Part 4 of My Story…

When I left off after part 3 I had just begun to understand the link between diet and the effects it had on my condition. Believing now that I could control it through diet alone, and getting no relevant help from medical professionals, I abandoned them to seek my own healing.

I began working out and eating safe foods to gain weight. I went from around 100 lb.s to about 124 on just clean, healthy meals. I started craving a more varied diet, and I seemed to have hit a wall in my weight gain. I started looking at my options, and decided that if I wanted to gain weight fast, I could binge eat unhealthy foods that were safe for my stomach.

I began consuming large amounts of milk, candy, and a protein shake high in sugar. I quickly put on a lot more weight in the coming months and managed to hit a sturdy 150 lb.s, the most I’ve ever weighed.

At the end of summer I was ready to come off disability and start working.

At the same time I noticed some small infections in my arm pits. I began trying to treat them with various natural remedies, both topically and oral. They continued to grow despite these efforts. I was determined to solve this myself and I threw all sorts of natural remedies I read off the internet at them, including apple cider vinegar, aloe vera juice, colloidal silver, baking soda, garlic and probiotics just to name a few.

The infections continued to grow until I lost a lot of mobility in my arms. I couldn’t raise my arms above my head or lower them close to my body without extreme pain. I finally caved and went to the doctor. I had the right side infection lanced and drained. They started me on Doxycyline, however my stomach wasn’t having any of it, and I experienced burning sensations and discomfort. After further reading I found Doxycycline is linked to cause and worsening of Crohn’s disease. I stopped taking it and returned to my doctor. They put me on a two week course of Bactrim.

I couldn’t have the left side infection lanced because it was still too solid and located close to what I believed to be connective tissue, possibly tendons. My doctor told me it was not connective tissue, but after further research and due to the fact that it felt and looked like the tendon that connects the bicep to the upper shoulder in diagrams, I lost trust in this doctor and went to a new one.

As my infection did not fully heal from the first course of antibiotics, I wanted to get a second opinion to see what other options I had. The new doctor put me on a 1 week double dose of Bactrim. The infection went down, but didn’t go away. I was getting pretty scared at this point, it seemed like the infection wasn’t responding to antibiotics.

At the same time I had heard about an experimental treatment for Crohn’s online, that proposed Candida might be the cause of many Crohn’s symptoms. The treatment involved a no-sugar diet while supplementing Undecylenic Acid and high amounts of Vitamin C.

Within a few days of starting this diet the infection began to get smaller. I continued on this diet and eventually it went away entirely. It really was a miraculous coincidence in a way that the treatment I was trying for my Crohn’s worked for the infection, otherwise I have no idea what I would have done. Likely the doctors would have put me on further and more dangerous antibiotics.

I continued my sugar free diet for about 2 months. I lost a LOT of weight during this time and fell back below 120.

I noticed some improvement in my symptoms and a better tolerance for fiber and spicy foods, but I was not cured. I have not had any significant infections since then. I now make sure to control and limit the amount of simple sugars in my diet.

I still don’t know the exact reason that this happened, but I have two theories. One is fructose intolerance and the other is candida infection.

I’ve covered Candida in a previous post and I may cover Fructose Intolerance in a future one, but I’m not very well read on it at this point. In short it has to do with the liver being unable to process fructose and having a toxic effect on the body.

This more or less brings me up to recent events. Overall my health has been less of a roller coaster since learning to control my diet, however I’ve still been losing my tolerance for certain food as time passes on. I’m looking to understand this in hopes I can prevent or reverse it. My leading culprits are SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) or Candida, as I can’t figure any other way my overall health stays fairly steady but the foods I can eat continue to be limited.

I recently lost chocolate, rice and orange juice, and I have trouble understanding why this came on all of a sudden. I’m hoping I can find some answers in the near future.

I’m working on regaining all the lost weight from my no-sugar diet in a healthier way, this time was complex carbs and more meat and eggs. I’ve passed 135 steadily on the scale and I’m in the gym 3 times a week. Hopefully I can get back to where I was, this time in a healthier and maintainable way.