Let's talk poop.

No really.  I'm going to talk poop.  No, I'm not going to say what shade it was, or what was floating in the toilet.  But I am going to talk about my bowels and what happens when I eat what I shouldn't be eating.

I have Crohn's disease.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's an inflammatory condition of the bowels.  It can be anywhere in your digestive tract (seriously, from your mouth to your anus).  Mine presents in the terminal ilium.  When your food digests, your small intestine liquifies the food.  As it passes through the ilium and into the colon (the large intestine), the moisture is then taken out and you get solidified waste.  Since my ilium is inflamed I don't get solid poo.

I was diagnosed with this about 3 months after I had Robert.  It will be 10 years in October since my diagnosis.  I have been on medley after medley of different inflammatory medicines as well as steroids to get my bowels under control.  My current cocktail is helping, but I still go often.  Sometimes 4 or 5 times a day, depending on the time of month.

There is no cure for Crohn's Disease.  Even if I were to have the inflamed part of my bowel removed, the disease would go into remission, but no one knows for how long.  And it always comes back.  Eventually I could end up on a colostomy bag.  Who wants to carry around poo on the outside?  YUCK!

Last winter I started eating Primal.  That combined with my current cocktail of medicine worked well.  I was down to one or two bowel movements, and solid ones at that, a day.  I haven't had a solid BM in 10 years!!!!

I fell off the wagon, though.  I was feeling so well.  I was down in weight.  But then things got hectic.  We decided to buy a house.  Papa Korg is still having issues with the military.  And I had a sugar cookie from Walmart.  You know the kind.  The big, fluffy ones with frosting?  And then I had more sugar cookies.  And more.  Soon I was eating a whole container to myself.  Two or three times a week.  But my weight was ok, so that's fine, right?   Wrong.  It started taking it's toll in a slow manner; so slow that I didn't notice at first. 

Summer came and popsicles came out.  Banana, cherry, grape, orange.  Yummy goodness.  Made with corn syrup.  Fast forward and I gained back all that I lost... the year before I started eating Primal, and the month in which I was eating.  50 pounds have come back.  And my Crohn's has too.

I've been doing OK Crohn's wise.  After all, I have a good cocktail of meds.  But, once a month, Mother Nature hits and my bowels mess up.  My gut starts to hurt.  I've been eating white bread lately.  Many people gasp at the white bread, but I tried eating whole wheat yesterday and found that I'm more tore up today than if I had white bread.  White bread is processed more than wheat, which is why I think I can handle it better.  Whole wheat just bounces around in your system.  It's going to take a week, at least, to get things back under control.  I know better.  I should do better.

Why am I preaching to something I am not doing?  Well, I'm no expert, that's for sure.  But I am an expert when it comes to my bowel functions.  And I can tell you, from a Crohn's Disease patient, eating Primal helps.  I won't tell anyone it's a miracle cure.  But I can tell you my anecdotal evidence is there.  I had formed poop, only one time a day, when I was eating Primal.  That's all I've wanted in the last 10 years.  Not having to worry about going to a store and having to find out where the nearest bathroom is.  Or knowing that your gut is tore up, so instead you skip the store altogether because you know you'll have to sit on the pot.  There's nothing I hate more than public restrooms.  Not because they are dirty, but because it's embarrassing to me to have others smell my smell, or hear me pass gas.  

So, this is it.  I'm going to start over.  I'm going to start eating Primal again, very soon.  I cannot promise when.  The 15th or the 1st of October, but it has to be soon.  My gut cannot take much more abuse than it already has.

So, read up on Mark's Daily Apple (I believe the link is on my blog).  Find out why wheat, and grains in particular are so bad.  Take the 30 day challenge yourself. 

Or, if you're in the Fairbanks area, join my good friends and I on a Primal Picnic.  Hear their stories, too.  And see if maybe giving up grains is in your future as well!