My Health Story- Part 1

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to chronicle my health journey and maybe help someone out there who's having health problems and has tried conventional methods of dealing with it and perhaps it's not working. Well I'm here to suggest some alternative methods. This is also to get people to think more about what we put in our bodies seeing as even with all the studies that have been done, we still don't know what kind of long term effects all these medications and modified foods will have on our bodies.

So,

Let's start at the very beginning! (A very good place to start!)

 (if you caught the Sound of Music reference you get 10 cool points :P)

I was not a sickly child. I got the cold once in a while. One time, when we switched my my beloved Carnation powdered milk to Kerrygold, we all got sick from it cuz we didn't know we couldn't tolerate it. When I was a teen I discovered I suddenly had an allergy to shrimp. Otherwise I'd eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to (no need for the "omg ur so skinny and u can eat whatever you want" comment please, my metabolism is what it is; do get over it).

When I was in 6th form I started getting heartburn once in a while accompanied by chest pains. The solution: over the counter antacid, which tasted disgusting, but it worked.

Fast-forward to my 2nd semester at University. And after months of horrible eating at all kinds of weird hours, I suddenly started getting random queasy and upset stomach problems. Then in April 2007 I started feeling nauseous every time I ate, which made me basically eat very little, so I wouldn't feel sick (yes I know that's stupid).

I Went to the doctor and was told I probably had acid reflux and she prescribed some really strong Ogastro which made me feel even worse.

I was then put on a drug called Nexium and another one called Alocid.

I lost so much weight that year; it was depressing. When I came home I went to my GP and he put me on some kinda fizzy antacid tablet and another ppi (proton pump inhibitor..it basically stops your stomach's acid production..more on why that is crazy insane later). He advised me to cut out certain foods, which I did.
By the time I was ready to go back to school I had put back on the weight I lost and I was feeling great!

...Until about 3 weeks into the semester when the same thing started back again. I visited a gastroenterologist in Barbados who told me I had mild to moderate acid reflux and also prescribed Alocid. That and Dica became my best friends; anytime I felt sick I'd take one. So for the duration of my studies in Barbados I lived on Alocid and Dica and tried to avoid the trigger foods, but indulged once in a while, figuring I could 'balance it off" by taking some meds.

I figured I could manage my disease with medication and by avoiding certain 'trigger foods" ... boy was I wrong.

Things progressively got worse, I would be taking Dica 4-5 times a day, ppi's twice a day (cuz I discovered you could buy a certain brand over the counter without a prescription, so I was all too happy to get my meds cheaper).

Then disaster struck....unexpectedly..and it was debilitating...

One day in August 2011, while vacationing in B'dos I had what seemed to be a bad Teriyaki chicken sandwich from Subway and ended up with a mild case of gastro..so the doctors say..well that is what precipitated the worst case of a 'flare up' I've ever had. it lasted for WEEKS. I could barely eat anything. I was living on bread and butter or bread and jam, literally. The nausea lasted for hours on end. One morning, I went to bed at 5 am, because I couldn't sleep. I had had nausea that lasted from 11 pm the previous night. My stomach was roiling, my throat was burning and there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I tried worked, no ginger tea, no antacid, nothing. At my wit's end I saw 2 doctors and a homeopathic doc in B'dos in the space of like a week and a half. The GP's told me, you have to give the nexium time to work. It can take up to two weeks. And I was like, but um it normally works in a day..this is 4/5 days later and it's not helping!! At my wit's end, I went to see a homeopathic doc. He told me I probably had a hiatial hernia (where part of the stomach ends up in the oesopahgus) and cuz I was masking the symptoms of my disease with so much medication, my body was rebelling and that's why nothing was working. He put me on magnesium tablets and and Aloe vera juice drink and showed me some massaging techniques for my stomach to aid digestion and alseo some and chest massages when I ate to help the food go down. And that day I had  a full meal, and I didn't feel horribly sick. I KID YOU NOT! I don't know if it was all in my mind, the placebo effect or what..but it worked!

..Until I got back home and started feeling sick again...this time I went to another doc, who swore up and down that I had an h.pylori (bacterial infection that causes acid reflux-like symptoms) infection and gave me some really strong medication..only for the tests to come back negative...I also did chest x rays, thryoid tests, blood tests...nothing major showed up. I went to another one who flooded my system with yet more antibiotics and ppi's...a third one did the same thing. Finally, in November 2011, I went to a GI specialist, thinking Imight really find out what's going on now. I did an endoscopy (they put a tube down ur throat to see what's going on) and the findings were that I had a slack esopahgeal sphincter msucle (hence why the acid was refluxing) and extraeosophageal acid reflux (basically I get symptoms that are atypical of a common reflux sufferer..in addition to chest pains and nausea and burning I also get throat spasms, a choking feeling in my throat, neck and shoulder pain, pain in my upper stomach, pain in my ribs, etc.), but I had to lesions, no ulcers, no abnormal stomach cells.  I also did a CT scan. Let me tell you, having hot dye shot through your veins while going though a rotating machine and having to lie completely still is the most horrible feeling in the WORLD! I have no idea how drug addicts can shoot things up their veins so regularly. I cannot do it. I cannot. Those tests also came back showing nothing serious.

So I was told ok you have extraoesophageal acid reflux AND IBS.

IBS?? where the hell did THAT come out from???

 IBS is basically what docs diagnose you with when they do a battery of tests and they cant figure out what the hell is wrong with you. So I was given more meds and basically told; no you're not dying, pull yourself together, it's not life threatening. you can live with this, just take the damn meds already!
I was put on some new IBS drug with did nothing for me and I was put on anti depressants. Let me tell you something about antidepressants. They mess with your hormones. You feel like you're going crazy. DO NOT take that shit. EVER.

So WHYYYYY was I feeling so sick if nothing major was wrong with me????

By now I was bloated from having my good gut bacteria wiped out from antibiotics, then I started having trouble sleeping. Plus I was getting horrible lower abdominal pain. Then in January 2012, I literally woke up one morning and started feeling dizzy. It's never stopped. To this day I suffer with chronic dizziness. I've learnt to basically ignore it and use techniques to minimize it. I however cannot be in a room with any loud or clashing prints. My head will go crazy.

It was then I made a decision. I was tired of doctors who I thought knew what they were doing, trying out experimental things on me. I realised that modern medicine is still largely a process of trial and error. You basically try to figure out what's going on based on symptoms and the tests that are available."We THINK this is what u MAY have, lets try different combinations of shit and figure out which one works, kay?" You're shooting in the dark.

I decided that I was going to figure out ON MY OWN just what the hell was wrong with my digestive system and how to fix it.

I have a theory about how I got to the point where my digestive system basically shut down. I was masking the symptoms of my conditions for years with ppi's and antacids,overusing them. Abusing them really. my body just couldn't take it anymore. If you stop or slow down or reduce acid production by taking ppi's your stomach can't digest food properly. Read here about the long term effect of ppi's on your body. Your stomach has to produce a certain amount of acid at a certain pH to digest he food and if it's not doing that, the food doesn't digest properly and it causes fermentation and the overgrowth of unfriendly bacteria in your system and intestinal permeability, which is commonly called leaky gut where undigested food passes into your blood stream. You body treats this food as an invader and hence why almost everything you eat makes you sick because your body is treating food like a foreign body.

I've been doing research for nearly 2 years and I have discovered a few things.

I first tried the gluten free diet, because I found out how gluten affects digestion and acid reflux.
I definitely felt better eating like this, but I wasn't feeling amazingly good. The I discovered that gluten free snacks can be just as bad as regular snacks and that gluten free products are just as processed and filled with GMO's (geneticallymodified organisms) as regular food.

So I did some more digging...

Then I discovered certain diets that were created specifically for people suffering with digestive diseases. The GAPS and SCDiet here and here and the Paleo community (check it out here) have been an absolute GODSEND!




The first two diets basically starve out the pathogens in your body and heal the gut lining. You have to follow the diets in addition to the use of supplements to help heal your digestive system.

I was REALLY skeptical about these diets cuz I didn't think I had the guts to give up the foods I loved so much. It was hard enough giving up all those delicious wheat flour treats and BREAD. OMG I love bread (and cakes and pastries, and basically anything that involves copious amounts of flour, sugar and eggs. Back in university, I was THE SNACK QUEEN. ANY time of day or night, I would have snacks to share with friends and family.)so much! It's only when you have to stop eating it that you realize just how much bread based food items we eat on a daily basis.

Navigating these diets was/is hard, I was at a total loss as to what to eat. Good thing I'm persistent. I figured out a meal plan and a protocol to follow. These diets are not for the faint of heart. It requires a TOTAL diet and lifestyle change. It also takes up to two years for your body to heal. There is no overnight success story here.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to tweak the diet to my needs. I'm not fully there yet. I also realise that I still have underlying problems that are not allowing my body to fully heal, even on these diets.

I am working with an osteopath/functional medicine specialist,  right now, doing some tests to find out if I'm suffering from any parasitic/bacterial infections, adrenal burnout and elevated cortisol levels.

I did a stool (tmi I know) and saliva test and sent them to a lab in the states (cuz regular labs don't do this kind of testing) so I'm expected to get my results soon. I then have to discuss it with my osteopath and then get advice as to how to proceed to treat whatever's wrong with me.

Anyway this is more than enough for now. If you have any questions or want further details, feel free to leave a lilttle note in the comments below :)

xo

Ren

p.s Tank top designed by Jessica of  Artemis Arts. Check her out. She's awesome.