# My journey so far



## Rboe (Mar 26, 2017)

I posted this o a private message and thought it may give hope to others. This is my journey so far. I do not want to mention that I believe different people respond to different diets and lifestyle changes and it takes time to find what works for you. If one thing does not work, after giving it sufficient time, try another.

I was diagnosed with IBS about 3 years ago after about 2 years with symptoms. (So have had it about 5 years.) My main symptoms were urgent diarrhea as in I needed a bathroom within 5 minutes or less or an accident would happen), nausea, heartburn, stomach aches, and sometimes severe pain. In a one year period I went to the hospital and walk-in clinic 5 times because the diarrhea was so bad I would get dehydrated and could not keep anything in me long enough to hydrate.

I saw my doctor and a gastroenterologist and had all the tests run to get the IBS diagnosis. I refused to accept that IBS can't be cured and I refused to try a bunch of different daily medications in the hope I might feel better. Plus nothing I read gave me hope. It seemed too many people try medications to have them work temporarily and then it stops working.

I tried the low FODMAP diet on my own. It decreased my symptoms for awhile but never got rid of them and eventually my symptoms returned.

I then went to a naturopath clinic here in Washington that specializes in IBS. I had food intolerance testing and they ran blood tests and stool samples. I avoided all the foods I tested positive to (and there were a lot) but that did nothing to help. The naturopath then treated me for Candida. I followed a Candida diet (basically took out all sugars and limits my fruit a lot) and took anti-fungals. The first month was absolutely awful! My symptoms got worse. However, the naturopath assured me that means that Candida is the problem. What I was experiencing was die-off. I toughed it out and soon I started feeling better. Over the next couple of years I continued working with the naturopath. This should have taken less time, except I was so afraid of die-off I did not go back to the naturopath soon enough. They (I had two naturopaths I worked with) switched the anti-fungals a few times. I continued to avoid most of the foods I tested positive to. I also kept cutting out foods I thought I was reacting to.

Anyway, the Candida diet and anti-fungal helped about 60-70%. The pain was less, I almost never had severe cramping, but would still get too many stomach aches. The diarrhea was less urgent. I even had days I did not have it in the afternoon but still had some every morning. On a rare occasion, I even had a normal looking and feeling bm, but never more than one or two before the diarrhea was back.

At one appointment I mentioned to my naturopath that starch seemed to be a problem. It seemed the tapioca flour I was using was hurting. He mentioned that SCD might be the next thing to look at but at that appointment he did not say do it. I researched it on my own (all along the way, even with the naturopath I have been researching on my own) and decided to try it.

I am at 7 weeks now and other than about a one week flare, I am doing very well. However, I will be very honest in that I am taking it very slowly.

SCD recommends starting with their intro diet for 2-5 days. I don't have the exact specifics in front of me but it is very restrictive. Homemade chicken broth (the book tells you specifically how to make it), chicken, broiled ground beef, pureed carrots, homemade gelatin and another couple homemade items. When I decided to try SCD life was busy (as it always is lol) so I slowly just cut out the few non legal SCD items I was eating. At this point, I was mostly following a Candida diet plus I eliminated the foods I tested intolerant to when tested by a naturopath and I had eliminated many other foods I thought were bothering me, so Iwas already on a limited diet.

The last thing I took out of my diet was Stevia. I was only having about 7 drops a day. But after only one day of not using it, my stool was normal the next morning.

I had intended to try the intro diet with the foods I thought I could tolerate but I knew it would be a week before I would have time to sit and plan it out (there is more to it, but this is already a book. Lol). So I stayed with the limited foods I was eating, mostly chicken, pork and several vegetables. After a few days, still no diarrhea or urgency. In 5 years that is the longest I had gone without diarrhea! So I decided to stay the course and just slowly add food back. Pecanbread.com has a list of suggested stages for adding foods. I use it as a guideline but am not following it exactly.

At about 5 1/2 weeks into the diet, one evening, I experienced pain and diarrhea. It was the severe pain/cramps I used to get regularly. I was discouraged but on a support board was told that some people experience a flare at 3-6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and sometimes a year. Also, the day before (or maybe that same day) I had eaten two bites of a banana for the first time and salmon. So I decided to keep those out of my diet. I also realized that the carrots were showing up in my stool so I took those out of my diet. After a few of days. My stomach settled back down and now I am feeling good again.

I will say, with the foods I am eating I have no doubt put my body into ketosis (you can google and search what that means, but it is from a low carb, high fat diet). I am not eating any fruit yet, in large part because I am still making sure I have eradicated the excess Candida from my system. So my diet is mostly chicken, pork, a tiny bit of ground beef (not my favorite food) and ground turkey and vegetables that grow above ground (no starchy vegetables). My vegetables are all cooked, I do not eat raw food yet. (Cooked is supposed to be easier to digest.). I am planning to try strawberries soon though as they are very low sugar and low carb. My carb intake is around 20 carbs per day.

So at this point, I am not totally sure if it is the ketosis that is helping, the SCD foods or both. My guess is both are helping. If SCD is really helping there is a good chance to add a lot of foods back into my diet and even in a couple years or more, all foods back to my diet. But I will never go back to eating highly processed foods. I will always stay on a Whole Foods diet for my health.

My diet is limited right now, I have to make all my food and I will not eat out at this point but it is so worth it. I still have fear that a flare will occur but that fear lessens each day. I leave my house with less fear now, but still know where all the bathrooms are. I can cope with a limited diet knowing I can yes to my kids to drive them to a friend's because I am not terrified of being more than 2 minutes from a bathroom. I am looking forward to vacation now, not dreading it.


----------



## ashyam86343 (Apr 4, 2017)

Good one. I strongly believe this.

Medicines have their own side effects, which we require to know how to manage those. but Natural treatment does not have any issues.


----------

