Living Life with IBS-D, Yup, IBS-D

Just coming in for a quick update. Since I have a new doctor now who has made amazing strides with me my diagnoses is now IBS-D. Not IBD. Although I have to say the treatments are pretty much the same. Same diet (LOW FODMAP) and mostly the same meds.

What is up?

Well, this is what I have been doing. Trying to get healthy and mostly it is composed of healthy living as much as I can. That includes not just the best diet but ones without preservatives and additives. If you have to read ten million ingredients on a package it is too much. Put it back.

Mostly, it is fresh fruits and vegetables and proteins like meats that I am allowed to have on my FODMAP diet for IBD. What is FODMAP? Go check it out on my other blog http://fodmapliving.blogspot.com/. 

So my new venture over the past year is trying to refine that diet using as much natural and organic foods as I can. So what did I do? Picked up chicken farming. I have 4 chickens that give me organic eggs every day. 

Two of the chicklets: Buff Orpington and Ameraucana

The great news is you don't need that much room to care for a small flock of chickens and they offer you such wonderful gifts every day!

The gifts. The one on the top is a blue egg laid by my Ameraucana hen.

Check the new chicks born @ Royal Acre Farms. http://t.co/thvnyHZeDH They are new on FaceBook & could use some likes. #chicks #Facebook #RT
— Kay Curtis (@noveloptions) April 4, 2014

Are you interested in FODMAPs?

Go visit my blog Living the Fodmap Way to learn about FODMAPs, what they are and some helpful hints. It is a journal of how I living using that diet.

Living the Fodmap Way

Mesenchymal stem cell infusion being used to treat moderate to advanced stages of Crohn's.

Good News! Check it out below. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) infusion is being used in moderate and advance stages of Crohn's. Click on the link below for full report.

Clinical trial hints at Crohn’s treatment success

Prednisone Rears it Ugly Head

Prednisone rears its ugly head.

Credit of this photo is unknown. If you know please let me know.

Not only do I have IBD I was born with a genetic defect that causes me to have spontaneous pneumothoraxes.  Spontaneous pneumothoraxes cause me to collapsed lungs at no given time for any reason. Usually, people get them when they are in car accidents or sudden trauma to the chest.  I have had way too many to count and even had surgery for one 20 years ago. My chest is scarred from chest tubes.  In any case, it is accompanied by other lung problems such as asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia. Which accounts for my many pills for allergies, inhalers both rescue and inhaled steroids and on some occasion it is accompanied by breathing treatments and steroid bursts of prednisone.

So when the IBD came into effect 8 years ago I was not new to steroid treatment. Not just prednisone but one time I was on Entocort EC for almost 3 years. This past month I came down with a terrible cold. I mean the worst of the worst. I know my teen age son had been having problems too this month and he went twice for a strep test and even sent him back again for blood work. His symptoms are gone but he is still run down.  So keeping that in mind I slept in the Lazy Boy recliner for months coughing my brains out and not sleeping for days. My husband said go to the doctors but I wanted to wait out the 7-10 day cold period because hey let’s face it with the IBD I see the doctors and hospitals all time! Am I not right all of you sufferers? So the Friday after Thanksgiving I called but the doctor’s office was closed. I was really looking forward to that weekend especially since increased mucous from my asthma always makes my IBD symptoms worse and not just worse to the extreme.

So the following Monday I called for an appointment for the next day. Why the next day? Our truck broke down. That day my son also had his follow up and they wanted to know how he was making out with his Mononucleosis. What MONO???? They never called us. They said they would call if they found anything on his blood work.

So I went to my appointment as planned. My lungs had way too much fluid in them so they upped my Advair inhaled steroid and decided to put my on a prednisone burst for that and my IBD. My stomach was so bad they put me on a 3 day liquid diet then I could ease into the regular prednisone diet. For my IBD I am already on a FODMAP diet which is extremely limited for foods for me to begin with plus it excludes gluten and dairy (I use Lactaid pills when I have dairy) As sick as I was I was trying it but not in my right mind because I forgot about the ugly symptoms of the prednisone. I went to the lab for blood work (to also include a mono test) then off home to take on my numerous meds and extremely limited diet.

So the fun began. Broth for dinner with cranberry juice mixed with lemon seltzer water. Cranberry juice is a no no because it has high fructose corn syrup but hey what do they expect me to do? Follow the FODMAP diet or follow the liquid diet. My husband and son ate and the smell of them cooking a chicken dinner drove me crazy. Then later that night as we are watching TV he brings up a snack of yogurt mixed with berries and walnuts. That drove me crazy so I thought I would go down and get a fruit Popsicle.  None left. On top of it all I have my husband all night asking me what wrong. (HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU WHAT IS WRONG!) Big surprise there so I went to bed instead.

The next bitchy day I had more meds, chicken broth and drank cranberry juice watered out with seltzer water. Plus, I drank spring water all day long. Plus, I made a big batch of jello. My favorite, NOT! Thankfully, my son and husband are not home during the day. So this went on for two more days. Not only am I bitchy I feel like I want to jump out of my skin. I am extremely forgetful. I forgot that I was cooking homemade creamy squash soup for the next day’s meals. Yup, it burned on the bottom so you can imagine my emotions them. Swear, yell, cry. Then I finally crashed. I took a nap that lasted 3 hours in the deepest of sleep. When I woke dinner consisted of beef broth (come to find out it has gluten in it- great) and my favorite strawberry jello. (NOT) Snack consisted of ……yet more jello while my husband ate his yogurt again while we watched Sons of Anarchy.  Last night I was looking at the diet and it said I could have milk with my steroids in the morning. I was so excited I jumped in joy! Then I went to bed. I stay there watching TV until my husband comes in because I can’t sleep. Then I go to the Lazy Boy chair, watch Animal Planet (Big Foot and Rattlesnake Nation) Then around 3 in the morning I say to FX!#K with this and take two Valium. Then I head to bed at 4 am.

So it is morning. Go downstairs to find that the dog took a dump on the floor. So that set me off but then I realize that maybe Teller could not wake me up because I had taken the Valium  So I didn't yell at him. Took the dogs out to do their business and fed them and the cat breakfast. When to get my breakfast of that nice COLD glass of milk that I have been looking forward to with my prednisone which I wish were cookies instead. No FX!#KinG milk! You must be kidding me! But what can I expect I do have a teenage son in the house, plus before I went to the doctors I made the boys brownies so they have been scoffing them down with milk. No vehicle and the store around the corner that I can walk to closed down so guess I have to forget that this morning. At this point I am jumping out of my skin. Arghh! Back to the cranberry juice I go. I am also pissed at myself because I wanted a ½ pot of coffee and I made a full pot- forgetfulness. (I hate waste – I don’t even drink a ½ pot. Only 1 cup a day maybe.) So today I have a cranberry juice, coffee and prednisone breakfast again.

Let’s see how the rest of this day pans out. If my creamy liquid day goes well I can start my regular prednisone diet which at least includes potatoes and eggs. On a good note my lungs are clearing up. 

To be continue…… ~Kay

Check out IBD or known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease on FaceBook

Shit or get off the Pot

Lately, I have been analyzing my life. Life with IBD is really “shitty.” I do not go anywhere, if I do I get embarrassed and to make a long story short I miss out on life’s offerings. Missing out has caused lots of tears, depressing, anger and feeling sorry for myself.

Adapting, to home life in the beginning was not easy for my active self. It meant no longer working because they could not quite figure out what was wrong with me and even to this day IBD is a term used loosely. IBD has not been controlled except by steroids. All the drugs they give for IBD I had an allergy to. So steroids helped but they severely depleted my Vitamin D and Calcium levels and I ended up with a few broken bones. So that in turned made me very extreme depressed, plus the healing time from the broken bones was longer. So I got even more upsest at my disease and then that anger turned to feeling sorry for me which lead to a deeper depression.

I would sleep for days without getting up. I would beg my doctor to put me in a mental institution. My feelings were I didn’t want to hurt anyone but I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to run away and I had no place to go. I was a prisoner in my own house. So because I wasn’t going to hurt anyone they prescribed depression medications and psychotherapy.

It did help somewhat but it did not take care of the problem. I had days where I could finally pull myself out of bed and take a shower. Then that led to wandering around the house looking for things to do. After a while I decided this is something I need to live with so I might as well make the best of it. The things that seemed to help were journaling, drawing, painting and relaxation music.

Well let’s say lately I have been getting bored of that and am tired of missing out on life’s pleasures. We are only on this earth once so either “shit or get off the pot!” I decided to get off the pot.

To be continued……..

Shit or get off the pot meaning: An old expression that means to do what you are putting off.

Under or over? Does it really matter?

If you have FaceBook please participate in my poll. So far I have 80 responses and hope to get at least 100. These are the things I think of as I spend so much time in the bathroom. :) ~Kay




Just click the Under and Over.

Under or Over