Healing History Part 2.

From the beginning of my time on the ‘specific carb diet’ (SCD), I did things my own way.  The diet called for yogurt each morning but said to make your own.  I chose to use store bought yogurt.  This was before the Greek yogurt craze so I was buying a vanilla standard brand yogurt.  I think it did help but I am glad that we now have better natural choices with lots of probiotics.
The diet called for giving up of white starches so eliminated from my diet were potatoes plus all grains including wheat and rice.  I eliminated pasta and bread.  I ate yogurt for breakfast, salad with chicken for lunch, and dinner was a meat with sides of different vegetables.  I looked on bananas as the miracle healing food as in the book for the diet, “Breaking the Vicious Cycle” by Elaine Gloria Gottschall, the author spoke of healing malnourished ill babies by just feeding them bananas, a perfect food.  I felt ill and malnourished myself so bananas were sacred medicine from the Earth.
It really wasn’t that difficult to make the change as I felt so much better in about three days on the diet.  My strength began to return to me.  I didn’t complain about my diet changes.  I would tell myself that no food tasted as good as feeling well felt.  It also made me feel special to be on a special diet.  I was not timid about asking restaurants to make substitutions to my meals to fit my diet. Again, my timing was probably good because Atkins diet was big so my requesting ‘no carbs’ was not unheard of.
I did take liberties with the diet.  I read somewhere that oatmeal was a soluble fiber and was digested differently from other grains so I kept it in my diet and found I never had any reaction to it.  Another grain I kept initially was corn – this is because I told myself it was a vegetable just because I liked it.  It didn’t like me.  That first summer I had a bad flare up of UC from corn on the cob while I was on vacation – it ruined the fun.  I knew I had been kidding myself and had strong proof that corn was not good for me.  I haven’t eaten it since.
I did well on SCD as the years went by.  I continued to have diarrhea for a while but no bleeding and my strength returned.  I did notice the soreness and inflammation in my abdomen diminish as time passed.  In 2009 I made it to the point of having nearly regular bowl movements again, I just had some concern left as they were narrow in diameter.  This concerned me as I thought it was a sign of inflammation still being in my colon.
Another ailment of mine was that I suffered from severe spring allergies from tree pollen.  My nose and eyes would tear uncontrollably.  There really weren’t any tablets I could take as they would upset my stomach which could lead to diarrhea again.
In the spring of 2010 my allergies were very bad.  I had a constant runny nose and post nasal drip.  After weeks of these symptoms I had diarrhea and pain in my right hip.  I went to my primary care doctor mostly due to the hip pain.  She immediately noticed the swelling in my gut and sent me right over to my gastroenterologist.
I had changed gastro doctors after I changed my diet.  My first doctor, upon telling him that I was doing better because of the change of diet, he said to me that diet has nothing to do with my illness.  I never went back to him.  The doctor I saw in 2010, when I told him of my diet, said that research was starting to show promise that diet could help.  I accepted that – it wasn’t the holistic approach I would have fully liked.
My gastro doctor just gave me some suppositories and scheduled me for a colonoscopy, (colonoscopy #2, my first one was in 2003).  The thing that I realized on my own was that my allergies were a trigger for this flare up of UC.  I now sought ways to get my allergies under control.
I tried nasal spray for a while and this did help.  It settled the reaction of my sinuses and I didn’t have to ingest the spray.  Before spring 2011 a better remedy came to me.  I was watching Dr. Oz, as I have done since his first episode, and he was talking of acid reflux and how it could be brought on by sinus allergies.  I had realized with the flare up the spring before that my UC came from having severe acid reflux.  It was obvious as there were several acidic foods I could not eat when my allergies were bad.  I had to give up wine, chocolate, and tomato sauce.  The remedy Dr. Oz gave for the acid reflux was licorice root supplements (DGL is the recommended type).  I took these through allergy season and my acid reflux was much more manageable.
In 2011 a few supplements became part of my daily routine. Beside watching Dr. Oz everyday, my healthy living interest had me also reading Dr. Mercola’s blog each day.  He is an advocate for supplementing with several vitamins that we do not get enough of in our routine diets.
I never supported a supplement routine before, I made the excuse that food should be enough but I also knew I was lazy to keep it up.  My attitude was changing toward wanting to live more healthfully. Between my treating my gut condition and a noticeable loss of memory, I started taking a few supplements each day.  My routine included a cheap probiotic, krill oil for omega 3s (thanks to Dr. Mercola’s recommendation of this over fish oil), vitamins D3, and B12.
Another episode of Dr. Oz furthered my insight into my allergy-digestion issues.  He had an episode in late 2011 where he explained to viewers that many people may actually suffer from sinus allergies or asthma because of acid reflux.  The acid burns the esophagus and nasal passages at night causing the inflammation and sensitivity.  I began taking the licorice root every day after seeing that episode and have not had the severe allergy symptoms since.  The following spring I still had some reflux but my nose and eyes were not running.
Another big change that happened in the autumn of 2011 was that I began doing yoga.  Interestingly, after about 3 months of yoga my stool finally returned to a normal diameter.
So began in 2012, a few very healthful years.  The supplements, probiotics, diet, and yoga all contributed to several years of no illness whatsoever.  My immune system was strong through a bad flu season when family and friends got ill.  No colds!
I will also mention that 2012 was the year of my spiritual re-birth so feeling good about ME also contributed to my body feeling good right back.