pain after eating, nausea and vomiting. For an entire year I visited emergency rooms, my primary doctor and GI specialists. They took blood, and urine....shoved tubes up my butt and down my throat...biopsied one end of my gut to the other.....pumped me full of radioactive dye and oral contrast and stuck me in multiple scanners. Celiac, H. Pylori, Diverticulitis and liver and gall bladder issues were ruled out. Erosion of the stomach lining and a benign polyp were the only concrete findings, though the cause remains unknown. Acid reducers, anti-nausea pills and pain medications did help in the beginning, but lost their effectiveness as time went on. Keeping a daily food diary and removing the foods that caused me the most pain gave me some hope of finding the irritant responsible, but by summer of 2013, I was eating only bananas, rice and apples. Things seemed pretty bleak, and by about mid August, I was no longer able to ingest any solid foods without worsening the pain.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Pancakes and pajamas
http://www.upworthy.com/a-4-year-old-girl-asked-a-lesbian-if-shes-a-boy-she-responded-the-awesomest-way-possible?g=2&c=upw9
This really hit home for me. Being ill and in a wheelchair, I get confronted with seemingly idiotic questions, comments and behavior every time I leave the house. I go out each time with my armour on, an arsenal of medical information and statistics on the tip of my tongue, ready to correct misconceptions and justify every action and decision my circumstances have led me to make. This woman's words have reminded me to have compassion for those who are stepping out of their comfortable space and facing their own fears by just approaching and talking to me...that it might even be the hardest thing they've had to do in a long time. Everyone wants understanding and acceptance, and it seems that my desire to receive those from others has blinded me to the simple fact that they too are seeking the very same thing. Time to put myself in their shoes and make those hard conversations a lot easier for everyone. Thanks, Ash Beckham....you've given me a lot to think about.
This really hit home for me. Being ill and in a wheelchair, I get confronted with seemingly idiotic questions, comments and behavior every time I leave the house. I go out each time with my armour on, an arsenal of medical information and statistics on the tip of my tongue, ready to correct misconceptions and justify every action and decision my circumstances have led me to make. This woman's words have reminded me to have compassion for those who are stepping out of their comfortable space and facing their own fears by just approaching and talking to me...that it might even be the hardest thing they've had to do in a long time. Everyone wants understanding and acceptance, and it seems that my desire to receive those from others has blinded me to the simple fact that they too are seeking the very same thing. Time to put myself in their shoes and make those hard conversations a lot easier for everyone. Thanks, Ash Beckham....you've given me a lot to think about.
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