My Story

I don’t know how many people read this forums any more but I am desperate for some advice :)

My story is kind of a long one….It started about 8 years ago when I was 17, and I developed severe GI symptoms which seemed to happen overnight. I suffered with abdominal pain after eating, extreme bloating (that never went away) and was constipated. I also experienced anxiety, my body was freezing cold and I lost a significant amount of weight.

I went to many GI specialists, naturopaths, acupuncturists etc…and none of them could help. A couple of the doctors even suggested it was “all in my head” and offered me antidepressants and told me to go back to school.

I ended up being “diagnosed” with Lyme’s in 2012. I thought I had finally come to an answer for all my symptoms. I took antibiotics for about 8 months, and adopted the “gluten free, sugar free” diet the Doctor had recommended (also about 6 months in, she suggested a NO fat diet to starve the bacteria even more) suggesting that I cut out any fat in my diet.

At the 8 month mark I was already down to about 85 pounds (I started at 104). I had still had the severe bloating, however it looked much exaggerated without the extra weight. My anxiety was worse and I developed depression.

At my last appointment with the Lymes doctor in the summer of 2013. She told me that the symptoms I was experiencing were no longer related to Lymes and that I possibly had parasites or dysbiosis. Completely ignoring the fact that I was 90 pounds. I emailed her about 4 months later because I was still experiencing the symptoms and was back down to 85 pounds and she suggested the GAPS diet, and a parasite cleanse.

When I emailed her I was surviving on Oatmeal for breakfast, Turkey or tuna for lunch with avocado and sometimes soup. Chicken or salmon for dinner with spinach. I wouldn’t touch any starch as I felt it would make my already bloated belly worse. I ate spoonfuls of almond butter when I was hungry between meals, and would occasionally eat some banana before bed. (I refused to eat any other fruit because I was terrified of Candida overgrowing)

I wasn’t sleeping well, I had a bloated belly all the time (even first thing in the morning) I was starting to develop heartburn at night. My feet were always cold and sometimes tingling. My hair was starting to fall out, my skin was breaking out. I had severe anxiety (which I now know was partly due to blood sugar…) but I continued to search for an answer to the problem.

This went on for quite awhile longer. I even somehow managed to travel to the UK for FMT treatment because I was convinced it was going to cure my bloating. I was there for 14 days and I stuck to my restricted diet the ENITRE time. I only ordered chicken with spinach at dinner most nights, my mom brought my almond butter and my gluten free oats in her suitcase and we spent an entire day looking for sugar free almond milk for the oats.

When the FMT’s didn’t work I was devastated. But one day out of nowhere the bloating seemed to improve. When I noticed that it got worse with almond butter, salmon and avocado. I decided I would cut those out too. I was so obsessed with the fact it wasn’t there anymore, that I lived on oatmeal with just blueberries, carrot soup, and white fish and sweet potato. Those were now the only foods that didn’t bloat me.

I ended up at 70 pounds having a gallbladder attack and everything went downhill from there. The bloating came back (worse then ever) I developed severe bowel spasms that never stopped, my hair fell out in fistfuls in the shower, my stomach burned almost 24/7…I was freezing cold in the middle of summer, my feet were blue, I couldn’t sleep AT ALL (this lasted for 6 months) and I had cystic acne all over my face.

I am currently stable at around 100 pounds but I am still having SEVERE digestive problems which no doctor, naturopath etc can help me solve. I am really desperate to get some relief of these horrible symptoms.