I had been on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for the last two weeks since that has worked in the past. Last week, on January the 17th, 2021 I was beginning to feel better. However, as the week progressed, I began to experience diarrhea, constipation, painful bloating, and severe abdominal cramps. One night I thought about something I had read about someone making an incision in a cow to let out bloat, and I briefly thought I would prefer that to the continued pain.
I mostly persisted with the SCD diet, and couldn't figure out why I was experiencing severe abdominal pain after meals.
Yesterday, Saturday the 23rd, 2 1/2 weeks after the beginning of this flare, I was in extreme abdominal pain with constipation. I spent the day in bed. I had started taking Alka Seltzer the night before, and it was helping with the bloating and cramps, but only for four hours, and as soon as it wore off the pain would once again become intolerable. I had to get up in the middle of the night and take more Alka Seltzer just so that I could sleep. The Alka Seltzer label says that you should only have 8 tablets in a day, but each dosage is 2 tablets, and keeping the pain at bay would mean exceeding the dosage, so I began to look for other alternatives.
I began taking, Dr. Tobias Oregano & Caprylic Acid Blend - with Probiotics - Supports Flora Balance,
I also took Mira Lax, (which did nothing,) and CVS Health Intestinal Defense Peppermint Oil softgels. I'm not sure if the peppermint oil helped with the cramping, but it was pleasant.
However, I found an old bottle of Dicyclomine which had expired in 2017, and took a tablet out of sheer desperation. It helped with the cramping. I only needed to take 2 tablets, the second one 8 hours after the first one, and was able to sleep through Saturday night.
I also began to see a pattern: I was experiencing severe abdominal pain after eating foods that were Specific Carbohydrate Legal but high FODMAP. For example, honey is SCD legal but high FODMAP. Nuts are SCD legal, but cashews and high FODMAP.
For now, I am going to eliminate all foods that are not allowed on both diets. As I begin to feel better, I will add healthy foods that are not SCD legal but are still low FODMAP, and then gradually begin to add high FODMAP foods.
It might seem odd that I didn't visit my doctor, and there are several reasons for this.
First of all, we are in the middle of a pandemic, and if I can manage my own symptoms without going out to public health facilities, that's probably safer. I can always see a doctor if I can't get a handle on the symptoms.
Also, I work during the week, and my doctor's office is closed on the weekends. If I see a doctor on the weekend it will have to be a quick care doctor, and both my primary physician and my gastroenterologist have expressed that it's difficult to base a diagnosis on hearsay from a quick care doctor without seeing the symptoms themselves. Of course, this is frustrating for me, because I can clearly tell them what the symptoms were even though they have passed. But it means that if I am truly going to get a handle on this, I will have to organize a day off so that I can see my doctor while I still have active symptoms. Since days off are normally scheduled a week out, and I have no way of knowing whether I will still have active symptoms in a week, it's better for me to figure out how to avoid pain by avoiding certain foods. I can always call in sick in an emergency, but my employer, just like most employers, will start to consider disciplinary action if that occurs too often, so I will avoid calling in sick unless it really is impossible for me to work.
And lastly, with the exception of a quick care doctor prescribing Dicyclomine, I am under the impression that there is little that doctors can do about this. It might be better for my condition using one of my paid time off days to rest, rather than going out to a doctor's office.
However, if I want more Dicyclomine, which I do, it would be best to see my physician while experiencing active symptoms. So there it is.
Update: After being so sick on Saturday, January 23, I ate strictly low FODMAP and FODMAP free foods on Sunday. I felt much better,. Today, Monday, January 25, 2021, I at low FODMAP again, and my intestinal function is almost back to normal. By normal, I mean more "normal" than it has been in many months. I haven't taken any OTCs or supplements at all today. I plan to stay on the low FODMAP diet for six weeks and then regroup from there. Six weeks from today is Monday, March 8, 2021.
