Update

Woah – to summarise, I have no idea what is going on with my guts at the moment!

Things have not been right since I went off SCD and tried out a different diet (I didn’t change my foods, just my supplements). Then I used some predfoam and between the two incidences things went wrong and have not been the same since.

I have been fighting what I believe to be a candida overgrowth which I thought I have got rid of a couple of times first with Nystatin and then with Diflucan. I believe the reason it came back is because of the double dose of swine flu jab I had to have. Now that the swine flu jabs are done with, I am back on a course of Nystatin to hopefully prove my theory correct.

At the same time as this the doctors have noticed my haemoglobin levels steadily falling in the 3-month blood tests I have (to keep an eye on my bloods because of the azathioprine tablets I take) *are you keeping up with all this ; P*!!! They decided I am anaemic and when I went for my last swine flu jab there was talk of iron supplementation. I didn’t want to go down that route (the tablets are sugar-coated and have so much crap in them) but I have really been struggling with my energy levels. Anyway I went to the doctors on Thurs to mention about the candida coming back and to get some more Nystatin (hopefully to prove my theory about it being coming back because of the swine flu jab) and while I was there it all kicked off!

Now i’ve got a big batch of iron supplements to take, something to increase my stomach acid and I had to do numerous stool tests at home which I need to take back in so they check if there is some kind of bacterial infection going on.

I guess I am hoping they actually find something going on that they can fix and then I can get back to healing myself with the diet. I think there is something odd going on as I have not really changed my diet in over a year and yet a year ago, I had no problems with iron intake. I hate having to resort to modern medicine but if it can give me a quick boost (and not undo too much of the hard work that I have done over the last year and a half or so) then I guess i’ll just suck it in and hope for the best!

Don’t worry dear reader, i’m hanging in there. It would be nice to be a bit fixed so I can have a good christmas. Finger’s crossed.

Mike

Link between swine flu vaccine and candida??

The flu vaccines contain antibiotics such as neomycin, polymyxin B and gentamicin which are added to eliminate stray bacteria found in the mixture. Evidence shows that antibiotics wipe out beneficial bacteria that is needed for optimum health. Antibiotics ironically lower the immune system and cause Candida overgrowth.

Found this little gem via a google search. Admittedly it was pretty much the only reference on the whole of the internet that I could find about candida and the swine flu vaccine but it does show that maybe I can deal with the candida on the scd. The slightly annoying thing is that I have to go and have another swine flu jab in a couple of weeks so even if the Nystatin gets it under control, it could kick off again when I have the second jab. Ah well I guess I’ll deal with problem if and when it happens.

Arrrrghhhh!

That about sums up how i’m feeling right now. Ready to tear my hair out with frustration. The yeast problem is back.

The Nystatin worked and cleared up the problem. I was started to get optimistic about progressing on the SCD again but now i’m back wondering what the hell I can do to get past this new viscious cycle. My diet is just too resticted at the moment to cut out honey, sugars etc. – what i’d need to do to go onto an anti candida diet.

I’m seriously thinking about going back to a nutrionist that I used to see a few years back. I’m not sure I know what I can do to beat this

Going to go back to the doctor’s tomorrow. I’ll probably just get given Nystatin again but at least that will give me temporary relief from the yeast overgrowth. I’m supposed to be going to visit my parents in early December so if I can just make sure i’m well for that and I can deal with whatever happens afterwards.

It is just so gutting that I had never had a yeast issue until I had to get back on the steroids to help with a big flare up and now it seems it is going to really hinder my healing progress and I don’t see how I can progress again on the SCD until I can deal with the candida.

To summarise: ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!

Year and a half on the SCD

Another diet milestone reached! 1 year and 6 months on the diet today!

Wow. I was saying the other day, if someone had said to me a couple of years back that I would go on a diet for a year and half and exist almost solely on meat, fish, roasted carrots, peppers and courgette, peas, spinach, garlic, honey, yoghurt and eggs (yep, thats as far as i’ve got with my diet!) I would have laughed in their faces. But that is exactly what I have done.

I’m sure I there are loads of other things that my system could handle but I was either not well enough to want to risk new foods or I was trying to introduce some of the more key elements (e.g. nut butters/flour, cheese, butter etc.) that I just haven’t got round to it.

I get by though and i’ve become a more determined and strong-willed person because of it. I’ve not cheated even once since I started the diet either. I’m pretty proud of that.

I watch all these tv shows now about people trying to lose weight or change their diet with a mixture of disbelief and disgust when they say they can’t not eat the rubbish they eat or they start a ‘diet’ and then have a bad day and order a pizza. Why don’t they all just grow a pair and get on with it!

One thing that i’m not so proud of is how my social life has suffered since I started on the diet. Early on I was just plain too ill to contemplate going out. I was flying solo without the steroids for the first time and things got worse before they started to get better. I am much improved now but I have got into such a rut that I barely ever go out – I don’t even go out to do the weekly shop with my girlfriend because I just don’t want to risk having an accident.

It is a huge obstacle that I need to get over but I know that as things continue to improve, the hurdles will start to seem smaller and smaller. I guess I need to take a slice of my own advice and grow a pair!

I’ve lost touch with a lot of good friends. It doesn’t help that I don’t live where I grew up anymore but I haven’t really helped myself. Even with facebook I still struggle to keep up. I don’t want to put messages up and then get invited to things which I then wimp out of. I tell myself that I when I had before the diet I was a UC caterpillar. Now i’m in my chrysalis stage and shying away from the world but at some point i’ll be a beautiful (yet masculine!) butterfly and at that point I can get my life back.

Here’s hoping…..

Dear food diary

Here is my pledge, in writing so I can’t get out of it:

I am going to keep a detailed food/symptom diary.

I did do this at the start of the diet and managed to keep it up for about 2 or 3 months before it tailed off. It’s like every diary I ever had as a christmas present or that i’ve bought myself. There’ll be an entry for christmas day, one for maybe boxing day and the day after. Then nothing for a week. Then a few lines about 2 weeks later and then nothing.

If I am going to keep a diary, I also need to have a bit more patience. It always seems that when the bms loosen or the urgency returns, that in the same week I will have introduced a couple of new foods, lowered my dosage of a medication, had a stressful day, been around people who’ve got some kind of bug, etc. and I just can’t say for certain what has caused the problem.

This is most likely to be the reason why my diet is still so near to the pecanbread intro diet! So this is my SCD one and a half year’s resolution: to keep a food/symptom diary and to have more patience and only change one variable at a time! It sounds so simple when you put it like that!

Back on the right track

I’m actually starting to feel much better after about 4 months of paying for a couple of mistakes. It was the end of June when I was feeling better than ever. For some reason (easy to look back and judge with hindsight) at that point I was hearing about the success of others who had added strings, other than just the SCD, to their bow and had success. It wasn’t as if the SCD wasn’t working and that was the reason I was looking elsewhere. I can’t help beating myself up about this – for a while I was in a bad place and thought i’d really done some new damage to my guts.

It has taken about 4 months to get back to somewhere near where I was when I first started going off the track. I know the SCD works for me and I have learned the hard way that maybe it is my only chance to be free of ulcerative colitis. I’ll never make that mistake again.

Flu jab

Had swine flu jab today. I’m on immunosuppressing medication (azathioprine) so am considered in the at risk category. I’ve read stuff on the net about why not to have immunising jabs but i’d rather not have swine flu. During the initial outbreak earlier this year I was genuinely worried about getting swine flu. People were ending up in hospital and the media weren’t helping with their hyped-up stories, theories and what-ifs.

As i’m immunosuppresed, I also have to go back in 3 weeks for another dose of the pandemic flu jab. Lucky me!

My arm is starting to ache a bit but so far no other symptoms. I bet i’ll feel rough tomorrow.

Ripe avacado

I googled this the other day as I always seem to not have the patience to wait for my avacados to ripen enough. The guide said:

Touch your finger to your forehead: this is what an unripe avacado feels like
Touch your finger to your cheek: this is what an overripe avacado feels like
Touch your finger to the end of your nose: this is what a ripe avacado feels like.

I think this is pretty good guide!

Super stock

When I thought about starting a blog I wanted it to be like most of the other scd bloggers out there and include tasty recipe ideas. Unfortunately there is not much you can do when you are limited to just past the intro diet (i’m working on it!) but I do have one good tip that I saw recently on a rerun of an episode of a Jamie Oliver programme.

I generally have one roast chicken a week (sometimes two!). It provides meat for a couple of days and also means that I get to make soup. Once you have stripped the chicken (or whatever meat/fish you have) you put the bones back in the oven and gently roast them with 3/4 cloves of garlic, some salt and pepper and whatever fresh herbs tend to be at hand. I generally do this for about 30/40 mins  You then take them out of the oven, remove the herbs (I leave the garlic in) and then boil the bones as per normal.

It makes the most flavourful, amazing stock. Really worth the extra effort.

The morning after hangover (without the night before)

Just getting over a yeast infection. Feeling pretty rough – hung over actually. It’s a bit annoying as it has been at least a year and a half since I had an alcoholic drink! Apparently when the yeast dies off it releases 79 different toxins into the body the majority of which are alcohols. No wonder i’m feeling so rough. If it means the yeast overgrowth is calming down then it can only be a good thing. I don’t intend to ever take the prednisolone steroids again so hopefully this will be the last time I have to deal with the candida issue.

I’m going to add a page covering the story so far so if you want to know more about how I ended up with the yeast problem and all my other ups and downs then have a look at that.