Low Histamine Diet For MCAS and Gastro Related Issues

 

I am so so sorry, It has been months and months since I wrote in this blog but I thought what better way to start back into it than writing about something that has helped me almost miraculously in the last year.

The Low Histamine Diet. 

Last March (2017) I went to London to go to an appointment with the renowned Prof Qasim Aziz for serious gut related problems and weight loss stemming from my EDS. You can read all about that trip Here and you can read Prof. Aziz’s medical report and related advice from my visit Here.

My symptoms included serious weightloss (3.5stone) in a short period of time and strong constant bedridding nausea and vomiting that I was getting multiple times a day as well as excruciating gut pain which my doctors thought was stemming from the gallbladder and were considering operating on it before I traveled over and started Aziz’s amazing advice!

His recommendations then were as follows:

1. Slowly reduce Opioids as they are slowing gut function. Stop, Reduce and increase some medications as explained during the appointment.

2. For small intestinal bacterial overgrowth I have suggested a prescribed antibiotic twice a day for 2 weeks following which she should take a probiotic.

3. I would suggest that she sees a senior pain management specialist locally to consider splanchnic nerve blocks but it may also be helpful for her to have a spinal MRI of the thoraco-lumbar spine to make sure that there is no nerve root pressure.

4. I have given her detailed dietary advice and have generally suggested a diet low in sugar and grains but high in white meat, vegetables and healthy fat such as olive oil. Overall I have also suggested that she should reduce the histamine content of the foods that she eats and have suggested some resources that she can look at. I have also suggested Calorific drinks, vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, B complex, omega 3 and chelated magnesium.

As soon as I got home I started the diet and calorie drinks straight away, I sorted the antibiotic and supplements a few weeks later but within 3 days of starting the diet I noticed huge improvements already so I was very hopeful!

It has now been just over a year on this diet and though I was only supposed to try it for 6 months I found that every time I reintroduced foods back into my diet that symptoms would start back up again so I have just stayed on it! It suits me and I don’t find it very hard.

So… Has it helped?

The answer is a resounding YES!

All my worst symptoms have actually gone, no exaggeration, My nausea and vomiting is now completely controlled, the severe pain I was getting in my gut that my doctors thought was all the gallbladders fault, is GONE! Actually gone, no more gut pain that had landed me in hospital multiple times, gone! It is just bliss!
My weight has maintained over the last 5 months at 52kg with is fantastic, no more constant weight loss!

As for my other symptoms? Yes they have improved no end too, though I still get dizzy I am nowhere near as bad as I was at my worst! I am so so happy it has worked for me, I can not recommend this diet enough. Though I will always advise that if you are starting any new diet or supplements etc. be sure to run it by your doctor first to be sure it will suit you!

So… How does the diet work?

It works by reducing inflammatory allergens that can make your digestive system swell and get raw as well as not function properly.

Find the diet plan that I follow Here.
How you follow it is as follows:
Anything that is a 0, you can eat as much of as you like!
Limit anything that is a 1,
and outright avoid anything that is a 2 or 3!

That is it! That is as complicated as it gets!!

The diet is restrictive enough that there are few grains, no sugar, no alcohol, no chocolate (Except some white), no tomatoes, no raspberries, no strawberries, no red meat except beef, nothing that will ferment in your gut to name but a tiny few.

However how successful it has been for me means that this restrictiveness is so worth all of it! I don’t find the diet hard at all and I find I am still getting plenty of calories daily.

It really has been life changing for me. It was designed specifically for people with MCAD so those of you who have MCAD or who think you may have it like me (Aziz thinks I may have it) or if you have Dysautonomia or EDS then this diet is for you!

As always get advice from your doctor before you start anything new, everyone is different and what may suit me may not work for you but if you have any questions about this diet, I will be delighted to answer them based on my own experiences from the last year on it.

That is all for now, chat again soon folks 🙂

Ambulance Time Once Again!

On August tenth we had to call an ambulance yet again!
I had been in bed for weeks at that stage nursing a savage pain on the right side of my abdomen. This wasn’t the first time it has happened, and probably wont be the last! It got to a stage where I was trying to manage the pain myself at home, trying to avoid going into hospital, but I had to face facts and call it as it got too bad to manage on our own this time.

The Ambulance arrived promptly and began to tend to me. They were a crew of two, Male and female, and were excellent. Friendly, Professional, funny easing the mood when needed and seemed to take a genuine interest in what both Keith and I had to say and contribute.

Unlike the last few ambulance calls, this visit from them wasn’t rushed. It was calm, sedate and gave us time to properly prepare to go into A&E. While they took their time trying to locate a vein on my foot, Keith ran upstairs to the computer, got ready and printed off an A4 sheet with simple information on it about me and my condition, highlighting the main issues I present with, medication I am on and what would be needed when first admitted like fluids, Pain control and Catheterisation, etc.

The reason for this sheet was because through previous experience we have found to be constantly repeating ourselves while giving out my information to different people and yet only parts of the overall story get heard by all different people and nobody has the full story! This time we  said we would try getting this sheet in as a common denominator of information in my files so that everyone will be literally be on the same page regarding my care and see what happens. It was worth a try at least.

After getting a vein in my foot and administering some morphine for pain relief, we were eventually ready to go to the hospital and the ambulance crew were brilliant with everything as well as taking on the information sheet, which they said they thought it was a fantastic idea and wished more people were that organised!

We quickly made it to the hospital, after getting more Morphine on the Ambulance, I was brought straight into the A&E main area, Thankfully I wasn’t rushed into Resus at any stage this time, it was calm and sedate and a far better visit this time round.

I was delighted to hear back from the Female paramedic that she passed on the sheet Keith had given her, to the triage nurse and that the nurse also commented on what a good idea it was to have all the main things highlighted on one page where everyone can see it. She said she would put it in my file so that all the doctors would see it too. So far so good for our little A4 sheet!

While waiting around for a short while, waiting on the triage nurse to find a place to put me as it was busy in A&E that day, The Paramedics were chatting to me and told me they knew some student and new paramedics who were doing papers based on me for some exam that was due the next week! Morto! I found it funny that they would pick me based on my rare or under diagnosed EDS condition or as I like to call it, ‘my awkwardness!’ :p

I once again had terrible trouble getting veins in me, doctor after nurse after doctor tried and failed and it started getting really sore. The vein the Ambulance crew had gotten was already failing just a few hours after it was put in, my foot swelled up  and they were worried as they really wanted to administer fluids and iv meds so they wanted a vein soon. Throughout the following week while in the hospital, this continued. a vein would be gotten and it would fail almost immediately until in the end the anaesthetics team had to be called and they had no trouble getting a vein and thankfully now a note has been put in my file to say that only anaesthetics are to place a cannula on me and no one else, so hopefully all the prodding and poking will come to an end now.

After spending no more 24hours in A&E this time around, I was admitted to the surgical ward. While in the A&E I had all the usual tests, xrays, scopes, exams, the usual trouble of about 50 different doctors trying to get a vein after a brief moment of being cocky and saying something like, “Oh I’m good at this, don’t you worry”, or,”Oh really? Bad veins, huh? well, I like a challenge!” and then just end up being unsuccessful anyway! That always provides me with a giggle especially towards the cocky ones who think I wont post a problem, cha! Say that to me after 20 mins of trying hopelessly! :p Being admitted after 24hours was quick though, considering that I have often had to wait over 46hours before.

I always like being admitted to the surgical ward. Not only does everything seem to be more up to date and cleaner, but Compared to the medical wards, The mood on the ward is generally brighter both from the staff and the patients. The Nurses seem to genuinely care, are not as dismissive as others I have encountered on the medical wards. They get upset when you get upset, they don’t like to see you in pain or discomfort and as much as they are able, they won’t keep you in pain for long and will treat you asap when they are asked to, a lot of the time, they don’t even need to be asked, they will notice themselves and will get you what you need to help ease your discomfort. Also, the electric beds are well cool! :p

I saw My Surgical team the next morning bright and early and they took the situation serious when they saw I had lost over 3.5 stone with the nausea, vomiting and general pain and discomfort I have been having with my gut issues.

As well  as my pain team to cover my Occipital and Sacroilliac joint Nerve Blocks which were due once again, They called in a dietician, a tissue viability nurse to talk about any difficulties I may be having with the chair, thankfully theres nothing serious going on there but she wanted to refer me to a Dermatologist for a small bit of irritation caused by the chair that was easily sorted with some long term antibiotics (starting with an 8 week course and if it needs to continue after that it could go up to 16 weeks), will just have to wait and see how it works. Then they wanted to get a serious OT assessment for me as my own local OT never properly assessed me for manual chair or a bed, given my situation, these are the two basic things my surgical team wanted to be covered while I was admitted.

The Dietician was concerned for my weight loss compared to my height and prescribed a high fiber, high calorie diet as well as Fortisip Calorie drinks to take twice a day along with my usual daily food intake to help at least maintain my current weight if not try to increase it. Sshe also prescribed a new tummy med to take with the other ones I am on to try and help with the nausea and vomiting as well as to try and increase appetite. So I have now started these and I was thinking of doing quick video reviews of the different drink flavours on offer, if you are interested that is! Let me know and I will do it if you like 🙂

Throughout there was non stop testing to find out what was causing the pain in the right side. Xrays, Ultrasounds, CAT and MRI scans, Scopes, blood tests, you name it, it was done.

In the Ultrasound Room!

One outcome is that they have ruled out any Gallbladder issues. There definitely seems to be Sphincter of Oddi, Severe Gut Dysmotility and Neurogenic Bladder Dysfunction problems, as well as a large and painful Lymph node on the inside of my right hip which is causing a lot of pain too and is currently under investigation, all these are contributing to the pain as well as the Ehlers Danlos Pain itself, but they have ruled out Gallbladder and Appendix issues, which is good!

I had 2 major cardiac events while I was in, though I had been battling low Bp all week, these events were the opposite, they came out of nowhere in the middle of the night, they were raging high bp and very fast heartrate, the ecg showed some abnormalities but thankfully they didn’t stay long (about 2 or 3 hours) and after they administered some medication to lower my bp and hr, I seemed to return to my regular low bp self, they were scary though as the pain in my chest when it happened was frightening and I was soaked through with a tempreture. The nurses seemed concerned as Long story  events came out of nowhere. Thankfully though after a few hours I returned to normal and could get some sleep.

Long story short, I got to see everyone that was called for me except OT. The final team was the pain team with the good professor who loves to give injections and this time was no different! He administered my usual Occipital and Sacroiliac joint nerve blocks under ultrasound which he did at my ward bed, he had a little portable ultrasound machine or at least that’s what it looked like and he went for it there and then. The pain team in conjunction with the anestetic team said that I may have chronic piritonitis ( information or even tearing of the abdominal lining that holds your organs) this is still being investigated and will continue as an outpatient appointment along with all the other teams I had to meet while I was in.

The surgical team try everything they can and they are so good to want to learn but they still are not sure exactly what is causing the severe pain and weight loss. I had mentioned to them about a Gastroenterologist specialist in Cork university hospital who is very well up on EDS and speaks regularly as well as trained under Prof Aziz over in London whom I hope to see as soon as i am able to travel. They said go to see him, just to see if he can help and my surgical team said they would be delighted to consult with both him and Aziz going forward as they are of the mind that more on the overall team to help me then the better!

In the meantime my team wanted to bring my case up at an EGM (emergency general meeting) where the head consultants and specialists of a department get together and discus special cases at a count table meeting so that other people’s views and suggestions can be taken on board, then once they have news they  will call me for a new outpatient appointment or send me for further tests if required.

 Unfortunately the OT never turned up and there were questions as to wether she would turn up anyway as she usually only sees Stroke and Neurology patients so my surgical team along with the head nurse on the ward rang her boss as well as had to write a letter in order to argue the case as to why they felt I was a special enough case for her to make an exception and come and see me, alas I was left waiting all over the weekend just to see her and she never turned up so my team decided to send me home at this stage with some new meds and a ton of outpatient appointments and they would follow up with her to get me a much needed appointment as my local OT isn’t really doing what she is supposed to do. 

In the meantime I have made a new appointment to see that Gastro specialist in Cork, his name is Akbar and I have heard great things so I really hope he can help. That appointment is on the 20th of this month (September) and of course I’ll fill you in on how that and any subsequent appointments go.

For now, I’ll just chill and try to recover 🙂

Thank you as always for taking the time to read.

Lette ( the fainting goat!)

Admitted after the ERCP – Possible Bowel Pacemaker!

Things never just go straight forward, do they? Nope! and of course, this time was no exception!

In I went to the UHL on Tuesday the 21st at midday, all prepared for my ERCP procedure to be done and so I could be kicked back home that evening to recover, however, little did we realise just how long it would actually take!

They popped me on a trolly as soon as I arrived as I had been dizzy all morning and they didn’t want a risk of me fainting and deemed it best that I wait in as comfortable a position as possible as I could be waiting around for a few hours.

I said my goodbyes to Keith and the nurses told us to expect to be in until at least after 5pm. Keith went home and I lay on the trolly waiting for things to start happening. There wasn’t even signal in this particular part of the hospital for my phone so I had no internet, texting or anything to distract myself!

All was well until they needed to take some blood from me and wanted to insert an IV line. This is when all the fun started!

3 nurses tried and failed, 2 lads from the Cath Lab tried on not only my hands and arms but also on my feet (Very uncomfortable to say the least!) and failed, One of the theater consultants came out from doing an operation to take a look at my veins, checked them over and said, “Nope! I will hand it over to Dr. Moloney!” (referring to the consultant who would be doing my procedure in theater)

Finally at about 6pm, Dr. Moloney comes out of theater to take a look at my veins and decides, “We don’t need bloods anyway, not to worry about it and I will pop an IV in, in theater before the procedure”
So that ended the long wait around waiting for someone to be able to find a vein, now it was time to actually get this done! The nurse helped me into a very sexy blue paper theater outfit and pushed me into theater where there were 2 nurses, the first tall doctor who had earlier come out to check my veins and said ‘Nope!” and the good doctor himself who actually successfully found IV access after a few attempts, Excellent, time for sedation… am, about that…!

I have a sensitivity to Benzodiazepines, having ended up in ICU last year after being treated with them for seizures I started having in May 2014. It turned out the first seizure was caused by a complete once off event of a lack of oxygen to the brain after a Vasovagal Syncope where I had stopped breathing. The Ambulance staff immediately treated me with Benzos, the standard treatment to stop seizures, not realizing that the more Benzos they treated me with the worse my seizures got. I was treated for these seizures over the course of about 3 months with these drugs until such time as I ended up in the ICU before realising that it was the Benzos causing all the trouble.

Thing is, Benzos are used as sedatives in minor surgeries and procedures too, which was meant for this ERCP, so the Dr. decided to sedate me through the IV with something else they had, that would make me feel a little drunk, but I was still wide awake and feeling everything!

They sprayed the back of my throat with something nasty tasting to numb it and popped a round yellow thing in my mouth, between my teeth to keep my mouth open so that the endoscope could easily pass through. My eyes watered as the scope went down my throat, into the stomach and pushed through the duodenum.

I kicked out and squirmed in intense pain as soon as this happened. I gave the doctors and nurses a good fright too as they were under the impression that I was sedated!

The Dr. looks down at me,
“You’re still with me, yeah?”

I look directly at him while gripping my right side in pain and I nod quickly!

He looks at the nurses and said
“Ok, no cutting today, lets just do the Botox Injection to numb the site, make it quick!”

He tells the other doctor to give me extra pain relief and sedative as he quickly tries to inject the site. I feel the sharp pinches of the needle, they are completely bearable compared to the pressure and pain I feel because I presume of wherever the scope is after leaning.

The procedure is done quickly, I am given more pain relief and feel the earlier sedative continue to tingle the back of my skull but the pain is still there as I am wheeled into the recovery area to be monitored.

The Doctor comes out to check on me and says that if the pain continues I will have to be admitted. I am watched for a couple of hours where I begin to spike a temperature, a reg doctor is called for me, I am put on IV fluids and painkillers and am admitted to a ward by 8:30pm.

In the confusion of trying to get me settled into the ward, make sure that I am properly assessed and medicated, the transfer of my regular meds list (Daily meds for Pots and EDS pain, some of which I cant just suddenly stop) to the nurses on the ward went a little askew and would come back to haunt me in the next few days, but ill get to that in a minute!

After many uncomfortable, sweaty, loud and painful hours they finally found a concoction of meds and opiates that got on top of my pain enough for me to want to rest for the night without feeling the need to moan loudly and annoy others in the room. I didn’t sleep, even with a sleeping tablet and much morphine but I really needed the rest.

I ended up staying in hospital over the course of a full week, in lots of pain and having major trouble with my Gastroparesis because of the opiates I was on. They wanted to keep an eye on my bloods and me to make sure nothing dangerous happened during the ERCP, incase I may have an infection or something as I was spiking temperatures on some days but thankfully this was not the case, I was just in a lot of pain.

On one day, I requested pain meds in plenty of time as I felt pain coming on only for the nurses to have been busy and left me without for a couple of hours. I ended up fainting after returning to my bed from the bathroom and I frightened the other ladies on the ward!

It turned out that when they initially admitted me to the ward my regular meds list got taken down wrong and they hadn’t been giving me my full regimen of meds that I normally take so my bp was all over the place and on the day I was due to be released my HR went up to 163bpm but settled again later with rest.

Prior to letting me go my Gastro surgeon came to talk with me and went through my meds and everything I would need going forward to help with pain and the Gastroparesis difficulties.

It looks as though things are getting worse in that department. I am losing weight, having difficulty eating anything without severe pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting and he mentioned the possible need for a Pacemaker in the bowel in the not too distant future to help with the ‘slow’ and sometimes ‘non existent’ transit in my gut, of which he wants to discuss further on my next appointment with him which is the 15th of Sept.

I was let go home a week after being admitted on raised pain meds and antiemetics with orders to take it slow and steady until they see me next month. I have been very sore and very sick. Pretty much bed bound nearly every day since being released and have even had a small seizure for the first time in over a year but I am able to keep the bright side out. Even lying in bed there are things to watch and I am eternally grateful for my wonderful husband who provides all of my supports.

So for now I am recovering slowly, I will see the specialist again next month and until then, I will keep you all updated with things as much as I am physically able 🙂 Ideally I need to get back over to London where they are specialised in those with EDS, to meet a neurogastroenterologist however, I need to get better before being able to travel once again, can you believe it has been a whole year this month since I first went to London for treatment? that story can be read here 🙂

Please remember, I am most easily able to keep the Facebook and Twitter pages up to date most frequently so be sure to check us out over there too for almost daily updates and thank you for following this humble bloggy! 🙂