Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Annals of Medicine: The Elimination

annals of medicine, psoriasis

The last time I had an Annals of Medicine, I talked about three people looking up my butt. Today, I'm going to tell you something different. 

It's great news! And mostly not at all like a bulbous, purple hemorrhoid that I showed to a room full of people. 

Here it is: I went to see a specialist in integrative medicine who will take a giant swing at my psoriasis with nutritional coaching and an investigation of my gut biome! Yaaay!

Here's what happened: First I had to give the doctor a comprehensive run-down of my odd and sundry medical history, including the Epic Face Infection of 2014.  

Remember that time my face blew up?! That was so weird and ugly.

Interestingly enough, my doctor thinks that exact infection may have had a lasting impact, in that it could have altered the balance of bacteria in my intestines. We won't know if the doctor's hypothesis is viable until she gets the results of my poop test back. For the poop test, I have to defecate into a tray. The tray is like the kind you get cheese curds in at the Fair. Then, I have to carefully divide the feces into a couple of vials with the included tongue depressor and mini spoons. There's a big reminder card in the box that says, "MORE IS NOT BETTER." Apparently, they lab only wants a certain amount of my poop. After I've followed all of the directions, I Fed Ex my feces to the lab in the biohazard bag. 

Obviously, I spent a lot of time laughing at the doctor's careful and extensive directions about poop sampling. 

The other data point the doctor needs is the results of a complete elimination diet. She thinks my problem might be something called leaky gut. One cause of that is food sensitivity. To check that next hypothesis, I can't eat any of my favorite foods for the next four weeks. While I wrote this, though, I had gluten-free oats with banana, apples, and some pumpkin pie spice on top. 

That's not a bad way to start an elimination diet, I don't think, except you'll notice there was no coffee.

4 comments:

Melanie said...

I'm excited both as a nutrition student and a regular person to see what happens with this. Your breakfast sounds really good. Can you have chicory? If so, that is a good coffee replacement if you are having trouble not drinking something dark and hot in the morning.

Anonymous said...

Way to go KC and your doctor too! As a baby and toddler, you would have spells when you were allergic to milk. I look forward to finding out what you find out. I know you will hang in there and will get to the root of it all. Lots of love, mom

jdoc said...

I'm working on figuring out my own medical mystery, so I applaud your diagnostic effort! I'll stay tuned for sure.

pshaugen2 said...

I'm pretty sure I will never again eat cheese curds at the fair.