See-Saw?
#347437 - 06/23/09 09:00 AM
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I just recovered from a bad cold/flu thing this past week and so was eating the "emergency" diet of just SF for awhile, most of last week. On friday I woke up feeling gross, but I had missed work for the rest of the week so I took an Immodium (first time ever) and went in. I also didn't eat anything while I was at work (so about a 18ish hour fast when you add sleep and not eating before bed). That handled things and I was fine an normal until Sunday. I followed the emergency diet on Fri night and on Sat I got a Safeway roast chicken and a loaf of italian white bread. I basically had that (and some peeled mini-carrots) for dinner Sat and Sun, and safe (SF) foods the rest of the days. Sun night and mon I had C, but didn't mind because honestly when I have C I feel better, no wild temp swings, no gross feeling, no pain/discomfort in the abdomen. However, today, Tues, all that pain is back, so much that I can barely concentrate. I just had plain oatmeal with 5g (2 tsp) acacia this morning for breakfast and water, but I felt bad before I even ate. Last night for dinner I had a flour tortilla with sliced deli turkey meat along with two teaspoons acacia in plain apple sauce. For lunch I had a turkey sandwich on sourdough with nothing but plain mustard and a small (very small) amount of lettuce.
I just don't get the see-saw action here. Especially because it's unusual for me. I had bloating yesterday after the sandwich but figured it was a byproduct of the C. I'm ok about following the safety diet but I am concerned about the lack of nutrients in it for a long-term diet. There was a month period that ended about three weeks ago that was pretty good and I expanded more into IF, but I've had a hard time getting back there.
I am seeing a new gastroenterologist next week. I'm hoping he might be able to suggest something.
Also, since this was my first time taking immodium, does it cause C, or does it just make your normal? I didn't feel C the day I took it or after but obviously since I didn't eat most of the day there wasn't anything in my stomach for me to know. I like the safety net aspect of it but I don't want to become so psycologically attached to it that I take it when I really don't need to.
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Re: See-Saw?
#347447 - 06/23/09 11:02 AM
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Syl
Reged: 03/13/05
Posts: 5499
Loc: SK, CANADA
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Deli meats can contain preservatives such as sodium nitrate and sodium phosphate. Did you check to see if the deli turkey contained additives?
I believe in a previous posting I suggested you might remove applesauce from you diet for a few days and see what happens. Some IBSers have problems with foods that contain more fructose than glucose such as apples, pears, mangoes, etc. This problem is known as fructose malabsorption. This is a link in my signature to an article on fructose malabsorption and IBS.
Immodiun works by acting on opioid receptors that are found in the muscle lining the walls of the intestines. It reduces the muscular contractions of the intestine. C is one of the possible side effects.
Are you normally IBS-C, IBS-D or IBS-A?
Good luck 
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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I can hold off on the applesauce but since I started mixing the acacia with it it's been my favorite delivery method. Otherwise it tastes like chalky water Fructose malabsorbtion seems like an interesting angle to look down. I will read the article. Thanks!
As far as nitrates. No, I didn't check, but man, my potential replacement protein sources are falling by the wayside! I have been trying to reduce my soy, as for men it's apparently very bad since it has estrogen in it. Nuts are a no-no. All I have now is chicken and fish, minus deli chicken. 
The problem with your question is that I don't know what I am. I have a little C, a little D, a lot of pain and discomfort. Gas, bloating, rumbling, all at one time or another. Headaches, inflammation (where I get rapidly hot for no reason), tiredness, dizzyness (though that could be due to my eating less since I'm afraid of food these days). The only thing I DON'T have which is curious because it gets a lot of play on the forum (and in Heather's book) is the sharp, really crampy pain that makes some people pass out. My pain is more achey and all day long, not localized and powerful.
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Re: See-Saw?
#347452 - 06/23/09 12:54 PM
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Syl
Reged: 03/13/05
Posts: 5499
Loc: SK, CANADA
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It took me a while to realize that many foods sold at the deli have preservatives and other undesirable ingredients. After I started to ask the attendants behind the deli counter for the list of ingredients I learned that deli doesn't mean wholesome
I no longer purchase processed meats. I only eat meats that I have cooked myself. However, I do buy rotisserie chickens from the supermarket. I remove the skin which contains the rub and has not penetrated the meat very much if at all.
I don't have crampy pain and my pain relatively localized to the upper right quadrant. It is more of gnawing pain that a sharp pain that some times last all day. I believe the type of pain experience by IBSers can vary widely.
Do you do your own cooking or do you buy mostly packaged meals?
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Mostly pre-cooked pre-packaged. I just bought a rice cooker and that will be delivered soon, and I have organic frozen chicken breasts, but I hate cooking so I try to make it as easy as possible, so I get a lot of cold foods. Tortilla w/ tbsp of peanut butter or sliced deli meat, cereal with soy/rice/hemp milk, fresh baked bread (french, sourdough, ciabatta), baked lays and baked kettle chips. I get sushi a lot and when I eat out I order fish since I'm no good at cooking it. Canned tuna (in water) always seems to correlate to bad days, not sure if there is a relation tho, there shouldn't be. I enjoy little chocolate animal/graham crackers (Newman's own, Stouffers), although paridoxically the Stoufers with HFCS and all kinds of additives doesn't seem to effect me but the Whole Foods/Trader Joes kinds with evaporated cane juice and no additives seem to make me feel worse. I drink about a half a small bottle of Amazake every day, different flavors, and it seems ok, rice, high fiber, no clear triggers. I snack on pretzels at work.
My diet has been heavily restricted by IBS. I have Heather's cookbook, and I know it doesn't have to, but there seems to be two styles. Heather's style is a lot more footloose and fancy free than some of the people on this board, but it seems every time I try to branch out into different types of IF and other things I feel like crap. I even sometimes feel bad when just sticking to emergency SF diet. I have lost 25lbs not because I'm ill, but because the only time I feel good is when I'm not eating, like, fasting with nothing in my system.
I tell myself it could be worse, but since I'm still relatively new to IBS (End of Feb, early March is when it started) I still have memories of what feeling "normal" feels like and it just pisses me off that just like that, *snap* my body can somehow be different, not some organic gradual change over weeks and months, but one day I can eat anything, the next, catastrophe.
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Immodium causes C. So do sleeping pills and narcotics. If I have D or am getting D and not in a dire situation I would rather not take immodium because of the resulting C. if I am backpacking and start to gurgle I would take it though! But now that I have been on acacia for years if I screw up and get D, I can still be back on track the next day -if I don't take immodium but just ride it out.
Fasting is really bad too. It would be better to have thinned out Cream of Rice than go without eating. I think Cream of Rice or rice baby cereal is the absolute easiest, safest food.
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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Maybe that's it then, the fasting might be hurting me overall and making me more prone to D when I eat? I just got my rice cooker so am testing it out with some white jasmine rice. I should go get some quaker cream of rice tomorrow as well. I have been eating a high fiber oatmeal for breakfast (with sucralose I think) but it hasn't hurt me up til now, still, maybe I should just get the plain - I just liked it because it was an easy way to get more soluble fiber.
Am I overall taking too little fiber? I was D free from March to May, though I had tons of other symptoms and hurt like hell, and I actually had less fiber then than I get now (SF that is). I maybe get about 10g of supplements and another 10g through food.
I frankly don't mind the C, since as I said in an earlier post I actually feel quite good otherwise when I have it, but this time (and strangely this hasn't happened before in the 5 of so I've had C in the past few months) my C was followed today with D.
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Yep the C will follow D which will follow C which will follow D. We used to call it a shame spiral in my house when I had it. Your fiber amount is low but being prone to D you really have to be careful with fiber and increase it slowly. I can't decide what to say about your diet. It is a very foreign diet to me and unappetizing and I am trying to make an impartial speculation of how you can improve and it is difficult. Even though I was A I never had fiber issues much and could put dried fruit in oatmeal and eat raw carrots and stuff like that, but I can't recommend that because it isn't safe; so in a nutshell, I don't have anything more to say about what you should eat right at this time. 
The high fiber oatmeal and other foods like that now have inulin as the fiber to make it higher in grams without it being like hay. Inulin causes gas in many and possible other GI issues. I would stick with regular instant oats. The rice will be a nice filler and jasmine is wonderful too. That is all. 
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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Oatmeal
#347471 - 06/24/09 05:24 AM
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Syl
Reged: 03/13/05
Posts: 5499
Loc: SK, CANADA
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You might want to change your oatmeal to a regular oatmeal the type that needs to be cooked for 15-20 minutes and does not contain any extra ingredients. The fast cook oatmeal with added fiber contains inulin and sucralose (See newsletter about splenda) both of which are known to increase gas, bloating and D in IBSers.
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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The thing is I simply don't have time in the morning to cook oatmeal. Is the plain instant kind not safe?
As for my diet, after having D all afternoon yesrterday and feeling terrible today (all I ate last night was white rice) I am the closest I have come to hitting a wall. When I first was diagnosed I had a miserable two to three weeks (bear in mind this was before I heard of the IBS diet, and was eating a lot of fat, red meat, etc.) but then stuff calmed down and while I still had weird gut motility it wasn't urgent D. So I was in this state of "I'm not normal, but I'm ok and able to function in society" for a couple months. Now, for no discernable reason except for the fact I had a bad fever/cold/flu last week (where my stomach was actually ok during the duration) I'm suddenly ramping up to D very two days or so and I haven't really chaged my "IBS" diet since months ago. It's to the point where I'm not comfortably able to do my job, which I have been able to do up to this point, and it's making me very nervy.
I always though I could get stable provided I do the right things. Now I'm seriously worried I'll never be stable no matter what I eat or do, and as a 28 year old man that's a scary thought.
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