Freya
09-06-2005, 03:11 PM
Hello!
I've been lurking here for a months - well, since I've become dairy free at the beginning of the year. This is my story........and the longest thread ever!
My name is Freya, I live in Manchester and have done since my uni days. I live with my husband, two cats and a motorbike (husband's, but with me as a regular pillion) My doctor and dietician think I have a milk allergy (to the protein - not lactose intolerance) but they have (frustratingly :angry: ) been unable to help me more than that and seem unable to answer my questions.
I'd had a series of seemingly unrelated health problems, which now, looking back, actually go back a few years. It started with severe heartburn about three years ago. I went from never having had it before to very regularly, to the extent where I took several pregnancy tests just to be sure :unsure: . I went to the doctor and they told me to take rennies and give up smoking, drinking and spicy foods! I just got on with it and I suppose that I got used to it and learned to manage it and avoid the things that gave it me the worst. Looking back, my husband says he feels very guilty about it now, as the best cure for heartburn is milk and it was preferable to taking chemicals, so he was always making me drink the stuff! The foods that gave me heartburn were often weird - like baked beans!
Then about a year and a half ago I started waking up in the middle of the night with the most horrendous stomach cramps, like the worst period pain ever - I didn't happen very often to start with, but it started happening more and more frequently and always during the night. That was until we went to New York for our first anniversary last November. I suffered so badly that the I was getting the cramps during the day and could hardly walk. Having spent the best part of an evening doubled up in our hotel room, I agreed that it wasn't normal and would go back to the doctors. (By this stage, I had already worked out that drinking large qtys of milk made my symptoms worse and I had cut down)
The doctor checked my stomach and said that it was probably IBS (There's a Surprise!! ) despite the fact that I have had none of the other usual symptoms of IBS. But they did do some blood tests, but they all came back normal.
Then the Friday night before Christmas I woke up in the middle of the night with a tight stomach and a tight chest and the most awful pain I could possibly ever imagine. My husband thought I was having a heart attack and called an ambulance. They also thought I could be having a heart attack so wired me to an ECG machine and took me in my PJ’s to A&E at 2am on the busiest night of the year! Whilst their they did another 2 ECG's and by 5am decided that what I had experienced was a severe acid reflux attack. Apparently a severe attack presents itself exactly the same as a heart attack and can last several hours (mine usually last 2-3 hours)
So I went back to the doctors again and asked to be referred to a dietician as I had a thought that it could be food related as I have been intolerant to MSG (makes me puke) for about 5 years and have suffered from migraines since I was 15 (Caffeine, chocolate and cheese). The dietician asked me some very strange questions – like do I clear my throat a lot? She said that my symptoms weren’t those of being lactose intolerant (I have a good friend who is and had already worked this one out!) but she thought it could be the cow’s mile protein, so she sent me away with a diet sheet and symptoms sheet to do a four week elimination diet. By the end of the third week I felt brilliant and really didn’t want to drink a glass of milk a day for three days as directed. It had convinced me and the results were conclusive.
This brings me up to February this year.
My symptoms seem to be getting more severe with even the smallest traces of dairy in my diet the longer I am off it, and this makes me very reluctant to experiment with what I can and can’t eat. If I eat something by accident, I get heartburn after every single thing I eat for about a week and a half and I have had a couple more acid reflux attacks, each one being worse than the one before and the after effects lasting longer each time. This has meant that I am still adhering to the strict guidelines of my original elimination diet.
I have been back to see my doctor and my dietician since and I think that they know that being dairy free has fixed my problems, but they don’t seem to understand why and my questions seem to be beyond their level of knowledge – I’m not quite sure where to go from here……. The dietician did say that I needed to try some foods with lactose in, but no protein to prove their theory. She suggested yogurts, which confused the hell out of me :unsure: .
One other thing to know about me is that I am a huge foodie. Both my parents are chefs and I have grown up around food. It seems almost cruel for someone so into food to suddenly not be able to eat all those yummy things. The one thing I miss more than anything else is butter. Until all this happened, I had real butter in my sandwiches everyday and cooked with it all the time. It is a big leap to go from real butter to vegetable spread :bleh: .
It seems to be me to be one of those really unfair things in life that as a person that has always eaten a healthy and balanced diet and cooked all my own food and never really eaten processed foods, that I am the one to get food allergies/intolerances. No fair :( .
On the up side, as we cook all our own food, the adjustment hasn’t been too bad. I dread to think what it would be like if neither of us could cook!
The thing I find really hard is eating out – something that was a huge passion for me. There are just too many assumptions made on both sides. If I tell them I can’t have milk, it doesn’t seem to include butter in their heads - vegetables come served coated in the stuff. If I ask if the chips are vegan, they go to the kitchen and ask and then come back and say that no-one can be sure for certain! Grrr! It is not always possible to eat at home if you are out and about. Thank God for Fast food places that publish this info on the Web (Special mention must go to Burger King, where I can eat almost anything that doesn’t come with cheese! :thumbsup: )
The positive side to being dairy free, other than getting rid of all my symptoms. I feel healthier – comments from loads of people, have loads more energy, I’m happier. My skin is the clearest it’s been from spots for about 15 years (including while being on medication for acne before my wedding!) I’ve had less colds and the ones I’ve had have been far less snotty and much shorter and I’ve not had my usual early bout of hayfever this year. To top it all, I’ve lost over 1 ½ stone in weight since the middle of January (partly through digesting my food better and I guess cutting out butter, cream, cakes, puddings, biscuits and ice cream!)
It’s been brilliant and it has all been worth it!
:D
I've been lurking here for a months - well, since I've become dairy free at the beginning of the year. This is my story........and the longest thread ever!
My name is Freya, I live in Manchester and have done since my uni days. I live with my husband, two cats and a motorbike (husband's, but with me as a regular pillion) My doctor and dietician think I have a milk allergy (to the protein - not lactose intolerance) but they have (frustratingly :angry: ) been unable to help me more than that and seem unable to answer my questions.
I'd had a series of seemingly unrelated health problems, which now, looking back, actually go back a few years. It started with severe heartburn about three years ago. I went from never having had it before to very regularly, to the extent where I took several pregnancy tests just to be sure :unsure: . I went to the doctor and they told me to take rennies and give up smoking, drinking and spicy foods! I just got on with it and I suppose that I got used to it and learned to manage it and avoid the things that gave it me the worst. Looking back, my husband says he feels very guilty about it now, as the best cure for heartburn is milk and it was preferable to taking chemicals, so he was always making me drink the stuff! The foods that gave me heartburn were often weird - like baked beans!
Then about a year and a half ago I started waking up in the middle of the night with the most horrendous stomach cramps, like the worst period pain ever - I didn't happen very often to start with, but it started happening more and more frequently and always during the night. That was until we went to New York for our first anniversary last November. I suffered so badly that the I was getting the cramps during the day and could hardly walk. Having spent the best part of an evening doubled up in our hotel room, I agreed that it wasn't normal and would go back to the doctors. (By this stage, I had already worked out that drinking large qtys of milk made my symptoms worse and I had cut down)
The doctor checked my stomach and said that it was probably IBS (There's a Surprise!! ) despite the fact that I have had none of the other usual symptoms of IBS. But they did do some blood tests, but they all came back normal.
Then the Friday night before Christmas I woke up in the middle of the night with a tight stomach and a tight chest and the most awful pain I could possibly ever imagine. My husband thought I was having a heart attack and called an ambulance. They also thought I could be having a heart attack so wired me to an ECG machine and took me in my PJ’s to A&E at 2am on the busiest night of the year! Whilst their they did another 2 ECG's and by 5am decided that what I had experienced was a severe acid reflux attack. Apparently a severe attack presents itself exactly the same as a heart attack and can last several hours (mine usually last 2-3 hours)
So I went back to the doctors again and asked to be referred to a dietician as I had a thought that it could be food related as I have been intolerant to MSG (makes me puke) for about 5 years and have suffered from migraines since I was 15 (Caffeine, chocolate and cheese). The dietician asked me some very strange questions – like do I clear my throat a lot? She said that my symptoms weren’t those of being lactose intolerant (I have a good friend who is and had already worked this one out!) but she thought it could be the cow’s mile protein, so she sent me away with a diet sheet and symptoms sheet to do a four week elimination diet. By the end of the third week I felt brilliant and really didn’t want to drink a glass of milk a day for three days as directed. It had convinced me and the results were conclusive.
This brings me up to February this year.
My symptoms seem to be getting more severe with even the smallest traces of dairy in my diet the longer I am off it, and this makes me very reluctant to experiment with what I can and can’t eat. If I eat something by accident, I get heartburn after every single thing I eat for about a week and a half and I have had a couple more acid reflux attacks, each one being worse than the one before and the after effects lasting longer each time. This has meant that I am still adhering to the strict guidelines of my original elimination diet.
I have been back to see my doctor and my dietician since and I think that they know that being dairy free has fixed my problems, but they don’t seem to understand why and my questions seem to be beyond their level of knowledge – I’m not quite sure where to go from here……. The dietician did say that I needed to try some foods with lactose in, but no protein to prove their theory. She suggested yogurts, which confused the hell out of me :unsure: .
One other thing to know about me is that I am a huge foodie. Both my parents are chefs and I have grown up around food. It seems almost cruel for someone so into food to suddenly not be able to eat all those yummy things. The one thing I miss more than anything else is butter. Until all this happened, I had real butter in my sandwiches everyday and cooked with it all the time. It is a big leap to go from real butter to vegetable spread :bleh: .
It seems to be me to be one of those really unfair things in life that as a person that has always eaten a healthy and balanced diet and cooked all my own food and never really eaten processed foods, that I am the one to get food allergies/intolerances. No fair :( .
On the up side, as we cook all our own food, the adjustment hasn’t been too bad. I dread to think what it would be like if neither of us could cook!
The thing I find really hard is eating out – something that was a huge passion for me. There are just too many assumptions made on both sides. If I tell them I can’t have milk, it doesn’t seem to include butter in their heads - vegetables come served coated in the stuff. If I ask if the chips are vegan, they go to the kitchen and ask and then come back and say that no-one can be sure for certain! Grrr! It is not always possible to eat at home if you are out and about. Thank God for Fast food places that publish this info on the Web (Special mention must go to Burger King, where I can eat almost anything that doesn’t come with cheese! :thumbsup: )
The positive side to being dairy free, other than getting rid of all my symptoms. I feel healthier – comments from loads of people, have loads more energy, I’m happier. My skin is the clearest it’s been from spots for about 15 years (including while being on medication for acne before my wedding!) I’ve had less colds and the ones I’ve had have been far less snotty and much shorter and I’ve not had my usual early bout of hayfever this year. To top it all, I’ve lost over 1 ½ stone in weight since the middle of January (partly through digesting my food better and I guess cutting out butter, cream, cakes, puddings, biscuits and ice cream!)
It’s been brilliant and it has all been worth it!
:D