I am using this forum due to the lack of moderator on the Remission forum.
I am reintroducing food after 9+ weeks on the shakes.

1) Is it common to experience cramping during this phase

2) Is it common to have loose stools till you are excusively on solids.
I am doing squash , carrots, stewed apples.

I have been faithful to the elemental diets, my journey has been long and hard, with extreme erytheum nodosum, off the charts in the pain department. It came up in my legs, throat, breast, arms, feet, face, and it was about 4 months. This was after Gall bladder trouble, with gall stone due to rapid weight loss. Three procedures later , gall bladder intact thats over. Recently I ended up with blood clots in my spleen, and half my spleen shot. It came in three rounds thinking it was pleurisy, but an astute emergency room doc picked up on the spleen issue, and after three days in hospital and some high powered pain meds I am home and a week later off pain meds. I lost all the weight I gained and truly even up to a day ago , felt like trash.

3) Maybe this isn't a good time to introduce solids?????? I am doing shakes every 1 1/2 hours to get the weight up again, plus a meal or two of vegies steamed.

I finally see this Ulcerative Colitis as a systemic illness. It isn't just your colon that is effected. My whole body was inflammed. I still have a high level of inflammation , according to the accupuncturist who came to my house a couple of days ago. My tongue is beet red, just a little indication of continuing inflammation.

4)Should I wait on solids? 5) How long can you do shakes??

I am actually kind of scared to go back to solids. I am ready to face that fear though, after all I have been through I am not going to let a little food freak me out.

I made a deal with my GI doc that I would let him do a sigmoid O in the beginning of April after doing the healing tract on my terms. He supported my choices with that one request. I am doing the procedure on Wed. My UCis mostly last half of transverse and decending colon, so I think we should be able to get some indication to my state of health in the offended areas. NO MORE COLONOSCOPIES.. What a wreck I was after that. Any way thats the plan.

One more issue I want to bring up. I have had several of the Berry Shake containers that are LOADED with the little berry specks. The presence of so much of these specks has caused cramping and VERY red stools that were , the first time, thougth to be a blood filled stool. Not all the containers have this high concentration and i do fine then, but I have had to stop using a couple of the containers because of the reaction. I can't use the chocolate because I am caffeine sensitive and I get headaches and shakes, the vanilla alone is so sweet, I mix the berry and vanilla. The berry actually seems to seperate and form is own sediment, that when I evacuated sometimes its all berry and I am all cramps. Anyone else had this problem??????



Any help, input would be most greatly appreciated. This forum has been a life line . Thank you.
Barb

Hi, Barb.

Yes, you certainly have had a hard time of it!

Jini had one client who went into a severe flare while pregnant and basically lived on AbsorbPlus and vegetable juices that she juiced herself for the duration of the pregnancy. So you can do that for months, if necessary. I wouldn't want to stay on just the AbsorbPlus alone for that long, though, as you would be missing out on all the beneficial phytochemicals in fruits/veggies.

Jini won't be available until the end of the month (no access to the Internet till then), but I will ask her to comment on your question regarding cramping. However, it is definitely common to have loose stools until you are exclusively on solids. As you increase your ratio of solids to shakes, though, I'd expect to see the stools firming up gradually.

My blood tests showed a higher than normal SED rate even after the elemental diet, too, although it had improved. Over time, it continued to improve. I haven't had a blood test in several months, now, but judging from how I feel, I'll bet I'd test normal at this point. Based on my own experience, especially if you're starting out really ill, as I did, (and it certainly sounds like you did, too), the elemental diet won't necessarily get you to complete healing but it did give me a really big jumpstart. My system was still quite sensitive afterwards, and the food reintroduction was sometimes stressful in and of itself, but things continued to calm down/even out over time.

You have to feel your way along, deciding whether or not to keep reintroducing solids. If it were me, I would probably keep going with solids, but very slowly and cautiously, keeping a diary to monitor reactions. That said, however, your best answer really is going to come from your own body, not from another person......

Two more suggestions:

I would contact Imix Naturals and explain the problem you've had with the Mixed Berry shakes. They may work with you on that....

Also, you've had such a hard time that I want to mention that Jini is no longer on maternity leave. You can book a consultation with her directly via the shopping cart at her online store, www.holistichealthshoppe.com if you're interested in doing that. I'm not trying to push you into buying anything; I'm only mentioning it because it's a fairly recent development and I'll bet she'd have some further insight/suggestions for you based on what she's learned directly helping so many people with their healing journeys....

Don't hesitate to write if any other questions come to mind; I'll do my best to help.

Nicole

Nicole,
Thanks for the time you took to respond.
I have to say that reintroduction of food is terrifying to me. I have done summer squash , carrots, white rice and butternut squash soup , it seems to be ok. I am not sure what kind of reaction I should look for, since everything is still liquid stool??? I am concerned with the cramping , not sure if that is a reaction.

Did you use baby foods? How long did it take you to get to solids exclusively? and What is SED that you mentioned in the blood work. I am not familiar with that.

What do you think of a sigmoidoscopy to see the condition of the colon?
Thanks for your time Nicole, I feel so out on a limb it is so nice to be able to bounce things off someone who has been there.
Barb

Hi, Barb.

You're very welcome; I really am glad to help.

I can empathize with your fears. I remember reintroducing food as being a pretty intense time for me, too. On the one hand, I was thrilled to be feeling better and completely looked forward to eating solid food again, but on the other hand, fear lurked.

Rather than repeat them all here, Jini actually gives a list of reactions to look for in Chapter 3 of LTYG. See pages 241-242.

Were you still having some cramping on the exclusively liquid diet or did it only start with reintroducing some more solid food? I'd say the answer to that is key to figuring out whether or not it is an adverse reaction to food.

Also, depending on severity, I'd intuitively answer that it may be a normal reaction to more bulk travelling through the system and something that could very well subside and/or disappear entirely on its own.

Thinking back, it was probably about four or five weeks before I was entirely back on regular food. As I consumed enough calories from solids, I gradually weaned back on the shakes, one at a time. I didn't buy baby food, although that does make sense as a good starting point....it's all very soft and well-cooked. I just made sure I cooked the veggies until they were really soft, started with poached fish rather than baked and that sort of thing. (In other words, still keeping to the principle of very soft food to begin with.) I do remember finding raw fruit a bit problematic to begin with although I certainly do fine with it now. (I do still peel my fruits, though.)

SED rate is shorthand for sedimentation rate. Basically, it measures inflammation in the body. Here's a link with an explanation.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/Sedimentation-Rate

To be honest, I completely agree with Jini that tests such as colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy are invasive to the body, have sterilization issues, are traumatic, are disruptive to the bacterial flora and only give you a picture of what is taking place within one small window of time. So my own personal feeling toward them is that I truly cannot see myself agreeing to another test like that in the future.

But keep in mind that that is my personal feeling and decision.

I feel equally strongly that these are entirely personal decisions and I would never want to influence someone else to agree to or refrain from having tests based only on what I think. We all need to weigh evidence, our own gut feelings and beliefs, etc. and decide for ourselves.

Hang in there.

Nicole

Nicole,
The fact that it took you 4 o r 5 weeks to get back on solids is a help to know. It gives me a sense of how to pace myself, understanding my own journey may not be the same but it gives me something to work off of and helps me to be patient.

I am going to try some juicing, did you do any of that during the reinto phase?
Excuse the graphic nature of my next question, but I have been seeing the length of time between trips to the bathroom increase to as much as 8 hours. Typically its 4 -6 hours. good sign. But , I have also noticed that the (heres the graphic part) color of the stools is different. Is this due to the increased amount of time in the colon??? They are brownish. Its not the plain elemental sediment anymore. The reason I ask and am somewhat concerned is that my liver enzymes were pretty high after the clots in the spleen , and I think my liver and gall bladder are struggling. I have had a couple of greenish stools... bile, so tell me what you know about this color change. Normal??? or not. Only occasionally is the urgency overwhelming, so its nice to have the time span increase but to be able to handle the urgency.
I am on blood thinners, very low dose for the clots in the spleen..... not sure how this all plays in , but I feel inclined to do this med. as half of my spleen is now shot, don't want to lose anymore.
I have 2 weeks to decide on the sigmoid O, they had to cancel todays appointment as the doc was out sick. I had asked God to show me what to do and to intervene. I will continue to pray and consider this decision to do or not to do the procedure. I thought that becuase the only thing that is going to be used is the enema, of which I would use a diluted fleet, it would not be so disruptive. DO they do something along with the scope??? Is there a solution or something that accompanies it?
Nicole, again thank you ........ Your patient forbearance with my questions is so appreciated.
barb

Hi, Barb.

I'm glad to offer whatever help I can give.

Following is a link with some general info on the sigmoidoscopy procedure.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 003885.htm

Another website that Jini has mentioned is a good one to find info in these exploratory procedures is http://www.wales.com.au

Also, insist on a disposable sigmoidoscope. (Talk with them about this ahead of time.) That way, if you decide in favor of the procedure, at least you won't have to worry about sterilization issues.

And I would definitely follow it with a probiotic retention enema (instructions in Chapter 2 of LTYG) and at least three months of high-dose oral probiotic supplementation.

Actually, I don't own a juicer, so I've never done any juicing. It is a purchase I've got on my "maybe" list, though, as I do think there are benefits to it. There's a lot of information on juicing on Dr. Mercola's website, www.mercola.com, which I found interesting.

In my opinion, it's normal that you'll see changes in both color and consistency in your stools as you change your diet. Even a person with completely uncompromised digestive health will see changes in their stools depending on what they've been eating. As far as greenish stools, tthough, I'm not sure; it wouldn't hurt to run that one by your doctor next time you see him/her or your naturopath, if you have one. It sounds like all the vegetables you've been eating have been orange ones, so I certainly don't think they would produce any greenish coloration....

Less frequent stools and less urgency is an excellent sign, though. Keep pampering your digestive system and I think you'll find, as I have, that over time those good signs will continue to improve/expand.

Keep up the good work.

Nicole

Nicole,
I have looked at the links you sent , the sed rate, and the sigmoid O test info. Thank you for those. I am surprised my doc never did the sed rate test. We have done frequent blood work. I am going to have him do it on the next round. I will continue to think about the Sig test and decide if I should do it or not. I am leaning toward not doing it. I know my GI will have a fit but he'll get over it. He got over my not letting him take my gall bladder out for one stone.
I tried juicing with carrots , might be a little intense for my digestion right now, it exited pretty quick.
I am doing summer squash, minute rice, pears, apples cooked, its going okay, but certainly not a way to gain weight. Bought a baby food grinder so i can do fresh instead of baby food.
Thanks for all you help and input.... I am sure I will be back at you before this food intro ends.
barb

Hi Barb,

I gotta admit, I don't have a whole lot to add as Nicole has covered everything very thoroughly.

Of course, if you do the sigmoidoscopy, insist on a disposable one and follow with Jini's Probiotic Retention Enema.

I can't remember, but have you done the Wild Oregano Oil Protocol yet? If not, now may be a good time to start (check with your gut).

Yes, I think we've all been really scared about the prospect of food again after the elemental diet. Use the EFT to help you get through this.

Please research natural blood thinners - can't recall but I think Vitamin E is just as effective in clinical trials. Whenever you take a drug it caused domino-effect damage throughout the body. There are also very natural effective treatments for gallstones.

Remember, WHATEVER happens with your body, there are natural effective treatments. You just have to research and dig for them, since there is no one with money to promote them, and pharmaceutical companies pay a lot of money to actively suppress them.

Raw foods (including juicing) are often too harsh - as you've found out. I don't recommend them until Phase Four - or until you've been on regular food for 6 months.

Go slow and only introduce foods as you feel safe and comfortable. One reader stayed on JUST the IBD Remission Diet for 3 months. So don't worry about mixing food and shakes for a long time. And yes, as long as you're still on the shakes, your bowel movements will not be normal - since they are an elemental, liquid food. I've been having a shake for supper every night since my third baby was born 10 months ago - because I'm too exhausted and stressed to eat regular food by that time! So be gentle with yourself and give yourself time and space.

all the best,
Jini

ps. I'm going to post this thread to the IBD Remission Diet Forum as well, since it will benefit a lot of people there.[/i]

Jini,
Thank you for weighing in on my questions. I am pretty nervous about not doing the blood thinners as my spleen is still not allowing me to even lay on my left side. So I know it isn't healed yet. I am doing half the dose the doc recommended, and my blood work shows it is enough.
I had 1 gall stone due to rapid weight loss in the beginning and my gall bladder is okay now. Its working anyway.

How can you tell if something causes the runs if all your stools are loose due to the shakes , is it just based on transit time?

On the sigmoidoscopy, from what I have surmised from reading , the only thing they introduce is air, how is this disruptive to the flora?? The enema I would do for prep would be warm water... I never use the solution in the fleet. water does the same thing.

I thank you for the input, plus the encouragement to just take my time on the food reintro. I didn't realize it but I have been on the elemental diet for 3 months!! I lost track, so I guess I am just thinking I have to GET OFF it NOW!! But I don't want to flare the colon again so I am takng your advice and just going slow. I am very underweight and have had a hard time gaining weight on the shakes so that is also been a source of pressure. My doctors put a lot of stock in weight gain. I am about 15 lbs underweight. Hard to gain weight on phase 1 foods.

Thank you for all your help.
Barb

Hi Barb,

Unfortunately, as you already guessed, you cannot tell if a food causes liquid stools as long as you are still ingesting the shakes. That's why the food reintroduction also has to be an intuitive process and like all natural healing, it's a long, winding path.

Water alone can flush out large quantities of bacteria, and introducing any object into the rectum/colon can disrupt bacteria.

Yes, you can't gain much weight on Phase 1 foods, that's why you still have to keep the shakes up whilst testing foods. As you've discovered, these healing techniques are not scientific, machinistic processes, that are logical and black and white. There are a lot of grey areas, frustration, things that don't quite make sense. So the more you can relax into it and follow your gut, the happier you'll be and the more success you'll have.

take care,
Jini