Hands up if you're one of those unlucky ones who can't seem to eat anything without SOME form of negative physical reaction? Yep, I hear you, me too *cries internally.*
Here's the first health related blog where I tell you the tale of my digestion issues and how diet has helped. I'll then follow up with further blogs on the best finds and tips that personally helped me.
Obvious Disclaimer: this absolutely does not replace visiting your GP and you must consult them in all circumstances, this is simply sharing my experience.
My Story Part 1 - The Discovery
Summer of 2022 was seemingly the beginning of what has since felt like an eternal journey...
July, the start of summer, I first come down with Covid for a 2nd time. I have no idea if this is linked by the way, it's just a crappy start to a crappy journey. It's also just worth noting in the back of your mind incase it either resonates with yourself and/or it's ever proven to be linked in the future!
Covid unfortunately manages to wipe me out for about 2 weeks at a time, with some effects lasting up to 8 weeks. The covid vaccine unfortunately gave me a temporary heart condition (thankfully seems to have now gone) which meant I wasn't allowed the boosters. Is this why it hits me so hard? Maybe, maybe not, I might just have a crappy immune system!
Anyway...I recover after about 6 weeks and just in time for an all-day local art & jewellery market in September, phew! The busy market day came and went. I get home and have dinner. I feel obscenely bloated but I had had bread for tea and this has never been an uncommon reaction up to this point. I head to bed.
I shoot up at midnight, run to the bathroom and proceed to (here's where it gets graphic sorry), lose it at both ends. I must confess, this is the one and only time I've been thankful my bath and toilet were SO close together! I can assure you, the experience was as lovely as the now grim image you're picturing...
I spend the next 3 weeks being completely physically out of control with anything remotely to do with digestion. It was horrendous. The immediate anxiety caused by not having any confidence in how your body is going to react was and is awful. I had no confidence in eating anything (still don't entirely), I had to always make sure I was near a toilet (still do to this day) and the general day-day anxiety it's caused on a long-term scale is taking an annoyingly long time to deal with and overcome.
ANYWAY, to cut the next 18 month's short otherwise this will end up the BIGGEST blog in the entire world, I proceed to have every test under the sun...ok a little a dramatic but that's what it felt like. I have general blood tests, stool samples...nothing. An endoscopy followed (HAVE SEDATION) which initially showed up as having h.pylori and antibiotics were given. This changed absolutely nothing, if anything made my stomach area worse. I was put on various different drugs like Omeprazole.
I had further blood tests for more specific issues such as Coeliacs and Ovarian cancer, it wasn't those.
Of course you don't want to find anything wrong with you but my god, not finding a cause for why you're feeling so crappy is beyond frustrating. At this point, my symptoms are still the same:
No rhyme nor reason to toilet habits and stools are completely different to how they used to be,
Constant discomfort/dull pain around my belly button and also under my ribs,
Random pains in my hand joints all of a sudden,
Feeling sick most of the day,
Acid Reflux flare ups and random "popping" feelings/sounds in my oesophagus - to the point even my family commented that they resembled something like the ticking crocodile from Peter Pan...,
Anxiety is through the roof,
Skin condition appeared randomly on my toes, and random appearance of hives on my hands,
Itchy skin flare ups,
Glands around the neck felt like they kept flaring up,
Always coughing up clear/white mucus
Constantly feeling shattered
These are just a few of the main symptoms that I had throughout this time but the fact that the doctors were not coming up with anything obvious, and the way that some symptoms randomly appeared, made me feel like there had to be more to it, such as Diet. So it was time to do some home testing.
My Story Part 2 - The Diet Testing
I decided to give the main culprits a go first. Lactose was up first. I swapped all of my dairy products for Lactose Free versions. Long story short, most of my symptoms got worse! I couldn't make any sense of it until I realised that by swapping out items to lactose free versions, I had also inadvertently increased the actual intake of milk in my diet, so maybe Dairy was my real problem.
I proceeded to cut Dairy out of my diet and I'm pleased to say, was my first step to some form of resolution - yay!
My skin conditions and itchy skin seemed to all of a sudden improve and the coughing up of mucus massively reduced. I was no longer choking on it in the morning, dreamy! I gave this a few months and attempted to consume dairy products again, I came up in hives about 90 minutes after and the itchy skin started later in the evening lasting for 3 days!
I think it's therefore relatively safe to say, I have some form of allergy to milk.
My understanding is that there are 4 main types of allergies, ultimately those that have an instant response (>24hrs) vs a delayed response (24>72hrs). I always believed in order to have an allergy it had to be a relatively quick response so it was interesting to read up on the various types. To note, this is where a food diary becomes useful.
Now whilst some of the issues had cleared up, I still had a lot of discomfort and dull pain around my belly button with toilet trips still producing abnormal outcomes... (i'm trying to keep it as graphic free as possible!). I had another flashback to when I first got really sick...what had I eaten? Bread, bread and more bread, and whilst I might not be coeliac, I may have an intolerance. So, as you've probably guessed, Gluten was next out of the door!
My Story Part 3 - Where am I at now and what did I learn
I have been completely without both Diary & Gluten together for about 5 months now and ultimately experienced major improvements. It has taken time however, so please, if you're thinking about trying this yourself, do not necessarily expect a quick result. I am the least patient person in the world and would say it's really only been the last 2 months where everything has seemingly calmed down. That's pretty much 16 months of "journeying" before I've started to feel a bit more physically normal but I had to accept several months back, that it would likely take time to heal.
Am I feeling right 100%, well not far off now! I do still sometimes bloat on occasion which generally eating smaller meals helps to combat. I do still struggle with anxiety which I'll cover in further blogs (this one is WAY LONG ENOUGH), alongside some little beauties that have personally helped me along the way, i.e gut health products.
Can I be sure of whether it all actually started because of a sickness bug, covid or allergies/intolerances? Nope, I don't think there'll ever be a way of proving that but what I can categorically say is, for me, cutting out dairy and gluten has in the last 2 months begun to turn things around.
Share your stories and experiences in the comments below. I look forward to sharing my tips and finds with you in the future but please remember, do consult a doctor if you're experiencing health issues.
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