Drifting, more than coasting along, perhaps? And…time to rethink the “fancy” diet.

Happy new year, guys! 

I hope you’ve all had a really nice time, and to all the fellow IBD’ers, I hope you’ve kept well!

We’ve had a brilliant time over Christmas, really busy, really fun and everyone has been happy – apart from my poor flu ridden Mum. Stella, however, the main man, has been really well. 

I’m a member of many a Crohn’s forum/ group on The Socials and I can see how utterly awful having Crohn’s can be for some people, particularly around this time of year. As joyful as Christmas is, it surely has the potential of wreaking havoc on all of our bodies: stress, late nights, excessive food, booze (although thankfully not yet in Stella’s case), is bound to have some sort of detrimental effect. I have eczema and I’m currently feeling pretty wrecked with it, thanks to the over indulgence. Dry, ish Jan is my plan; the “ish” being because I have a dear friend’s hen night right bang in the middle of it (shame).

Anyways, the main reason I’m writing this is to report on the latest calprotectin result. 

Well…it’s 300. I have soooo much to say about it, so brace yourselves, ha!

Overall, we’re pleased. Stella is great; as I said, she hasn’t really any symptoms. She is thriving and is as happy as Larry on Adalimumab as her only medication. I feel so grateful when I see Stella laughing, playing, just doing all the things everyone else is doing. There have been a couple of moments of some tummy symptoms over Christmas; I instantly panic (doesn’t sound like me, eh?) that she’s going to be quite ill, but she absolutely isn’t, she just carries on with whatever she is doing, which is usually something really random like building a Go Kart.  

To recap… Stella’s calprotectin was taken at the end of August. This came back at 500. She hadn’t long started back at school and was slightly symptomatic. I do think nerves going back to school after a long summer of fun definitely plays a role in this. FYI she had zero symptoms previously this whole year!

We didn’t find out the result of this calprotectin until we had a meeting with the IBD team 6 weeks or so later. I assumed that it must have been fine because I hadn’t heard. Stella wasn’t worsening, and in many ways I sort of didn’t want to know. 

As always, our wonderful nurse was very reassuring and suggested we hand in another calprotectin 6 weeks later.

So this was in October, I had knowledge that Stella’s calprotectin was 500, and we were to hand another sample in mid November.  I suspected it may have climbed even higher than this at this point because we hadn’t known what it was and therefore hadn’t applied anything new to try to bring it down. I decided therefore, I would look into what we could do, as a family, to try to naturally reduce this. None of us, obviously, especially Stella, would want the calprotectin to climb up the way, resulting in likely a change of meds/ possibly Modulen/ steroids etc. 

I did some research and decided what might work would be a diet much more bland than what had been our norm; and low residue. This was harder to do than it sounds. Admittedly, I had definitely been getting somewhat carried away with cooking. Thanks to Pinterest I have been experimenting with stunning new recipes – uploading them onto my instagram page, and feeling ever so pleased with myself. However, in hindsight, and doing the research, I’m wondering if it’s all been a bit too spicy for my lovely Crohn’s daughter’s tummy.

 When I first started looking into how diet could help Stella with Crohn’s, the more traditional meal featured heavily: slow cooked meats, potatoes, casseroles, etc. Nowadays, and in the past year or so, I’ve been cooking more vegan meals, including beans, spices – definitely more colourful, but, I question it now – are these foods just a bit much for the IBD people, if consumed most days? It’s very hard to know. I’m, as usual, just going with my gut (pardon pun, have I done this before?) and hoping that Stella will continue to thrive with what I’m feeding her, as well as the medication. All the while the diet remains, as it has always been, gluten, dairy free, unprocessed, with fermented foods thrown in. Anyway, back to my experimental low residue diet…

Fibre is a funny one. I reckon, and I could be way off, but I think that when someone with IBD is not in a flare, and has no issues with strictures etc, they could benefit from a diet high in fibre. This should help the microbiome, which is crucial in overall health. However, with someone experiencing a flare up, seemingly fibre is not your friend. With that in mind, I had to, fairly dramatically, change Stella’s diet, for the short term, to see if this would bring down the calprotectin to a level which would not require altering the medication. I knew a low fibre diet should never be long term, however, for 6 weeks, I figured that the potential benefits would outweigh the risks. I also realised that I would probably benefit from not looking at fancy recipes on Pinterest, but revisit old recipes from my lovely late mother in law’s collection.

Stella was up for it. As I’ve said lots of times before, she adapts amazingly well to pretty much everything. And now that she’s 14, she is understanding lots more about her Crohns. So we worked together and chatted through a suitable meal plan. This involved a lot of bone broth making, which is something I hadn’t necessarily stopped, but probably didn’t do enough of this past year. Chicken, fish, rice, potatoes, well cooked, peeled vegetables, avoiding raw veg and high fibre veg. Green beans, asparagus, lettuce leaves, melon, bananas, peeled pears were the fruits n veg on the menu. Rice krispies or corn flakes (gf) with white gf toast was breakfast. We avoided red meat too as it can be difficult to digest when your body is in flare, apparently. A daily vitamin was continued as I was worrying re iron levels, etc.

 Stella took to this new diet superbly, and even claimed that her tummy was feeling a bit better. We were still, however, looking forward to handing in the calprotectin, and celebrating with a delicious gf sausage roll with baked beans (!!)

Unfortunately, and very typically, the week we were to hand it in, we all developed flu! Thankfully, Stella wasn’t terribly bad with it, but it did mean that we had to wait for a few weeks/a month before we handed in the calprotectin. This is because the flu virus apparantly have the potential of raising a calprotectin. We were really disappointed and, feeling frazzled with flu, felt exhausted at the thought of carrying on calculating fibre, etc.

Three weeks past, Stella felt fine; flu wise, no lingering symptoms. I was ready for her to hand in a sample for the calprotectin, but thought to wait another week, just to be sure. During this week, my other daughter developed symptoms of a stomach bug! A stomach bug can almost definitely increase calprotectin, so I was err, panicking. However, no one else was, as usual, and Stella, calmly, was able to provide the sample to allow me to hand in. Incidentally, this was a Friday and I was very rushed for time before the lab shut, but that’s neither here nor here – just added to the existing neurosis!

 It was handed in. Nothing more we could do, like an exam. That evening we had a feast of fibre (not really) – and Stella tucked into gf sausage rolls and baked beans – simple pleasures. 

Fast forward… 2 days before Christmas, and the result was emailed to me. I initially was a bit flat on reading it, however, realised that actually, this was a good result. I think in October it had probably climbed to 600 or thereabouts (knowing the symptoms) therefore, it had been halved by diet alone, in 6 weeks. Also, she had flu 3 weeks before so who knows if this 300 could be partly due to flu? We’ll not know. 

The IBD team wishes for it to be repeated in a few months. I think the plan of diet is going back to what we did a few years ago, before I got carried away. I’ll still provide the odd vegan meal, possibly a couple of times a week, but I will steer clear of adding lots of spices to it. And, most importantly, continue ensuring Stella doesn’t get too stressed and is a happy girl, which currently, she very much is. As it happens, she’s been sitting beside me half reading this/ half watching Bad Boys 2 – her current career of choice now being part of the SWAT team. Excellent. What every anxious mother wants to hear. 

Thank you for reading!

Love n hugs to you all.