Went for Barium enema today and despite following all the instructions the previous day with regard to having a limited diet and taking sachets of picolax. My colon wasn’t sufficiently cleansed, they only discovered this after administering the enema so still had all the unpleasantness of getting rid of it.
Have new appointment for the 31st August and been given extra packets of picolax so I can have double the quantity hopefully works this time
Had hospital appointment this morning at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with Mr King, who is one of the consultants. I wasn’t kept waiting too long. Had a very informal chat about how I had been over the last few months. Told him about wheat free diet and taking daily amounts of normacol and that apart from the recent bout I hadn’t been too bad.
He suggested I have a barium enema; last one was five years ago; to give them a base line on the condition of the lining of my stomach. He told me I had IBS and diverticular disease and to carry on with the wheat free diet and to continue managing my condition as I do now.
Suggested drinking chamomile or peppermint tea when I have another attack as they both have anti spasmodic properties that are more gentle than traditional remedies such as mebeverine or spasmonal.
Suffered a lot of stomach pain over the last few days, tummy really sore to the touch over quite a large area. Taking lots of spasmonal to try and ease the cramps, also suffering from diarrhoea just to round of the whole experience. Have an appointment at the hospital in a few days time.
I finally got round to booking my first telephone consultation with YorkTest last week, a very pleasant lady called today and discussed my results. I had already dropped many of the foods from my diet and have noticed improvements over the last few weeks. One of the foods was yeast which is in a large amount of foods including vinegar, although I can have spirit or distilled vinegar.
Advice given was to avoid foods with a score of 1 for 3 months this included Wheat, peanuts, gluten, cows milk and buckwheat.
Foods with a score of 2 to be avoided for 6 months included Egg yolk and yeast
A score of 3 mean’t to avoid for 9 months this was just egg white.
After the times had passed she advised trying small quantities of each to see if there was any adverse reaction, if no reaction should try consuming normally again but only once in every 4 days.
I’ll see how I go an report back
I had the chance to study my results over the weekend and to have a good read of the literature sent by YorkTest.
The literature they sent included:
Leaflet on Egg intolerance
Leaflet on Yeast intolerance
Details of the 2 telephone consultations with a qualified nutritionist, the first suggested early on with a follow up a few weeks later.
Results guidebook which is a step by step guide to making the most of your results. The format is laid out to show the four steps involved in making a plan to improve your health and diet. Steps covered include getting prepared, planning a diet and the initial nutritionist consultation, starting the new diet and finally reviewing your progress and taking the follow up consultation.
12 week food diary where you record what you eat at breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks. Each day you also record how you are feeling. The diary also gave a tip each week and also posed the questions any new symptoms and have you eliminated all your problem foods. The majority of this functionality is included in Snaklog.
All the literature appeared to be of a high standard and was easy to read and understand. It’s probably best to read all the info a couple of times to make sure you really understand it. I would advise taking the leaflets with you on any shopping trips, in my case the Egg and Yeast intolerance as these can both hide in food stuffs under a variety of different name.
My next step is to take up my first telephone consultation. I’ll report later on that.
YorkTest results arrived today in an A5 sized envelope, looking quickly at the FoodScan 113 results. I appear to have an intolerance to the following foods on a scale of 0 to 4 (4 being the worst)
Egg White (3)
Egg Yolk (2)
Yeast (2)
Buckwheat (1)
Cows Milk (1)
all other foods tested were 0.
I’ll report back in more detail once I’ve had time to study the full package that came with the test results.
The pack comprised of a newsletter, introductory letter with membership card and 16 A4 sized information leaflets.
The leaflet titles are:
Diarrhoea
What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Investigations and Procedures
IBS in Children
Drug Treatments
Constipation
Gas Bloating and Wind
Stress and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Diet and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Homeopathy
Hypnotherapy
Acupuncture
Reflexology
Candida and IBS
Probiotics
Information for Partners and Carers
The leaflets were all well written and informative
The newsletter was issue number 71, some back issues are available on the website in pdf format for members to download and read.
The newsletter contained a mixture of articles, letters and a small amount of advertising. The lead story was entitled “Putting the testers to the test” and was in response to a recent Which? report that said tests were ‘often contradictory and inconsistent’.
The responses were from dietitian Claire Hanika and Dr Nick Read (The trusts medical advisor). Claire seemed to be of the view that the tests were often expensive and of little use, Dr Read who promotes ‘Yorktest’ seemed to have little to say apart from agreeing that some tests such as
‘hair analysis, kinaesthesilogy and body conductance are exercises in pseudo science with no evidence base.’
His comments on Yorktest and Cambridge Nutritional services were that their
‘methodology was scientifically valid, the technicians are trained and as far as Yorktest are concerned, qualified nutritionists are available to offer advice on dietary modification.’
he then almost seems to cast doubt on his conclusions by saying
‘The rationale and methods look good, but if they are that good why is IgG testing not available on the NHS?’
Yorktest were also given a voice in the newsletter and were asked for their response to the Which report. Their response was.
“Although the article confused allergy and intolerance, it examined the many different ways of testing for food intolerance with some methods offering less scientific grounding than others. Yorktest are keen to point out that, both First Step and FoodScan 113, are laboratory tests with clinical and published scientific credentials. Yorktest also offer full customer and nutritional support and wholeheartedly agree with Which? investigation that some less qualified tests offer little support. The YorkTest’s FoodScan service includes two telephone consultations with BANT qualified nutritionists - a key part of the YorkTest FoodScan service designed to support customers in modifying their diet.
FoodScan is the only food intolerance test endorsed by Allergy UK”
I will be detailing my experience with YorkTest in future articles when I have received my test results.
Overall the newsletter was well written and informative with a good balance between articles and readers experiences.
I signed up with The Gut Trust over the Christmas holiday period costs £24.00 per year. A package arrived from them today comprising an introductory letter, membership card and an information pack.
The introductory letter gave details of their helpline which puts you in touch with a specialist nurse experienced in dealing with IBS.
The information pack contains loads of information about IBS as well as a copy of their latest newsletter.
I’ve still got to read through all the literature but will report my thoughts later.
A very nice lady from YorkTest called me today to explain that they had the results of the stage one test. She asked me a couple of questions about any symptoms I had and if I had already made any dietary changes.
I told her I had been diagnosed with IBS and that I had already cut wheat from my diet. She explained that the part one food intolerance test had come back positive indicating a food intolerance and that I could pay a further £245 to have a FoodScan 113 done this would indicate which foods from a possible 113 I have shown an intolerance to on a scale of 1 to 4.
I would also be able to have a telephone consultation with a nutritionist who would be able to help me set up an elimination diet. I said I wanted to proceed with the FoodScan 113 test and would call her later with credit card details. Following payment I should receive results within 10 days.
I ordered a YorkTest first step FoodScan on the 2nd January at a cost of £9.00 from a link on the Gut Trust Website it arrived yesterday.
The kit was enclosed in a green plastic box and contained
Full colour Instructions
1 lancet
1 absorbent wand and container
1 plaster
Customer details form
Prepaid envelope
Pen
The instructions were very clear and simple to follow although I was surprised by how long it took to fill the absorbent wand with blood, had to squeeze my finger a few times. Have now posted the container and eagerly await the results which I should receive with the next 10 days.
