I've changed my diet and I believe the Lord has healed me!
Fellow Crohn's patients, please try this out. I am medicine-free!!
Long story short, I was hospitalized twice this summer for pulmonary Crohn's disease. It was a horrible, painful experience that I hope no one else has to go through. I was on steroids for three months after getting out of the hospital. I decided enough was enough.
So I radically changed my diet.
I am not necessarily promoting anyone, but I got my diet ideas/plan from Jordin Rubin's books "Patient Heal Thyself", "The Maker's Diet", and "The Great Physician's Rx" along with a book by another author titled "Inflammation Nation." I am not doing the extreme version of the diet in any of the books, but I'm following the basic principles and my life has improved 100%.
Here's my food plan:
Extremely limited sugar (basically none)
No high fructose corn syrup
No “white” foods: I’ve switched to 100% whole wheat flour (bread and pasta) and brown rice
No white potatoes (only b/c they irritate my stomach)
No preservatives/artificial flavors/artificial colors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_additives
No hydrogenated oils (i.e. margarine)
No soda of any kind
No deep-fried food
No pork or shellfish (Although I don’t think these meats are sinful to eat, I do believe Leviticus 11 holds true for them being unclean.)
No cow’s milk (excluding yogurt, cheese, and butter)
If I need to sweeten something, I use honey. I drink goat's milk. I put real maple syrup on my whole-wheat pancakes. This diet is liberating... especially since I am not taking shots or pills anymore! I have learned to LOVE fruit... fruit smoothies are my new best friend. I love vegetables, always have, and love fish. I eat beef very sparingly. Try lamb instead!
Try it. Please. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. But after being on Remicade, then Humira, then steroids, this has been the greatest "treatment" so far. I have zero symptoms of Crohn's.
I saw my GI doc on October 29 and he gave me two months to prove to him that diet could control my disease. Otherwise he is going to start me on Cimzia injections. I see him on January 11 and I am sure that he will not be writing a prescription. :)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
more meds
it's been a while since i've posted on here... i guess that's a good thing. anyway, i've been having a little bit of misbehavior from my stomach and joints the last month or so. not to mention i have these two weirds knots on my calves that dr. christopher calls erythema nodosum. i'm not having a flare, but things just aren't quite right. coincidentally, my doctor called me out of the blue to set up an appointment since it had been so long since he'd seen me in the office. i gladly went to visit him.
from my visit came a prescription for iron supplements b/c my iron was very low. (maybe explains why i had been so stinkin' tired the last 3+ weeks.) i also got put on Entocort EC (9 mg/day). this is a corticosteroid specifically for Crohn's that has much less severe side effects than say, prednisone. less of the drug is systemic--- 90% is metabolized on first pass through the intestines. anyway, you can read more about it here if you're interested. i'll only be on the Entocort for about three months, assuming it gets whatever inflammation is going on under control. and dr. younes confirmed the erythema nodosum on my legs- can't do anything about those, though. they are a result of inflammation associated with the crohn's, so they should go away on their own.
family planning came up in our discussion with dr. younes. apparently more and more research is showing that it is better to stay on your meds (like the Humira) instead of coming off and risking a flare up. (no nutrients for baby = bad) there is a new drug out for Crohn's called Cimzia that is a once-a-month treatment given by a medical professional. supposedly it doesn't cross the placenta. i'll be doing some more research on this drug before the time comes for kiddies. chris could give me those shots, so it might be a possibility. no decisions need to made yet though.
as always, please keep me in your prayers.
love & blessings,
sara
from my visit came a prescription for iron supplements b/c my iron was very low. (maybe explains why i had been so stinkin' tired the last 3+ weeks.) i also got put on Entocort EC (9 mg/day). this is a corticosteroid specifically for Crohn's that has much less severe side effects than say, prednisone. less of the drug is systemic--- 90% is metabolized on first pass through the intestines. anyway, you can read more about it here if you're interested. i'll only be on the Entocort for about three months, assuming it gets whatever inflammation is going on under control. and dr. younes confirmed the erythema nodosum on my legs- can't do anything about those, though. they are a result of inflammation associated with the crohn's, so they should go away on their own.
family planning came up in our discussion with dr. younes. apparently more and more research is showing that it is better to stay on your meds (like the Humira) instead of coming off and risking a flare up. (no nutrients for baby = bad) there is a new drug out for Crohn's called Cimzia that is a once-a-month treatment given by a medical professional. supposedly it doesn't cross the placenta. i'll be doing some more research on this drug before the time comes for kiddies. chris could give me those shots, so it might be a possibility. no decisions need to made yet though.
as always, please keep me in your prayers.
love & blessings,
sara
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
