outdamnspot
Senior Member
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- 924
I brought this up in a thread about going to the ER for ME/CFS and @Shoshana suggested making a new post (even though I feel like a broken-record at this point ). I've been battling progressively worse food intolerances over the past 8 months, but really feel like I'm at a dead-end now.
Over summer in Australia, I found my intolerances weren't as bad and I could cycle between days of eating zero-carb/carnivore, and then have maybe 3-5 days where I could tolerate other carbs like beef liver or avocado. Sometimes I'd get a kind of manic/histamine energy from eating these foods, then eventually grow intolerant or crash and have to cycle off; once my gut 'reset' I could add them back in again. This also let me sometimes attend medical appointments since my energy was a lot more sustainable on carb days.
However, things have been a lot worse over winter and it seems I can't have carbohydrates at all now; as soon as I eat any beef liver (too scared to go near avocado at this point), I am hit by the most profound lethargy and fatigue the next day; it's like dragging myself mentally and physically through mud. My digestion slows down and I become constipated. My gut feels coated in some strange mucus and my sinuses become blocked too. I get profound depression/anxiety/brain fog. But I know I need carbs, because even in these states, my nervous system is a lot more calmer and less over-reactive to threats.
Once I cycle off carbs completely (besides lemon juice), the fatigue and constipation and mood issues lift, but I am just running on adrenaline and crash so easily. Trying to keep this up for 4-5 days has ended in some really scary crashes where I could hardly make it up the stairs.
I managed to see two GPs near my house but both said that SIBO and food intolerances aren't their area to deal with and that I will need to see a gastroenterologist, but I have no idea how I'd get to one because neither state (carbs or zero carbs) leaves me at all functional. My family are terrible and just leave me to look after myself.
I mentioned this before, but I had an inkling my food issues might reach this point and so kept an antibiotic on hand that was given for a flu a few months ago (Doxicycline). I feel like my only choice at this point might be to try it myself, because if I can alleviate my food intolerances (even temporarily) it might let me get some help. I think my main hesitation has been in potentially crashing myself further from trying it (due to potential die-off etc.), and I also keep wondering if I should just start it on a day I've eaten carbs (where I feel awful, but at least a little more resistant to crashes) or on a non-carb day where I can think/make decisions but am more prone to crashes. Fretting over this has just left me procrastinating and not doing anything at all. I am pretty sure from everything I've read that this issue is SIBO though and it seems like an antibiotic could potentially give me a lot of relief?
Over summer in Australia, I found my intolerances weren't as bad and I could cycle between days of eating zero-carb/carnivore, and then have maybe 3-5 days where I could tolerate other carbs like beef liver or avocado. Sometimes I'd get a kind of manic/histamine energy from eating these foods, then eventually grow intolerant or crash and have to cycle off; once my gut 'reset' I could add them back in again. This also let me sometimes attend medical appointments since my energy was a lot more sustainable on carb days.
However, things have been a lot worse over winter and it seems I can't have carbohydrates at all now; as soon as I eat any beef liver (too scared to go near avocado at this point), I am hit by the most profound lethargy and fatigue the next day; it's like dragging myself mentally and physically through mud. My digestion slows down and I become constipated. My gut feels coated in some strange mucus and my sinuses become blocked too. I get profound depression/anxiety/brain fog. But I know I need carbs, because even in these states, my nervous system is a lot more calmer and less over-reactive to threats.
Once I cycle off carbs completely (besides lemon juice), the fatigue and constipation and mood issues lift, but I am just running on adrenaline and crash so easily. Trying to keep this up for 4-5 days has ended in some really scary crashes where I could hardly make it up the stairs.
I managed to see two GPs near my house but both said that SIBO and food intolerances aren't their area to deal with and that I will need to see a gastroenterologist, but I have no idea how I'd get to one because neither state (carbs or zero carbs) leaves me at all functional. My family are terrible and just leave me to look after myself.
I mentioned this before, but I had an inkling my food issues might reach this point and so kept an antibiotic on hand that was given for a flu a few months ago (Doxicycline). I feel like my only choice at this point might be to try it myself, because if I can alleviate my food intolerances (even temporarily) it might let me get some help. I think my main hesitation has been in potentially crashing myself further from trying it (due to potential die-off etc.), and I also keep wondering if I should just start it on a day I've eaten carbs (where I feel awful, but at least a little more resistant to crashes) or on a non-carb day where I can think/make decisions but am more prone to crashes. Fretting over this has just left me procrastinating and not doing anything at all. I am pretty sure from everything I've read that this issue is SIBO though and it seems like an antibiotic could potentially give me a lot of relief?