In early March my Honorable Husband had all the symptoms of diverticulitis. He had had two previous attacks. We were out of town at the time, so he went to a walk in medical clinic. The doctor concurred that it looked like diverticulitis and gave him two strong antibiotics. The treatment worked, and the diverticulitis symptoms vanished.
However a few days after the last antibiotic, he began to have diarrhea. We were home by then so he went to his regular doctor thinking that perhaps he had picked up a parasite. After listening to the story, the doctor said that while he agreed with the diverticulitis diagnosis and while he would have prescribed the same antibiotics he believed that those antibiotics had severely irritated HH’s digestive tract. The doctor told him to take two digestive enzymes (papaya and bromelain) and to go on the FODMAP Diet.
The way I understand it, the FODMAP Diet was developed for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and similar conditions. It identifies food categories that either cause water to be drawn into the intestinal tract or that could be fermented by bacteria in the intestinal tract.
Gluten, dairy, legumes, and artificial sweeteners are to be avoided. Fruits with center seeds are avoids. Most vegetables are ok – artichokes, cauliflower, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, being exceptions. Most meat is allowed.
HH looked at the list in dismay and said “What am I going to eat?” I looked at the list and said, “It’s sort of like the Type O Diet. You’re going to be eating like me.” He groaned.
I’m going off on what will seem like a rabbit trail for a moment, but I promise to get back to the story. The year that DD got married, my sister’s husband had a serious digestive system breakdown. He lost a lot of weight, and when they came for the wedding he was on a very restrictive diet. He was still having trouble that fall when we went to visit them. They didn’t give any details other than to talk about what he could and could not eat.
I emailed her and asked if he was on the FODMAP Diet. She told me his story. He had been given very strong antibiotics for a diverticulitis attack. His digestive system – three years later – has never recovered. His doctor denied that the antibiotics had anything to do with his problems. She had never heard of FODMAP but intended to look it up.
This made HH and me take his situation very seriously. If it was possible to heal his digestive inflammation, we both wanted to do it as quickly as possible. We did not want his system to establish a new normal that would mean frequent trips to the bathroom and radical eating limitations for the rest of his life.
It was a challenge. I wanted to keep him on the BTD as much as possible. The best way I knew to get the diarrhea under control was the BRAT diet. And I needed to follow the FODMAP avoids. Compromises had to be made.
I gave him applesauce and apples – Those were FODMAP avoids but good on the BRAT diet and neutral on BTD. I gave him a half a banana every other day, and a white potato a couple of times a week – those were BTD avoids but helpful for FODMAP and BRAT. I added ghee and larch from the BTD digestive protocols. I gave him lots of eggs, chicken, turkey and fish but no beef or pork. So his meat was BTD compliant, but he was eating larger than BTD servings.
The first couple of days there was no improvement, and he was getting discouraged. I ordered Type A specific probiotics, Deflect A and Intrinsa. We stayed on a BRAT driven BTD and FODMAP modified diet.
At last he began to notice improvement. It was slow, but within a month he was almost back to normal. The diarrhea was gone. He only had mild cramping if he ate too much.
However the rigidity of the diet was “cramping” his style. He felt good enough to be rebellious. We travelled to Alabama to visit some friends and whenever he escaped my watchful eye, he ate bread and ice cream. It didn’t seem to bother him. We both relaxed and he went back to his usual way of eating, which is 80% BTD compliant.
Suddenly one day he relapsed. We have no idea what caused it. I started emphasizing BRAT foods, hoping he had picked up a 24-hour virus, but no, he was back where he had been after the antibiotics.
We started all over juggling BRAT, BTD, and FODMAP. The first three to four days there was no improvement and we both grew concerned. Then the slow improvement began again. Today he tells me that he is almost back to normal.
I hope I can keep him satisfied with this mixture of diets for several weeks. I want to give his gut time to heal completely. I promise him that he can then start adding foods very slowly – keeping notes on any side effects. We hope that we can identify a few foods that trigger the problems and diligently avoid them in the future.
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