My digestive history- the long and windy track (2016 - 2018)

September 2016, my gut decided it had a new life path in store for me. One of bloating, gas, pain, nausea, discomfort, diarrhea, constipation, food intolerances, and a journey to fall in love with the stomach that every day gives me grief and life at the same time.

I was regular, every morning I would make my usual trip to the bathroom, that didn't take all that long, and that didn't cause me grief. I wouldn't say I've ever had a robust digestive system, having reactions to specific foods (salmon and banana) back in 2009, and always feeling my stomach was a little larger than it should have been... was that from storing excess fat there due to having PCOS, or perhaps I was constantly a little bloated, but majority of the time I didn't think too much about my GIT. I consumed a predominantly organic plant-based diet, I exercised regularly, I lived what I would consider a physically healthy lifestyle, though I did have an unacknowledged level of chronic stress in my life.

Come September 2016, I started to experience pain in my gut, mostly after eating, which would reduce the longer it was since I had last eaten. I had terrible gas and not the kind that smelt like roses. I described the feeling like I had eaten too many prunes, but I hadn't eaten any at all, and all I could bear to eat were low fiber foods like white bread and mashed potato.

As the symptoms didn't subside, I booked in to see my GP. I had felt off in the gut before a year or two before, and after having a B12 injection, the pain went and I felt on top of the world. So I was predicting this could be the case again. The GP referred me for a general blood check up, including analysis of my B12 levels and a stool test for parasites. At the beginning of October I got the results which showed sufficient B12 and no parasites present. Next stop was the radiologist for an xray of my bowel, and to try taking worming medication to rule worms out, which gave me no relief.

The xray results showed some fecal loading so the GP advised me to consumed Metamucil and engage in more vigorous exercise. At this point she hadn't actually asked me in any detail what I eat on a regular basis, and despite telling her that I felt I got enough fiber as that was pretty much all I ate, she still recommended I try increasing it to shift the fecal loading. I took a tablespoon of psyllium 3 times a day for about 2 weeks. It made me feel worse, the bloating and the feeling of sickness in my gut. I returned to the GP at the end of November, to advise her how I was feeling and to let her know that no improvement had happened as a result of her recommendations.

Next I was told to try Coloxyl with Senna and was given another xray referral to see if anything had moved, or if the fecal loading situation was getting worse. I tried the Coloxyl for a few weeks, but was still experiencing foul smelling gas and unpleasant, irregular bowel movements. Mid December I had my second xray which showed fecal loading still present. The GP advised me to undertake a dose of Moviprep (a colonoscopy preparation solution to completely clear out the bowel) and wasn't that an experience! Five days later I finally had my first bowel motion since the clean out but by the beginning of January the symptoms of irregular bowel movements and unpleasant gas had returned. I went for a third bowel xray to see if the Moviprep had worked in shifting the fecal loading and again it was present. Had the Moviprep not moved it, or had it re-built itself again in the 2 weeks after my clean out?

The GP's next strategy was to refer me to undergo an Endoscopy/Colonoscopy. I thought surely there was other stuff that could be tried before this, so I went to another GP for a second opinion, who after requesting new blood and stool tests which all came back clear, in March 2017, she too suggested I get the Colonoscopy done. So I went on the wait list and continued to try my hand at easing symptoms by taking magnesium tablets to help with bowel movements.

I got in in just over 3 months, and in June 2017 I underwent a Colonoscopy and Upper GI Endoscopy, which I cover in more detail in my post about the procedure. As I was off on a month long vanning trip shortly after my hospital visit, I asked if the receptionist at the Gastroenterologist's office could advise me of the outcome of my biopsy results so I could adjust my diet if needed without waiting until I got back. I was advised that I had been given a 'suggestive of Coeliac disease' diagnosis and that I should stop eating gluten containing foods to see if symptoms reduced. Things seemed to be improving but then would flare up again, and at the end of 6 weeks of a gluten free diet I saw no on-going marked improvement.

The Gastroenterologist's office then recommended I go back to eating a gluten containing diet for 6 weeks, so that I could have a blood test to screen for Coeliac Disease. The results... it was unlikely that I was Coeliac, at a less than 5% chance (which now thinking about it, isn't really that small of a chance at all, at potentially 5 in every 100 people).

After this inconclusiveness and having been advised I would likely be diagnosed with IBS if nothing was found from the Endoscopy, I took it upon myself to experiment with my diet to try to find out what was going on. Life then happened and my attention diverted away from my own health issues and onto someone else's. Throughout 2018 I increased my intake of fermented foods like kvass and sourdough, I took probiotics, and soaked my nuts and seeds to make them easier to digest. No matter what I tried with my diet, my bowel was still irregular and the gas still woeful. After a year of playing with my diet, 2019 was my time to get serious again.