This past month has been a complete roller coaster , and honestly at times I didn't think I'd get through it. But I want to share my experience, my journey as I search for answers regarding my health and the reasons I have decided to use SCD as a tool to regain my health, and my life.
When I was first introduced to SCD, I kind of just dove right in. I wasn’t particularly in the worst flare, I was just tired of being generally unwell, and looking for answers. I didn't completely understand the science of the diet, and I didn't understand how detrimental it can be to the healing process to include illegal foods here and there. I was basically just dipping my toes in the water here and there, until this past month. June and early July were absolute hell for me and that’s when I decided that I was not going to frig around with it anymore. Essentially I looked at my diet as if I was choosing to be sick, by eating things that sent me into “flare” or whatever it is that is happening with my body.
I still have no real diagnosis aside from IBS-DC , but on June 10th, immediately following a new NSAID my orthopaedic Doctor put me on for arthritic type knee pain, I spiralled into the worst “flare” of my life. I essentially lost all bowel control, first starting with D and then eventually turning into a week long stint of mild to severe C. When I did have a BM , I was passing huge globs of white mucus, and stool with what looked like blood streaked through it, but most of all, I was in incredible pain. I felt like my insides were burning on the inside (you know the feeling when you burn your finger. Yeah, that) the pain was going right up from my rectum, into the lower/mid left quadrant, then eventually all the way to the top left where my ribs are, at the splenic flexure. This pain started as intermittent, but eventually became constant and chronic. I have had a constant pressure/pain in my lower left quadrant since sometime around last summes, as well as intermittent stabbing/jolt pains in my rectal area, but this was beyond me and completely new. I was unable to keep awake, like literally nearly falling asleep at my nephews birthday dinner. I had no appetite, I was going to bed at 7pm, sometimes waking up all hours of the night from pain and nausea. I had chills at times, and extreme dizziness when standing up. It was a total fucking nightmare of a month, it caused me to miss over 2 weeks of work, and to top it all off, I was home alone because Tom was doing a 5 week job at sea.
So far I’ve had total blood work, abdominal X-ray and a cat scan. All showed fairly normal results. ESR was not tested, which is a concern to my naturopath. The CT scan showed minor inflammation which the emergency doctors attributed to fecal impaction (due to chronic C) this could be the case, but I am inclined to feel that the C, impaction could have been caused by something else, other than IBS. I can't help but feel this way, given the symptoms and patterns. Anyway, I am finally doing a lot better, although it took over a month of tests and hospital visits, a month on SCD. Days of D, days of C, days with mucus and blood, but finally I am having mostly normal days.
SCD intro isn’t easy, when I first started exploring SCD and avoiding illegals (for the most part) I was doing it all wrong, I had entirely skipped the intro, and I was eating advanced foods right from the get go. But given the new situation I was in, to say the least, living off of chicken soup, homemade jello, beef patties and eggs was the least of my worries for 3 days early last month. I am not entirely sure if I just got better on my own, but I believe SCD has gotten my there, which is why I am fully dedicated to SCD and grain free living, now and hopefully for the rest of my life.
The intro seems hard, complicated and intimidation, but my best recommendation would to just make it as simple as possible. BTVC has recipes for cheesecake, and other weird “imitation” foods to get you through the intro, but my advice would honestly be to just make a but load of soup, following the recipe in BTVC, a big thing of grape jello (homemade with unsweetened juice and grass fed gelatin) and a huge batch of SCD meatballs (which are essentially just ground meat, and a small amount of S&P , rolled into balls and broiled in the oven). People who can tolerate eggs are able to have them during the intro, I did a couple of times it makes for a nice, normal feeling breakfast. It's boring food but it keeps you full as long as you eat a lot of it.
It’s recommended to stay on the intro for 1-3 days, and then slowly introduce easy to digest foods. Here is where it gets better, SCD legal yogurt with honey is amazing, mash up some banana and you’ll literally feel like you’re in heaven after 3 days of eating soup and jello, trust me. Banana pancakes , though, have become a saviour. They are pretty incredible, a banana , an egg and some cinnamon fried up to make the most delicious pancakes you'd ever have. They're so good in fact, I almost wanted to change the name of my blog to "bananapancakes" , but as it turns out, a lot of people like banana pancakes, because the name was taken. The main thing to remember is that if you’re going to introduce fruits, they either need to be really spotted bananas or COOKED. Cooked apples and pears can be introduced on the first day off of the intro. Cooked squash, like zucchini, acorn and butternut can also be introduced early on. Butter nut squash is an incredible replacement for anything sweet potato based. And zucchini is delicious on the grill if the rest of your friends are having a BBQ.
In the early stages of SCD, I did manage to try going to work for one day. I have a pretty strenuous job, and I was very sick and fatigue as it was, but the food I packed got me through the day, and I was barely hungry at all.
I packed ;
Chicken soup
Meatballs
SCD yogurt
Jello
Pear sauce
The key is planning! Im feeling much better, and I'm back to work full time now. It's been about a month since that first day I went into work, and my lunches are pretty much the same. I just pack a lot of very simple things, and I always try to have chicken soup or bone broth on me. Yogurt is also a daily staple.
As time goes on I’ll be posting different recipes I make, whether I created them myself or found them online, and tips of how to survive SCD while still working full time, going to school (I start university in September), having a social life (or trying to , anyway)
If you’re feeling sick, and you can barely make it through the day anymore, I beg you to give SCD a chance. Pick up a copy of breaking the vicious cycle , see how it works for you. I do not have a diagnosis yet, and my colonoscopy is a while away, but right now I am feeling ok, and as long as I can manage my symptoms through SCD, I am totally ok with that.
