Some of this blog is not pretty. If you have issues about reading about blood and bleeding you may not wish to continue.
Maybe someone else should read it for you.
From the scientific point of view it was interesting to say the least.
A few years before I had been diagnosed with hypertension with a little higher than normal blood pressure. The prescription was to start taking an acidophilus - probiotic, a baby aspirin, a multivitamin, Citracal (because it was determined I had low calcium content and low vitamin C), and later after a visit to the eye doctor I was also prescribed Ocuvite, which is a lutein food supplement which contains vitamins for your eyes because I have a slight degeneration in my macula, which is the surface in the back of the eye that light hits and you see with. You may recall learning about rods and cones, the macula is where they live.
Over the last few years I have learned a few more things about my health and have also learned some of the issues can be fixed, others managed, and some are going to simply stay that way.
I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. It sounds wicked. It can lead to colon cancer and having your insides cut out if you let it get away from you. The acidophilus prescription is to address diverticulitis but you need to know some things about acidophilus-probiotics. I will explain more down below.
And I was also told to start adding more fiber to my diet. So I now take quite a few pills, mostly food supplements and vitamins, daily.
And I also eat differently.
- First:
STOP DRINKING HIGH FRUCTOSE
CORN SYRUP PRODUCTS
Look at the label, read it.
CORN SYRUP PRODUCTS
Look at the label, read it.
You will notice some carbonated drinks now have pure sugar in them instead of high fructose corn syrup. I can only guess at why this change is taking place. My belief is people are becoming aware that high fructose content is bad for you and the companies that make these products are probably simply trying to keep selling to their marketplace. It really doesn't make sense to kill your customers.
Even carbonated water is a mild acid. There is some discussion now that acidifying the body helps cancer to start. So you want to keep that in mind. And don't confuse this kind of acidifying with acidophilus, they are two entirely different things.
Which brings me to one more health issue I was diagnosed with, Barrett's Esophagus. From what I have been able to briefly research on the internet, which is probably not the best information, Barrett's occurs from your body making a kind of adjustment to the portion of the esophagus that attaches to the stomach. It is a result of Gerd, acid reflux disease, which can arise from not eating well.
I love pizza. Don't we all. In some forms pizza is really good for you, but most of what we are regularly served, while it tastes great and it goes down easy, creates problems later on.
Pepperoni pizza with extra cheese please. I LOVE IT. But it is bad news. When you are done eating it your stomach has to digest it. Cheese is hard for your stomach to digest. So your stomach has to generate more acid to dissolve the cheese content.
Which brings me to one more health issue I was diagnosed with, Barrett's Esophagus. From what I have been able to briefly research on the internet, which is probably not the best information, Barrett's occurs from your body making a kind of adjustment to the portion of the esophagus that attaches to the stomach. It is a result of Gerd, acid reflux disease, which can arise from not eating well.
I love pizza. Don't we all. In some forms pizza is really good for you, but most of what we are regularly served, while it tastes great and it goes down easy, creates problems later on.
Pepperoni pizza with extra cheese please. I LOVE IT. But it is bad news. When you are done eating it your stomach has to digest it. Cheese is hard for your stomach to digest. So your stomach has to generate more acid to dissolve the cheese content.
Over the years I used to wake up about 2 or 3 am and go puke. Because, I was told by a physician later on, there was so much acid built up in my stomach it had to get rid of it.
She also told me to take baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, and water to help neutralize it. It tastes terrible, and it works but it is only addressing the issue. Over time you still create a problem for your poor stomach to deal with.
This concoction, while it takes care of the acid stomach, raises your blood pressure as well because of the sodium content. I can say if you find yourself with an acid stomach you can use this concoction, but over time you gotta stop it, and the over eating of pizza which is doing this to you.
If you are eating like this and your body is reacting like this you probably have Gerd and should probably go see a doctor and have an upper GI scoping done.
Which is when we found another issue of mine.
We found I had a small growth on my pancreas. The doctor explained that if this is pancreatic cancer, which is what Steve Jobs died from, it is serious and we need to keep an eye on it to decide what to do.
We kept scoping me, and sending me for CAT scans for about a year, and the growth didn't change any, plus I read somewhere that cat scans can lead to issues later on in life so I asked that we use X-rays instead, and now I am on a regular schedule, for the time being, to go back and have x-rays to make sure that growth isn't doing anything unusual.
She also told me to take baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, and water to help neutralize it. It tastes terrible, and it works but it is only addressing the issue. Over time you still create a problem for your poor stomach to deal with.
This concoction, while it takes care of the acid stomach, raises your blood pressure as well because of the sodium content. I can say if you find yourself with an acid stomach you can use this concoction, but over time you gotta stop it, and the over eating of pizza which is doing this to you.
If you are eating like this and your body is reacting like this you probably have Gerd and should probably go see a doctor and have an upper GI scoping done.
Which is when we found another issue of mine.
We found I had a small growth on my pancreas. The doctor explained that if this is pancreatic cancer, which is what Steve Jobs died from, it is serious and we need to keep an eye on it to decide what to do.
We kept scoping me, and sending me for CAT scans for about a year, and the growth didn't change any, plus I read somewhere that cat scans can lead to issues later on in life so I asked that we use X-rays instead, and now I am on a regular schedule, for the time being, to go back and have x-rays to make sure that growth isn't doing anything unusual.
So, growth on the pancreas, Barrett's Esophagus, IBS, fatty liver deposits, hypertension and I had some issues with my blood. That's a nice list of ailments.
The very first thing the doctors did was give me an injection of vitamins, a huge dose. I had a headache for a week. They said it was because I had been given such a high dose. That helped get my blood levels back to normal.
So far the little growth on the pancreas has turned out to be just that and nothing more.
Barretts Esophagus was suspect because when we did an upper GI scoping that part of the stomach and lower esophagus had a salmon pink coloration. It is something to be concerned with as it might mean I was pre-cancerous.
From what I have learned Barretts Esophagus occurs from too much acid reflux (too much cheesy oily pizza or similar types of foods that result in an acid stomach). The body starts to change the cells in that area to look more like cells of the upper intestine. My only guess is that the stomach and your body change the cell types there to better accommodate the eating disorder you have and by making this change it somehow helps.
The very first thing the doctors did was give me an injection of vitamins, a huge dose. I had a headache for a week. They said it was because I had been given such a high dose. That helped get my blood levels back to normal.
So far the little growth on the pancreas has turned out to be just that and nothing more.
Barretts Esophagus was suspect because when we did an upper GI scoping that part of the stomach and lower esophagus had a salmon pink coloration. It is something to be concerned with as it might mean I was pre-cancerous.
From what I have learned Barretts Esophagus occurs from too much acid reflux (too much cheesy oily pizza or similar types of foods that result in an acid stomach). The body starts to change the cells in that area to look more like cells of the upper intestine. My only guess is that the stomach and your body change the cell types there to better accommodate the eating disorder you have and by making this change it somehow helps.
All I can say about this is I have changed my diet.
I started eating honey. I had heard on the People's Pharmacy one morning about how sugar can be used to bandage cuts. It started me reading about honey. Honey is made up of 32 sugars. Good sugars. They are not processed sugar. Natural sugars.
Eating honey became important. And has changed the chemistry of my body. I can drink a soda now, but I can tell it isn't good for me, and I feel a little weird afterwards. So I tell myself that's my body telling me to stop drinking the stuff.
The fatty liver deposits... it is surmised by my doctors that has occurred because I tend to eat a high carbohydrate diet. Breads, crackers, cookies, foods with lots of doughy materials.
I am really not concerned about that as I have also recently learned that the liver is pretty resilient. So I am taking a little bit of a risk and hoping that by adjusting the rest of my diet, it will also help my liver.
The first colonoscopy is recommended I believe once you hit fifty. They did that. I had a couple polyps which are little growths in the intestine that kind of look like a miniature thumb sticking up. The doctor easily clipped those off (the first President Bush had them, not really an issue if you start eating well again), and this is when we found out I had diverticulitis.
Diverticulitis arrives in your life from eating too much cheese, or any food that makes you constipated, and so you squeeze really hard to move it out the exit.
It also gives you hemorrhoids, which are veins inside your rear exit that swell to try and help with the constipation.
Your body really tries hard to keep you alive.
The prescription for diverticulitis is don't eat foods that make you constipated. And to take an acidophilus-probiotic pill daily.
Your lower colon, when you are young, is a nice long round tube.
People from the east and south east of Asia don't have issues with this because their diets consist of a lot of fiber products.
Your colon, over time, changes shape, especially if you get constipated a lot. It is similar to developing a muscular physique, with none of the pretty looking side effects. What happens is the colon develops accordion-like folds, and these folds can trap and hold bad bacteria, which can eat away at the colon and give your scepticitis (your waste product starts to seep into your blood), and colon cancer.
Acidophilus-probiotic is the current way to manage this as it is a capsule with good bacteria in it that you eat and will help the colon keep the bad bacteria from getting out of hand.
HOWEVER, and I complained about this to my doctor, she is pretty fun by the way, I say that because I think we have good conversations, she wants me to be more informed.
The doctor didn't get into any detail about QUALITY of probiotics, and how much bacteria there can be between different brands.
So I started with an over the counter green labeled as healthy branded bottle from the local drug store.
But coupled with the IBS issue, what I was taking, I didn't realize until much later, wasn't making the grade.
That little green bottle looked good but the bacteria count is only a million, and THIS IS IMPORTANT, it also wasn't refrigerated. The directions state to refrigerate after opening, but who knows how long those little bacterials were sitting on that counter slowly dying off?
I happen to be in the local foodstore and turned a corner and there was this fridge in the health food section just off the pharmacy section. I curiously open it and the bottles there are acidophilus-probiotics.
Big difference though. Bacteria count a BILLION, not a million, and refrigerated. The little germy things were alive. Number 5 is ALIVE.
My doctor shook her head when we discussed this. She said she knew, but didn't really answer to this. My guess is they aren't allowed to make an endorsement of any kind.
I could have ... well I mean after the horror show in the restroom do I even want to think about not having enough bacteria in my lower intestine? When you start seeing pictures of your insides you kind of understand the wake up call.
And somewhere along the way of researching everything I discovered some interesting factoids. You can't believe everything the internet tosses at you. But I think this is accurate enough it may help you if you find yourself in a similar situation. You probably wouldn't be reading this otherwise.
The lower colon starts the diarrhea issue because, apparently (I learned this by word of mouth) it can't absorb moisture. And this is a result of a lack of lecithin in one's diet.
I read more about this online, the problem is the upper intestine tends to take all the lecithin out of foods before it gets to the lower colon, so the lower colon, kind of can't recover once you get to the diarrhea stage, you have to help it.
Which is when I discovered the typical over the counter anti-diarrhea drugs. In the words of another friend, be careful how you use it, because it can make you constipated as well. Just little baby blue pills about the size of a grain of rice.
Back to the IBS.
I went to the grocer to get food. I decided more fiber. So I bought a raisin bran cereal, some bran muffins, bananas, Metamucil (fiber capsules) and who knows what else.
This is when the IBS started.
Boom, major discomfort in the lower abdomen, and a red slurry in the toilet bowl that was right out of a horror flick.
Unreal diarrhea. Like every couple hours, 'sorry, 'gotta run, 'cause I got the runs.
And a garlic flavored flatulation (farts). I mean deep garlic flavor. It'd make vampires run for the hills. Wicked, very bad, garlic, weee --- eeew.
For about three months I was like this.
The doctor says that may have been a little too much fiber.
So what started to fix it?
I got on the net, 'visited the Mayo website, 'visited WebMD website. Which all pretty much say you have to start the bland diet. Its like bananas, rice, mild products.
WHICH DIDN'T WORK FOR ME.
Anything that granulated like crackers, or had sesame seeds or well I forget the list, didn't work.
I was still gurgling, bloating, garlicky.
Then some guy had written where he found coconut macaroons helped. I bought a box of them. They did help, in fact that was the turning point. But they kind of act like sand paper as they exit.
Oh yes. Did I mention that over the course of about 60 days I lost about 35 pounds?
That I actually liked, but the method left something to be desired.
Coconut macaroons. I can say start there.
Then I also discovered the local food store has these fruit snacks. Which are fruit puree's. The kids love them. this local food store chain has them like giant licorice sticks.
I REALLY LOVE THEM.
They are all natural ingredients.
Add these to your diet. Try anyway, see if it helps. And I discovered the anti-diarrhea stuff, so I took one of those little blue pills and broke it into thirds to begin with. And I also bought some lecithin gels. And my doctor also prescribed fish oil pills, this to help with the hypertension I believe, and diet in general, and for the heart, fish oil, omega threes, are good for the heart.
I found a study going on in Europe about the lecithin issue and asked to be on a mailing list. No reply.
So I took it upon myself to start including lecithin with my other food supplements, and my doctor okays it. My thinking is if you include it, and even if only a little makes its way to the lower intestine, that little bit helps the colon to recover the ability to absorb moisture and cut back the diarrhea.
I am also finding out along the way that foods that have preservatives in them give me headaches.
You name it, beer, any alcohol product, breads, etcetera...
Try to eliminate preservatives from your food intake. It helps.
And I discovered the frozen vegetables department, and frozen waffles, the kind you "let go of", and olive oil for cooking foods in.
Okay?
I start my day in a couple different ways. Once I get up and head to the kitchen I take a refrigerated, billion count acidpohilus-probiotic capsule. Then I decide on one of three breakfast dishes with the occasional odd thing tossed in for variety.
I either eat a frozen waffle with honey as the syrup, with butter, or a frozen croissant sandwich (my meat content for the day), or I toss some olive oil and frozen vegetables mix into the pan and cook them up for ten minutes and add cheese on top at the end.
I occasionally toss in chicken sausages.
When I go back to the bathroom each morning, I take a baby aspirin, for my blood pressure, a multivitamin (I like the chewable gummies), an Ocuvite, for my eyes, fish oil pill, for my heart and blood pressure, Citracal, for whatever the doctor said it was for, a lecithin gel, and I keep the fiber pills around for when I eat cheese products and take one to three of these before eating any cheese foods.
Like pizza.
I also discovered the veggies-only frozen pizzas at the local grocer. No preservatives as well. GOOD.
Try a Margarita pizza.
My blood pressure has come down, I now regularly read normal blood pressure.
The garlic issue went away shortly after the coconut macaroons started, but I stopped those and moved to the fruit puree snacks.
When I started the honey and waffles everything returned to normal, when I had diarrhea I took a third of the anti-diarrhea stuff with something to eat, but now haven't had that for some time.
It is a year later.
I can pretty much eat anything I want now, but I am leary that my body still needs time to heal, so I am sticking to my self-made diet.
It is working for me, I hope it helps you get started back to a normal way of eating, and a normal time in the bathroom.
We are still taking the occasional scan to see how that little growth on my pancreas is doing. There is no fix for the Barretts, but after taking a tissue sample the doctor seems to think it is now a non-issue.
I still have the occasional time when I eat something and it feels like a sharp quarter went down there instead of food.
I am reading labels a lot more. Things like preservatives, canola oil, which is reputedly made from the same seed that militaries make a nerve gas weapon from, and any label that has about three hundred ingredients in it (you find these in vending machines, remember the shelf life of the twinkie? Humans aren't twinkies).
And in general I feel a lot better.
I have also bought a food blender and make peanut butter, blueberry yogurt, and fruit mix smoothies with almond cashew milk. The local grocer has these little plastic things with a mix of fruits in them, I bust that thing open and toss about half the contents into the blender and spin that mix.
--- Also I suggest you put a towel over the blender and a bowl. I do this to keep the high speed whir from affecting my ears too much. My grand dad was hard of hearing when he died and my currently 93 year old Mom is also now hard of hearing. We have to take care of ourselves.
I started eating honey. I had heard on the People's Pharmacy one morning about how sugar can be used to bandage cuts. It started me reading about honey. Honey is made up of 32 sugars. Good sugars. They are not processed sugar. Natural sugars.
Eating honey became important. And has changed the chemistry of my body. I can drink a soda now, but I can tell it isn't good for me, and I feel a little weird afterwards. So I tell myself that's my body telling me to stop drinking the stuff.
The fatty liver deposits... it is surmised by my doctors that has occurred because I tend to eat a high carbohydrate diet. Breads, crackers, cookies, foods with lots of doughy materials.
I am really not concerned about that as I have also recently learned that the liver is pretty resilient. So I am taking a little bit of a risk and hoping that by adjusting the rest of my diet, it will also help my liver.
The first colonoscopy is recommended I believe once you hit fifty. They did that. I had a couple polyps which are little growths in the intestine that kind of look like a miniature thumb sticking up. The doctor easily clipped those off (the first President Bush had them, not really an issue if you start eating well again), and this is when we found out I had diverticulitis.
Diverticulitis arrives in your life from eating too much cheese, or any food that makes you constipated, and so you squeeze really hard to move it out the exit.
It also gives you hemorrhoids, which are veins inside your rear exit that swell to try and help with the constipation.
Your body really tries hard to keep you alive.
The prescription for diverticulitis is don't eat foods that make you constipated. And to take an acidophilus-probiotic pill daily.
Your lower colon, when you are young, is a nice long round tube.
People from the east and south east of Asia don't have issues with this because their diets consist of a lot of fiber products.
Your colon, over time, changes shape, especially if you get constipated a lot. It is similar to developing a muscular physique, with none of the pretty looking side effects. What happens is the colon develops accordion-like folds, and these folds can trap and hold bad bacteria, which can eat away at the colon and give your scepticitis (your waste product starts to seep into your blood), and colon cancer.
Acidophilus-probiotic is the current way to manage this as it is a capsule with good bacteria in it that you eat and will help the colon keep the bad bacteria from getting out of hand.
HOWEVER, and I complained about this to my doctor, she is pretty fun by the way, I say that because I think we have good conversations, she wants me to be more informed.
The doctor didn't get into any detail about QUALITY of probiotics, and how much bacteria there can be between different brands.
So I started with an over the counter green labeled as healthy branded bottle from the local drug store.
But coupled with the IBS issue, what I was taking, I didn't realize until much later, wasn't making the grade.
That little green bottle looked good but the bacteria count is only a million, and THIS IS IMPORTANT, it also wasn't refrigerated. The directions state to refrigerate after opening, but who knows how long those little bacterials were sitting on that counter slowly dying off?
I happen to be in the local foodstore and turned a corner and there was this fridge in the health food section just off the pharmacy section. I curiously open it and the bottles there are acidophilus-probiotics.
Big difference though. Bacteria count a BILLION, not a million, and refrigerated. The little germy things were alive. Number 5 is ALIVE.
My doctor shook her head when we discussed this. She said she knew, but didn't really answer to this. My guess is they aren't allowed to make an endorsement of any kind.
I could have ... well I mean after the horror show in the restroom do I even want to think about not having enough bacteria in my lower intestine? When you start seeing pictures of your insides you kind of understand the wake up call.
And somewhere along the way of researching everything I discovered some interesting factoids. You can't believe everything the internet tosses at you. But I think this is accurate enough it may help you if you find yourself in a similar situation. You probably wouldn't be reading this otherwise.
The lower colon starts the diarrhea issue because, apparently (I learned this by word of mouth) it can't absorb moisture. And this is a result of a lack of lecithin in one's diet.
I read more about this online, the problem is the upper intestine tends to take all the lecithin out of foods before it gets to the lower colon, so the lower colon, kind of can't recover once you get to the diarrhea stage, you have to help it.
Which is when I discovered the typical over the counter anti-diarrhea drugs. In the words of another friend, be careful how you use it, because it can make you constipated as well. Just little baby blue pills about the size of a grain of rice.
Back to the IBS.
I went to the grocer to get food. I decided more fiber. So I bought a raisin bran cereal, some bran muffins, bananas, Metamucil (fiber capsules) and who knows what else.
This is when the IBS started.
Boom, major discomfort in the lower abdomen, and a red slurry in the toilet bowl that was right out of a horror flick.
Unreal diarrhea. Like every couple hours, 'sorry, 'gotta run, 'cause I got the runs.
And a garlic flavored flatulation (farts). I mean deep garlic flavor. It'd make vampires run for the hills. Wicked, very bad, garlic, weee --- eeew.
For about three months I was like this.
The doctor says that may have been a little too much fiber.
So what started to fix it?
I got on the net, 'visited the Mayo website, 'visited WebMD website. Which all pretty much say you have to start the bland diet. Its like bananas, rice, mild products.
WHICH DIDN'T WORK FOR ME.
Anything that granulated like crackers, or had sesame seeds or well I forget the list, didn't work.
I was still gurgling, bloating, garlicky.
Then some guy had written where he found coconut macaroons helped. I bought a box of them. They did help, in fact that was the turning point. But they kind of act like sand paper as they exit.
Oh yes. Did I mention that over the course of about 60 days I lost about 35 pounds?
That I actually liked, but the method left something to be desired.
Coconut macaroons. I can say start there.
Then I also discovered the local food store has these fruit snacks. Which are fruit puree's. The kids love them. this local food store chain has them like giant licorice sticks.
I REALLY LOVE THEM.
They are all natural ingredients.
Add these to your diet. Try anyway, see if it helps. And I discovered the anti-diarrhea stuff, so I took one of those little blue pills and broke it into thirds to begin with. And I also bought some lecithin gels. And my doctor also prescribed fish oil pills, this to help with the hypertension I believe, and diet in general, and for the heart, fish oil, omega threes, are good for the heart.
I found a study going on in Europe about the lecithin issue and asked to be on a mailing list. No reply.
So I took it upon myself to start including lecithin with my other food supplements, and my doctor okays it. My thinking is if you include it, and even if only a little makes its way to the lower intestine, that little bit helps the colon to recover the ability to absorb moisture and cut back the diarrhea.
I am also finding out along the way that foods that have preservatives in them give me headaches.
You name it, beer, any alcohol product, breads, etcetera...
Try to eliminate preservatives from your food intake. It helps.
And I discovered the frozen vegetables department, and frozen waffles, the kind you "let go of", and olive oil for cooking foods in.
Okay?
I start my day in a couple different ways. Once I get up and head to the kitchen I take a refrigerated, billion count acidpohilus-probiotic capsule. Then I decide on one of three breakfast dishes with the occasional odd thing tossed in for variety.
I either eat a frozen waffle with honey as the syrup, with butter, or a frozen croissant sandwich (my meat content for the day), or I toss some olive oil and frozen vegetables mix into the pan and cook them up for ten minutes and add cheese on top at the end.
I occasionally toss in chicken sausages.
When I go back to the bathroom each morning, I take a baby aspirin, for my blood pressure, a multivitamin (I like the chewable gummies), an Ocuvite, for my eyes, fish oil pill, for my heart and blood pressure, Citracal, for whatever the doctor said it was for, a lecithin gel, and I keep the fiber pills around for when I eat cheese products and take one to three of these before eating any cheese foods.
Like pizza.
I also discovered the veggies-only frozen pizzas at the local grocer. No preservatives as well. GOOD.
Try a Margarita pizza.
My blood pressure has come down, I now regularly read normal blood pressure.
The garlic issue went away shortly after the coconut macaroons started, but I stopped those and moved to the fruit puree snacks.
When I started the honey and waffles everything returned to normal, when I had diarrhea I took a third of the anti-diarrhea stuff with something to eat, but now haven't had that for some time.
It is a year later.
I can pretty much eat anything I want now, but I am leary that my body still needs time to heal, so I am sticking to my self-made diet.
It is working for me, I hope it helps you get started back to a normal way of eating, and a normal time in the bathroom.
We are still taking the occasional scan to see how that little growth on my pancreas is doing. There is no fix for the Barretts, but after taking a tissue sample the doctor seems to think it is now a non-issue.
I still have the occasional time when I eat something and it feels like a sharp quarter went down there instead of food.
I am reading labels a lot more. Things like preservatives, canola oil, which is reputedly made from the same seed that militaries make a nerve gas weapon from, and any label that has about three hundred ingredients in it (you find these in vending machines, remember the shelf life of the twinkie? Humans aren't twinkies).
And in general I feel a lot better.
I have also bought a food blender and make peanut butter, blueberry yogurt, and fruit mix smoothies with almond cashew milk. The local grocer has these little plastic things with a mix of fruits in them, I bust that thing open and toss about half the contents into the blender and spin that mix.
--- Also I suggest you put a towel over the blender and a bowl. I do this to keep the high speed whir from affecting my ears too much. My grand dad was hard of hearing when he died and my currently 93 year old Mom is also now hard of hearing. We have to take care of ourselves.
I also got concerned about dairy products in general this past year. We have a friend who is a dairy farmer and he said we "scientifickize" (homogenization and pasteurization) cow milk so much it is nothing more than flavored water with little health benefits.
Our dairy farmer friend said if we simply drank it naturally we'd be better off. I think I am inclined to agree with that because there are natural enzymes in untouched, unprocessed cow milk that help it to digest.
And I read that we get plenty of calcium from other foods, so for me, I asked myself why drink cows' milk at all?
Which is when I discovered almond milk, then cashew-almond milk. Its right next to the dairy milk. It does cost about a buck more.
It tastes great. Nutty. 'Sorry for those of you that are nut sensitive. There are alternatives out there.
I did make a choice later. I started with almond milk but found it made my bladder a little itchier than usual. Then I found the almond-cashew milk. WOW. And it is great for making smoothies with.
And every once in a while I add some peppermint oil to my smoothie mixes.
During the rest of the day I eat the fruit sticks, one small cup of coffee, occasionally buy a fast food sandwich, pan fry in olive oil frozen fish (I like flounder), and have salads a little more often. And I eat a lot of the veggie pizzas.
And I drink a lot of ice water.
That is about it. No more IBS, at least so far, and the rest we are keeping an eye on.
-Chuck
Please leave comments if this helps you and suggestions on what helps you.
IBS is not fun.
IBS is not fun.
Update June 6th, 2016:
Everything is still going well. I remembered something along the way I had forgotten which is that solid foods are also hard on your digestive system to break down and digest. My Mom has been eating soups regularly for decades, much if it produce out of her own garden.
So I have started to have more soups. I like soups, all kinds of soups, except if it is hot and muggy out. Because I don't like borscht or cold soups.
We are going to do another scoping in July 2016. We did a major MRI scan, I was in that thing for about 45 minutes and the music was too loud. And the technician had to keep redoing everything because he let me keep my pants on and they had a metal something in them and it kept interfering with the scan. So he had to keep retaking pictures.
Someone needs to invent a better MRI machine.
So the discussion I had with my Doctor that is in charge of this whole thing says the pictures they took show the growth on the pancreas, and a little growth on my liver now. The results letter from the MRI scans went on with technical stuff for a long time speculating this and that. My doctor said not much has changed and it has been over a year. He said if I have pancreatic cancer this might be good or bad. Apparently pancreatic cancer can kind of act like nothing is happening for quite a long period of time. He said though that my blood work isn't showing any signs of any issues. He cautioned on this though because the scanner takes pictures by the slice. And he said it is the tiny width of space between slices that is of concern.
And the MRI tech letter suggested there may or may not be a connection between my pancreas growth and my liver growth. The doctor seems to think they are unrelated, that the MRI letter is only speculating on what could be.
SO...
I get to go have another upper GI scoping but this time they are going to bring in a pathologist while I am in the OR. Apparently they are going to stick those two little growths, withdraw some cells and have the pathologist look at them.
The doctor doesn't seem to think they will do any surgery then, BUT he did say they have the two doctors that do this type of surgery here in the area and that's a good thing. And they probably won't operate while I am there, I have to imagine that if they are going to the trouble of having the pathologist there they might decide then and there to do the surgery.
And, if so, it sounds like it is a good thing, because the doctor said they re-plumb the pancreas area, and I hope that means things will work better from then on. Not that you could tell.
Anyway I am doing okay. I hope you do too.
Everything is still going well. I remembered something along the way I had forgotten which is that solid foods are also hard on your digestive system to break down and digest. My Mom has been eating soups regularly for decades, much if it produce out of her own garden.
So I have started to have more soups. I like soups, all kinds of soups, except if it is hot and muggy out. Because I don't like borscht or cold soups.
We are going to do another scoping in July 2016. We did a major MRI scan, I was in that thing for about 45 minutes and the music was too loud. And the technician had to keep redoing everything because he let me keep my pants on and they had a metal something in them and it kept interfering with the scan. So he had to keep retaking pictures.
Someone needs to invent a better MRI machine.
So the discussion I had with my Doctor that is in charge of this whole thing says the pictures they took show the growth on the pancreas, and a little growth on my liver now. The results letter from the MRI scans went on with technical stuff for a long time speculating this and that. My doctor said not much has changed and it has been over a year. He said if I have pancreatic cancer this might be good or bad. Apparently pancreatic cancer can kind of act like nothing is happening for quite a long period of time. He said though that my blood work isn't showing any signs of any issues. He cautioned on this though because the scanner takes pictures by the slice. And he said it is the tiny width of space between slices that is of concern.
And the MRI tech letter suggested there may or may not be a connection between my pancreas growth and my liver growth. The doctor seems to think they are unrelated, that the MRI letter is only speculating on what could be.
SO...
I get to go have another upper GI scoping but this time they are going to bring in a pathologist while I am in the OR. Apparently they are going to stick those two little growths, withdraw some cells and have the pathologist look at them.
The doctor doesn't seem to think they will do any surgery then, BUT he did say they have the two doctors that do this type of surgery here in the area and that's a good thing. And they probably won't operate while I am there, I have to imagine that if they are going to the trouble of having the pathologist there they might decide then and there to do the surgery.
And, if so, it sounds like it is a good thing, because the doctor said they re-plumb the pancreas area, and I hope that means things will work better from then on. Not that you could tell.
Anyway I am doing okay. I hope you do too.
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