Advice please: HELP, seeing Gut specialist tomorrow, with issues of leaky gut, coeliac, suspect Crohn's etc...

[Poppy_the_cat]

Hello everybody,

I am seeing a 'hospital white-coat' tomorrow, having just come back from holiday abroad. I am weary of being ill, weary of being treated and looked at through a 'keyhole' approach.

I was told at 18 that I had IBS.

When studying in Italy later and eating pasta as one will, I would find occasionally that my belly would blow up so that I would have to remove my belt while being in a restaurant or risk passing out! Then after a while it passed...but it would come back periodically. I spent some time without any problems then when I began a phase of intense stress in my life the swelling and feelings of intense nausea came back. Always being given the same pat diagnosis of IBS. Being prescribed Merbentyl... Fibergel etc... all to no avail- I threw the lot away.

Years later a friend who sadly is no longer with us as she died last November- something I have not yet come to terms with, suggested that maybe I was gluten intolerant.

She was proved correct.

I have proved to myself that I am in fact gluten intolerant now for the last 3 years.

In fact I feel I may have graduated to being a full blown Coeliac... I also feel I may have Crohn's for several reasons- which I will not go into here in this post as it would make it too long.

Going to Salisbury Hospital to see the gut specialist tomorrow (non surgical specialist, which I specified with my super GP, because slicing me up is not an option!)... I am rather anxious.

I am tired of being passed from pillar to post and above talked to as though I am an idiot and cannot possibly have any understanding or grasp anything that may be the issue with me!!

I am afraid I may be terribly cutting in my response if this happens.

I have suffered with virtually constant loose bowels, in other words diarrhea since March. My GP is very helpful; it is he who has organised this very long wait to see this specialist- because there are so few bowel specialists to go around the huge amount of people who need to be seen.

In June I went away for a week holiday, kindly invited by friends to Tarragona in Spain. Within 3 days of being there, my condition improved and by the 4th day I was 90% improved!!!! My stools were firm! I was eating huge amounts of fruit- peaches, figs, watermelon, kiwis etc; I was drinking semi-skimmed milk (even though I am lactose intolerant here in the UK) eating ice-cream and seafood. NO PROBLEM!!!!

I was amazed.

Upon my return to the UK, within a week, my diarrhea had returned.

I have just now come back from staying with friends in Sicily with who I went to school and the same identical thing happened again. By the 3rd day my stools were vastly improved, by the 4th I was able to go to the toilet normally!

MY diet out there was the same.

All the veg and fruit is grown locally. The veggies don't look perfect, they are lumpy and bumpy, there is still soil attached to some and the chicken on sale is guaranteed not just FREE RANGE, but FREE from antibiotic administration. It tasted amazing. I have not eaten chicken like that since I spent time with my grandparents! It did not even taste like ORGANIC chicken over here- it was far superior. Only God knows what we will be reduced to if post Brexit, Trump is allowed to export his chlorine washed intensive chickens to the UK??!!

I am sure the specialist will want to organise a camera where the sun 'don't shine'.

I suppose it is a necessity. From what I have heard from firsthand accounts, its not as simple and as painless as one is led to believe....

However, my GP has said that he has no doubts that the villi in my digestive tract are totally flat.

I would like to know from anybody who may have had a similar appointment with a similar specialist, what can I expect?

What will the next step be.

Assuming that any camera work does only show flat villi... If I have Crohn's, I assume the inflammation will it be visible...then what??

From all I have read with reference to my own personal experience I am convinced that general inflammation is the root cause of everything with me- due to not having a proper gut 'bug' balance. The hashimotos, the sjogrens, leaky gut (candida), far too many antibiotics with no post administration of probiotics, loss of tonsils, loss of appendix, more antibiotics etc, etc, etc-- ad nauseam!

I think that my intestine needs to be re-seeded with the correctly balanced microbiome. I think my solution is a faecal implant. (see Dr Mosley's book 'The clever Guts book).

Will this implant be possible on the NHS??

Any advice on how to speak to these specialists in white-coats would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you,

Poppy

[Nanaedake]

Apparently black pepper is very good for villi. not that I know anything about it but there was a recent science programme explaining about it and why the mediterranean diet is good because it includes pepper. Last night they said prunes were great for you too!! 5 prunes a day I think it said.

[Dewberry1]

Hi

I similarly have a leaky gut abit too often . Like yourself when I went abroad all of this vanished....makes you wonder what we are eating here in the UK!

Hope your appointment goes well. May also be worth seeing a nutritionist as there are certain foods that boost good bacteria such as apples and sauerkraut.

[Poppy_the_cat in reply to Dewberry1]

Well, I have just found something interesting on an American site referring to veggies and how they are totally pesticide ridden which affect our microbiome negatively...have just posted the link to the interesting video/ad...its worth listening to it, as it explains it all very well.

No, I am just worried about how I will cope with this expert!

What should I say...

What should I not say, as I know these people are very full of themselves and we are the patients and we 'don't need to know'!

I am just very apprehensive. After being so unwell, for so long I need action, positive action not soap and flannel!

Poppy

;0)