Thursday 1 June 2017

Maybe things aren't as bad as I thought

So I did a bit of reading last night because I thought my sudden lactose intolerance was more than a little unlikely. It turns out that there are certain circumstances where lactose intolerance can actually be temporary!

I read all about sudden onset lactose intolerance, its rare but not impossible but most importantly it is also likely that if your lactose intolerance came on suddenly, it will go away over time.

I then looked at causes of sudden onset lactose intolerance and it turns out that a severe GI upset can cause it because it can unbalance the enzymes and bacteria in your gut. Well guess who had food poisoning just a few days before this all started? Yup, this girl.

We had Chinese food for dinner three weeks ago and I was so ill afterwards, genuinely the most throwing up I have ever done. This went on for 48 hours. At first I didn't think it was food poisoning because having spent most of my life in the food industry before going on to become a nurse, I know that usually food poisoning takes at least 24 - 48 hours to develop after you have eaten the meal that caused it. I had become ill within a few hours. However just as I was getting better the other half started throwing up just as violently as I had been and I decided that it simply had to be food poisoning, maybe I was just more sensitive to this particular bacteria or something.

So from what I read the best thing to do is to give my system a break from lactose to let the enzymes build back up. There is no way of knowing how long I need to take this break for, its just trial and error unfortunately so I thought I would give it a week and see how it goes. If there is no improvement, I will try another week. It actually doesn't seem that hard since I don't necessarily need to cut lactose out completely, just cut it right down. I already bought lacto free milk and butter so all I really need to avoid is cheese for a week, surely I can manage that?

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Could things get any worse?

I swear sometimes I think the world is out to get me. Not only am I stuck with the diet of a toddler but then I pile on a tonne of weight in large part due to having helicobacter and no one believing me. Then because the helicobacter went untreated for so long its left me with GI issues that will likely persist for the rest of my life, the medication will no doubt also be life long. My life has been super depressing recently and now it looks like I might be lactose intolerant!

Seriously, like I need any more limitations in my diet!

A few years back when what we now know was actually helicobacter started, the GP toyed with the idea of a food intolerance. I dismissed it since my diet never changes (the one good thing about SED, you never eat a new food) and my symptoms were never associated with eating a particular food - just with eating in general. I did however try a few elimination diets, had no success and went back to my usual toddler-style eating within a few weeks.

Over the last few months however I have noticed that whenever I eat a lot of dairy my stomach plays up. It needs to be quite a bit though, I can drink a late with no issues but if I have something with a creamy sauce or maybe have breakfast cereal my stomach starts playing up. The old idea of a food intolerance has entered my head again. The GP at the time suspected lactose as being the culprit, I think purely because its the most common food intolerance going but I wonder if he was right all along.

I tested my theory, yesterday I had no dairy at all and guess what my stomach was fine. Today I had milk in my cereal and my stomach played up. Now I know that one days testing is not enough - usually medics recommend a two week elimination period to see if there is improvement so I stepped up my plan by purchasing lots of lacto free products at the supermarket tonight. I will see how it goes this week.

I don't know if I'm just clutching at straws here but something is not right, I just hope I don't have helicobacter again!

So much of what I eat is dairy. I love cheese and have recently taken to yogurt so I can have a healthy breakfast at work - sure you can get lactose free versions of these things but with SED a different brand or food having a different texture can make such a huge difference to my ability to eat the food that I am so worried. Ive only found one yogurt I can eat so far and I might need to change it already - this is pretty frightening actually, although I cant say I have noticed an issue with yogurt, how strange, maybe because I only take a tiny bit?

This really is the last thing I need.