The Curry Hurries

Today's update comes to you courtesy of my love for all things curry.

Last week, I wrote a post about fructose malabsorption (FM), and the possibility that, because of FM, my love of SCD-legal sweet treats may be complicating or slowing my recovery. This is the first update on my FM experiment since I started minding my fructose, last Thursday (9/16/10). You should know that, at this point in my healing journey with the SCD, my bowels have settled to a range of 1-3 BM/day, depending on what I eat. They are normally 5 or 6 on the Bristol Stool Scale. 

I'll outline recent events briefly below.

Morning, Day One: 

Do my usual morning stagger to the kitchen; lustfully look at the big bowl of green Granny Smith apples (I'll take three, thanks) on our kitchen table and wonder, What the hell am I going to put in my yogurt this morning? I listen to the Siren-song of the honey in our cabinet (Tie me to the mast!), and grab the yogurt from the fridge. Ah! Bananas! I add bananas to the yogurt, scramble eggs with cheddar. Surprisingly, the yogurt wasn't bad w/o honey, vanilla, and apple (my norm. I don't like plain yogurt--too tart). Grab my low-fructose lunch, and head out the door for work.

Summary gut-wellness for the day? Not too much difference. Maybe--maybe less gurgly throughout the day.

Morning, Day Two: 

Stagger to kitchen for my low-fructose breakfast. Less desire for honey, but the apples are still there. Won't someone eat those things? Grab my low-fructose lunch, and out the door for work. On my way to work, I had the constant feeling something was missing. Get to work. Ah, my (always, always at 6 am) morning BM! Where did it go? 10am. Ah, there you are. There was less gas, less gurgle with my morning BM; same story with my evening BM; no change in form, still semi-solid.

Summary Gut-wellness for day two? Noticeably less gurgle. Lots less gas. No change in form.

Summary Gut-wellness for days 3 & 4: Bowels very quiet. Very little gas, no gurgle. Only one BM, morning, both days. Hmm? Is victory looming?

That brings us to Monday—specifically Monday night. My wife, my primary caregiver, cooked a wonderful SCD-legal version of this Curried Carrot Soup from the Food Network. It was fantastic! The soup was so good, I ate my bowl, and both my children's helpings too. I wanted to go back for more, but if I did, there would be none left for lunch. Fiddle sticks. What else can I have to eat? How about some apples? D’oh!...

She substituted SCD yogurt instead of sour cream, SCD chicken stock we had in the freezer, and an SCD-legal curry powder that I had made some months ago… At least I thought she used the SCD curry mix. Why wouldn't she? We've been doing the diet for 15 months... D'oh! (again) Even old hands make mistakes. I normally tolerate home-made, SCD-friendly curry just fine, so long as it isn't too strong (and this was just right).

That night, I felt a great fire begin to grow in my belly. I could feel the entire length of my intestine begin to ball its fists and compose me a howler. So, like a good chronically ill person, I curled up in bed, ignored it, and went to sleep. The next morning, the curry paid me back for that avoidance. I call it the Curry Hurries. I went four times on Tuesday, and am still recovering today.

There are two morals to this story:

1. Be very, very careful not to let illegal foods slip into your SCD lifestyle. I'm living proof of the setbacks they can give you, even after over a year on the diet.
2. We'll have to wait until things settle down to resume reporting on the FM experiment. In the meantime, maybe I can have a few apples.

Onward to Health