Report from a Newbie

[Guest guest]

I started SCD on July 20th, the diet, that is. I have gotten worse

and worse over 27 years with IBS, leaky gut, malabsorbtion,

hypothyroid, andrenal insufficiency, fibromyalgia, hypglycemia and

maybe I've left one or two out. The last couple of years really

haven't been worth living as I haven't had even a bit of a life. But

sometime in July I discovered a book by Dr Mark Pimentel called

something like " A New Answer for IBS " (not sure exactly what as the

book is on loan to my doctor at the moment), in which he said that

the cause of IBS (and I think UC, IDB etc) was... you guessed it...

and overgrowth of bad gut bacteria. He has treated patients for

years with massive antibiotics to get rid of the baddies and then

repopulate with good bacteria. I ran it by my doc, who said it sure

should work but he would questions whether the best approach was this

massive kill of all bacteria, said with this approach it might be a

heck of a problem to get the good ones back. He suggested I try

massive good bacteria instead. I thought, fine, this is more my

approach anyhow as I have a terrible time with most medicines. About

this time a friend reminded me of BTVC, which in fact I had had a

copy of 20 years ago and thought it was promising but at that time

there was not one thing in the way of protein I could eat and I knew

I couldn't hack it with just fruits and veggies for a couple of

years. I ordered an up-to-date copy of the book.

And discovered rapidly that in my 27 years of trials and errors I had

hit upon the SCD diet except for rice, which the IBS people insist

needs to be the basis for calming IBS down. I guess it works for some

people but it clearly hadn't for me. So, since I hate rice anyhow

(especially three times a day forever) I dumped rice right now. I

mostly eat fruits and veggies, lean chicken breast, and olive oil. I

was eating almond butter but once I dumped rice I could see that the

almond butter was responsible for horrible headaches and feeling

quite ill so I dumped that. The interesting thing also was that every

food that I tried and didn't quite work, now I understand why it

didn't. All this feels very comfortable to me, like absolutely the

right thing to do.

Within just a few days, suddenly I felt better! Not normal, probably

not even quite sub-human, still had most of my problems but the

underlying feeling of being deathly ill no matter what else happened

was much lessened. Naturally this was very encouraging. Gut troubles

got milder, too.

But, no way could I eat DCCC or eggs, or yoghurt. I won't be

surprised if I never can, knowing how long I've been allergic to so

many things, so I have been feeling my way and testing things that I

could use for Intro Days. Then last week after a crown prep I had a

hideous reaction of a mouth full of canker sores, jaw and teeth pain,

etc. I could hardly open my mouth to spoon in a little pureed soup

and my Welch's grape juice gelatin, and so I said to myself, " Aha!

I'm at Intro. " I was on my intro for three days before Monday

happened and I could call the dentist who had my come in to get the

sores burned out with sulphuric acid. It sure helped but I will pass

over how sulphuric acid feels on raw mouth sores! (It's probably

easier for normal people who can let them use the topical anesthetic

but I am allergic to the whole -caine family so I can't.)

About two weeks ago I had my first big detox. It lasted six days and

I went through the whole set of " flu " type symptoms except nausea

never progressed beyond that. After the sixth and last day (spent in

the bathroom), I had a Very Good Day. Unfortunately then this dental

pain episode began so I don't know how it would have been otherwise.

Yesterday I had another horrible pain day because I got behind on my

pain meds (for the fibro, arthritis, old age, and some spinal problem

I need to get an MRI scheduled for to see if there's anything really

wrong or just the above problems).

So, I have sure had a lot of ups and downs this past couple of weeks,

mostly downs, really, but.... underneath all that: my gut is much

calmer. Possibly calmer and more normal than it's ever been in my life.

I could use suggestions for calories. I am losing weight like mad,

fine so far but I don't want to lose another ten pounds. I'd like to

be down a bit so I can look forward to baking some day, but you know

what I mean.

I am fine with:

soup, pureed or not

onions, zucchini, carrots, celery, mostly cooked because the mouth is

still very tender but I think they will be OK raw soon. I have never

had trouble with seeds or peels or anything like that but of course I

will ease back into that, not jump in with everything.

apples, pears, bananas, grapes, papayas, mangos, are all fine. Raw

apple (peeled for now) is fine. I'm not peeling grapes!

chicken breast - I cannot just eat a ton of protein. I've never

gotten along with large amounts of it though I'm trying to sneak a

bit more in as I go.

olive oil

I am of course putting olive oil in my soups and on cooked

veggies. I'm fine with our home-grown lettuce, using olive oil and a

bit of legal mustard for " dressing " as I don't dare try lemon juice

again until the mouth is all healed.

I think I will be fine with most fruits and veggies raw again quite

soon. This is what I'm used to eating. But I'm being careful.

I am at this moment drying zucchini noodles in the oven for tonight's treat.

I was thinking of trying a butternut squash. Does that sounds

reasonable for someone who doesn't have trouble with fruits and

veggies? (Of course, I would never sit like DH does and eat stone

fruits by the ton, I'm not THAT dumb!)

I should be getting my LDN in the mail any day but will wait til

things calm down a bit before starting. Oh, with all the sleep loss

over the big pain episodes, I'm fighting a cold right now and I

wouldn't want to start LDN then.

Thanks,

IBS, Leaky Gut, malabsorption, hypoglycemia, hypothyroid, adrenal

insufficiency, fibromyalgia....