Two Weeks In Hell

[ryanosaur]

Many of us have broken relationships with food. I am uncertain how much of this is a direst result of the Standard American Diet (SAD) or a complete personal and societal disconnect from a reality and understanding of what Wellness means.
My late HS and Early College years were spent dodging and hiding from some chronic gut issues. Eventually "diagnosed" as Esophagitis and Gastritis. After getting scoped on both ends, they found a red spot in my duodenum and called it an inflamation responsible for overproducing stomach acid and dumping it wholesale into my lower GI.
They put me on an acid blocker (Prevacid) and an opioid (Lomotil) and told me to carry on.
It worked. Symptoms treated I carried on. Good job Western Medicine!
After leaving school and moving to CA, my health insurance changed and they wouldn't allow me to stay on the original Acid blocker that worked and put me on something else that didn't. Everything broke down again.

I ended up going to an Acupuncturist who had been an RN previously. After telling her the story, she is the first person to ever ask:
"What do you eat?"
No western doc aver asked that... just told me to eat pills every day.

That visit changed everything.

I changed my diet and got better. It wasn't overnight and I still struggle with making the right choices. The good news is that minor transgressions now don't result in crippling GI Pain.

Depending on how you are with big books, @Steve81 , you may find Healing With Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford a useful resource. It helped me out many years ago. I still have it on my shelf.

 

[Steve81]

Many of us have broken relationships with food. I am uncertain how much of this is a direst result of the Standard American Diet (SAD) or a complete personal and societal disconnect from a reality and understanding of what Wellness means.
My late HS and Early College years were spent dodging and hiding from some chronic gut issues. Eventually "diagnosed" as Esophagitis and Gastritis. After getting scoped on both ends, they found a red spot in my duodenum and called it an inflamation responsible for overproducing stomach acid and dumping it wholesale into my lower GI.
They put me on an acid blocker (Prevacid) and an opioid (Lomotil) and told me to carry on.
It worked. Symptoms treated I carried on. Good job Western Medicine!
After leaving school and moving to CA, my health insurance changed and they wouldn't allow me to stay on the original Acid blocker that worked and put me on something else that didn't. Everything broke down again.

I ended up going to an Acupuncturist who had been an RN previously. After telling her the story, she is the first person to ever ask:
"What do you eat?"
No western doc aver asked that... just told me to eat pills every day.

That visit changed everything.

I changed my diet and got better. It wasn't overnight and I still struggle with making the right choices. The good news is that minor transgressions now don't result in crippling GI Pain.

Depending on how you are with big books, @Steve81 , you may find Healing With Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford a useful resource. It helped me out many years ago. I still have it on my shelf.

I feel parts of the SAD are a problem. Something that came out of a lab, engineered to be delicious, while delivering empty nutrition is the problem.

Real food, OK within reason / moderation.

 

[Steve81]

Regarding reading, I’m not above reading, though I find talking face to face the most efficient and least ambiguous form of communication.

 

[Dan]

Sounds a bit like me and I am an MD. High triglycerides, I am missing some gene to process them. Eventually made me a diabetic. I got overweight which for me was 165 due to the stress of my last private practice job.

I am an abdominal imaging radiologist by trade (and Swerd's brother). Pancreatitis is serious stuff, it can be fatal ESPECIALLY in diabetics. Watch the alcohol intake carefully. I am also a fan of the keto or Atkin's diet which may be counterintuitive but it lowers triglycerides dramatically. NG tubes are generally awful but they could have used a smaller one. They also advanced your diet too quickly IMO so the worst symptoms came back.

Sorry for all your troubles. Get a followup CT at some point and start seeing a gastroenterologist . I know some good ones in Silver Spring. PM me if you need a recommendation. Just be thankful you didn't need surgery. Be well.

 

[Steve81]

Sounds a bit like me and I am an MD. High triglycerides, I am missing some gene to process them. Eventually made me a diabetic. I got overweight which for me was 165 due to the stress of my last private practice job.

I am an abdominal imaging radiologist by trade (and Swerd's brother). Pancreatitis is serious stuff, it can be fatal ESPECIALLY in diabetics. Watch the alcohol intake carefully. I am also a fan of the keto or Atkin's diet which may be counterintuitive but it lowers triglycerides dramatically. NG tubes are generally awful but they could have used a smaller one. They also advanced your diet too quickly IMO so the worst symptoms came back.

Sorry for all your troubles. Get a followup CT at some point and start seeing a gastroenterologist . I know some good ones in Silver Spring. PM me if you need a recommendation. Just be thankful you didn't need surgery. Be well.

Thanks Dan. I agree that the keto diet seemed quite effective. It was just too restrictive for me to maintain.

Follow up is on Tuesday, though I already spent an extra night in the urgent care. Mostly unexplained tachycardia. Stress is my explanation. It’s coming down slowly but surely though.

Out of ignorance, how would a gastroenterologist help me?

 

[TLS Guy]

Sounds a bit like me and I am an MD. High triglycerides, I am missing some gene to process them. Eventually made me a diabetic. I got overweight which for me was 165 due to the stress of my last private practice job.

I am an abdominal imaging radiologist by trade (and Swerd's brother). Pancreatitis is serious stuff, it can be fatal ESPECIALLY in diabetics. Watch the alcohol intake carefully. I am also a fan of the keto or Atkin's diet which may be counterintuitive but it lowers triglycerides dramatically. NG tubes are generally awful but they could have used a smaller one. They also advanced your diet too quickly IMO so the worst symptoms came back.

Sorry for all your troubles. Get a followup CT at some point and start seeing a gastroenterologist . I know some good ones in Silver Spring. PM me if you need a recommendation. Just be thankful you didn't need surgery. Be well.

The trick when placing an NG Dan, is to make sure you insert it BELOW the inferior turbinate. Without instruction, most will poke and NG up the nostril. Then it will be above the inferior turbinate. You need to go straight back and NOT poke it up the nostril. If properly placed NGs should not be uncomfortable. It looks like child play to place one, but as in all things there is good technique and bad technique.

 

[Mr._Clark]

I feel parts of the SAD are a problem. Something that came out of a lab, engineered to be delicious, while delivering empty nutrition is the problem.

Real food, OK within reason / moderation.

Glad to hear you're doing better.

I try to watch what I eat, but I have an embarrassing weakness for potato chips. I can't buy them or I go through the whole bag in no time.

 

[Steve81]

PS : For the physicians, I was told my triglycerides were in the neighborhood of 4000. Just a bit above normal.

 

[Alex2507]

PS : For the physicians, I was told my triglycerides were in the neighborhood of 4000. Just a bit above normal.

As you may have guessed, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night but it has to be 400, right?

 

[Steve81]

As you may have guessed, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night but it has to be 400, right?

Nope.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

This experience has given me an idea. A great dietary reset.

This doesn’t involve anything forced. Forcing people to do something inevitably causes them to dig in against. Better to teach them something new.

Instead, I’m asking people to join me on a journey of cleaner, healthier, happier eating. I’m enjoying the food I eat, I know what I’m eating, and it’s not hard at all.

All I ask is that you stop poisoning yourself.

Great idea. Can you give specific examples of substituting your old foods with the new foods?

Breakfast? Can you eat toast, eggs and sausages?

Lunch? Can you eat a SuperSonic Double Cheeseburger?

Dinner? Can you eat a New York Strip steak with mash potatoes?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

As you may have guessed, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night but it has to be 400, right?

I think I’ve seen triglyceride levels as high as 1500-2000 in patients. But I don’t think I’ve seen higher than 2,000, although I’ve heard it can be up to 10,000.

 

[Verdinut]

PS : For the physicians, I was told my triglycerides were in the neighborhood of 4000. Just a bit above normal.

If the level was in the neighborhood of 4000, when the normal is below 150 milligrams per deciliter, they were really high. High triglyceride levels are one of the major causes of pancreatitis.

 

[Dan]

Yikes 4000 is astronomical. I was 1000 before treatment. Yes triglycerides that high will give you pancreatitis. Keto will drop that nicely but you gotta stick to it. Avoiding pancreatitis and better blood sugar control should be the incentive to stick to the diet. Also if your lipids are as high as 4000 you have fatty liver disease which can lead to cirrhosis. That too is truly horrible. End stage cirrhosis is either a liver transplant or a gun to my head.

A gastroenterologist will help get those lipids down and follow how the pancreatitis clears up. You probably still have some residual. They can also treat some of the bad complications.

What pancreatitis is in lay terms. Aside from hormones like insulin the pancreas makes digestive enzymes to break down the food in you gut. If is spills into and around the gland you start to digest your pancreas and the surrounding tissue. It eats anything in its way. Even arteries causing tremendous bleeding. You do NOT want to keep getting this disease trust me. I’d rather have many cancers than recurrent bouts of pancreatitis.

Yes TLS I remember the approach for the NGT but I couldn’t articulate it as well as you.last time I sunk one down was 1988 I think. But Tuesday I will biopsy a 6mm liver metastasis about 10 cm deep which is something most folks can’t do. So I got a few chops left.

 

[TLS Guy]

Yikes 4000 is astronomical. I was 1000 before treatment. Yes triglycerides that high will give you pancreatitis. Keto will drop that nicely but you gotta stick to it. Avoiding pancreatitis and better blood sugar control should be the incentive to stick to the diet. Also if your lipids are as high as 4000 you have fatty liver disease which can lead to cirrhosis. That too is truly horrible. End stage cirrhosis is either a liver transplant or a gun to my head.

A gastroenterologist will help get those lipids down and follow how the pancreatitis clears up. You probably still have some residual. They can also treat some of the bad complications.

What pancreatitis is in lay terms. Aside from hormones like insulin the pancreas makes digestive enzymes to break down the food in you gut. If is spills into and around the gland you start to digest your pancreas and the surrounding tissue. It eats anything in its way. Even arteries causing tremendous bleeding. You do NOT want to keep getting this disease trust me. I’d rather have many cancers than recurrent bouts of pancreatitis.

Yes TLS I remember the approach for the NGT but I couldn’t articulate it as well as you.last time I sunk one down was 1988 I think. But Tuesday I will biopsy a 6mm liver metastasis about 10 cm deep which is something most folks can’t do. So I got a few chops left.

Yes, you certainly do. Interventional radiologists saved my bacon, time and time again.

 

[Steve81]

Great idea. Can you give specific examples of substituting your old foods with the new foods?

Breakfast? Can you eat toast, eggs and sausages?

Lunch? Can you eat a SuperSonic Double Cheeseburger?

Dinner? Can you eat a New York Strip steak with mash potatoes?

Breakfast: Home made fruit smoothie (milk, Greek yogurt, frozen fruit, spinach). Toast in moderation, eggs in moderation, sausage, depending on the leanness of the meat, yes.

Lunch: No. Try a salad.

Dinner: On special occasion, but add more veggies. Prefer to avoid red meat for now. Grilled chicken instead.

Snacks: Nuts, fruit, low fat cheese

 

[TLS Guy]

Breakfast: Home made fruit smoothie (milk, Greek yogurt, frozen fruit, spinach). Toast in moderation, eggs in moderation, sausage, depending on the leanness of the meat, yes.

Lunch: No. Try a salad.

Dinner: On special occasion, but add more veggies. Prefer to avoid red meat for now. Grilled chicken instead.

Your triglyceride level is extremely high and well out of what is usually encountered. It indicates a strong possibility of an an inborn error of metabolism. I would strongly advise consultation form a major lipid clinic at a major university medical center, or renowned clinic like Mayo or Cleveland. What you have is far from a run of the mill problem.

 

[Dan]

Agree with TLS. You can’t get to 4000 even on a pure diet of Big Macs. But one drug got me from 1000 to 350 but I still had fatty liver and chemical hepatitis. Keto plus drug and I was at 125. Liver healed and is normal. My blood work and CT scans prove it. So it’s a start.

 

[Steve81]

One thing I can say: as natural supplements went, fish oil along with a keto-ish diet was effective. And tiring.

 

[Alex2507]

I lost the battle with weight, ate whatever and however much I felt like.

You mean all those times we joked about eating pizza you were really eating pizza?