newbie here

[Guest guest]

I'm brand new to this board and SCD. Just started last Wednesday, April 21,

2010. I'm grateful to find this group. I apologize for the length of this

message.

I have been dealing with ongoing and escalating symptoms for years, but remained

undiagnosed. Over the years, I've moved a lot, so I've had access to various

doctors. Even though I've presented with symptoms to multiple doctors, no one

has ever said to do anything other than stop stressing, eat more fiber, and

drink more water. A couple suggested medications, but I never followed through.

(No insurance during that time was a huge factor in that decision.) I really was

clueless and remained kind of disconnected, never putting all my symptoms

together and my idea of a " healthy " diet was eating lots of complex carbs with a

little bit of meat, if any, and not much fat. I was diagnosed with lupus in

1991, but I've been in remission for 15 years following 2 years of acupuncture

and lots of self-care. I have psoriasis, too, but am lucky that it's isolated to

one area right now. Overall, I'm pretty healthy and don't take any maintenance

meds for anything else, so I consider myself to be very lucky.

But then… right after Thanksgiving, I decided to lose a few pounds and try to

get my stomach problems in order (which in my mind surely must have been caused

by eating too much), so I joined a popular weight loss group, admittedly in a

moment of insanity. I started eating more low-fat foods and " franken " cheeses,

etc., lots of diet foods. Of course, my symptoms escalated, but I was still

clueless. I went to my newly selected Nurse Practitioner for the symptoms and

she told me to increase my fiber and to do it by drinking a commercial powdered

fiber mix. I decided that if I was going to eat a high fiber diet, that I should

do it with foods instead of a powdered mix, so I went totally vegan and starting

eating soy yogurt and cheeses and meat subs, high fiber grains and brown rice,

pistachios, etc., getting 35 to 40g fiber per day. As you already know, I got so

much worse and although my life was already so small because of my need to be in

the bathroom all the time. I became basically isolated, having 12-14 episodes of

explosive diarrhea per day. I still didn't make the connection to my diet

because my NP kept saying to eat more fiber. I've missed several days of work

since January 5, usually two or three days at a time. During my last sick leave,

my NP finally ordered blood work to check for celiac (maybe Crohn's? is that

detectable through blood test?) and fecal tests to check for bacteria. I was

dehydrated so the blood draw took forever. The NP still didn't suggest any

dietary changes. My blood work and fecal tests all came back normal, and on the

paperwork, it basically said you're normal so don't come back.

Thank goodness a co-worker figured out that I was having a problem. She quietly

left BTVC plus a couple of other books on my desk, but BTVC was the one that

made the most sense to me. The next day, I started SCD and even in this short

period of time, I feel so much better. I'm still struggling with the mental

shift from vegan to carnivore, but hey, I'm highly motivated. (I'm mourning some

of my fave foods.) My biggest concern is that I'm still undiagnosed. Even though

I've already seen improvement, I'm scared that my self-diagnosis is wrong. My

question is… is there anyone else who remains undiagnosed? I don't have a lot of

faith in the medical profession about this disease anyway, but still, I'd like

to know what is really wrong. Looking back, I've been dealing with this in

various stages since I was 14 or 15 and my Mom also had the exact same problems,

which were also undiagnosed. Thanks for listening/reading. I'll be lurking

around the board reading as much as I can.