I was counting calories and tracking what I ate and trying to move when I could even though I had gained all this weight. The orthotics that fixed my broken foot had inadvertently aggravated the arthritis in my knees. It's true, my foot no longer hurt but now my knees were killing me and unstable.
Weighing in on a weekly basis brought more disappointment, being as big as I am/was allows me to eat around 3800 calories a day and still lose weight. I was eating around 2800 and still gaining weight. I knew I needed to move more but I also knew that I should be losing weight at this calorie level. It was around this time that I consulted my then doctor about what might be going on. He advised me that I just needed to add more exercise to my daily routine. This was something at the time that was not so easily done. So i started physical therapy and swimming a couple days a week.
And still the scale betrayed my efforts. It was about march of 2018 when I decided to go in search of a new team to work with me on getting healthy. By this time I had used my allotted physical therapy and swimming that insurance would pay for. I was also down to eating between 1700-2000 calories a day and you guessed it, still gaining weight.
By late Spring early Summer, I had found a new doctor and we set out running the requisite tests to find out if there was indeed something medically wrong with me. My blood work came back basically normal for someone that at the time was over 600lbs. The exception was my insulin level. It was extremely elevated. We started to work with my then newly found
Coke was my kryptonite. It was becoming my last source of food that still had the power to comfort me. The almost romantic feelings I had surrounding an ice cold coke helped me bury a lot of feelings. Another chapter...
The extremely elevated insulin levels did not mean that I was diabetic, I am not. What it means is that everything I was eating was being turned directly into fat. The reason I was not losing any weight
The dietary changes we made were allowed to settle in for a couple of months. By August-September of 2018 I had my blood redrawn and the results were only slightly better.
Enter Metformin
Metformin is a widely used drug for lowering insulin levels. It has helped tens of thousands of people lower their insulin levels and help manage their diabetes.
The dosage of metformin is ramped up every two weeks until the desired therapeutic level is achieved.
The only real potential side effect from Metformin is diarrhea on the initial introduction to your system. IN ALMOST ALL PATIENTS THIS GOES AWAY AFTER TWO WEEKS. IN ALMOST ALL PATIENTS THIS GOES AWAY AFTER TWO WEEKS.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that if you are still reading this you have suffered a bout of diarrhea a time or two in your life. To say the very least it is unpleasant. What happened to me was an epic odyssey where I was literally watching my quality of life run out of my backside.
I was on Metformin for 2-3 days when the first wave of post-meal diarrhea hit. There was gurgling and a buildup of pressure that came on so fast I almost did not make it to the toilet. It was lunchtime and I was at work and I didn't really think at the time that this was going to be the start of a very frustrating and time in my life.
For the next couple of days from anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours after eating I would experience what I can only call explosive and debilitating diarrhea. I consulted my doctor to let her know what was happening and she assured me it was temporary and by the end of the second week it would all be over and I would be enjoying the benefits of having much lowered insulin levels and finally after a year of trying, some weight loss. Well I am a trooper and I desperately want to be healthy so I decided to stick it out for the required two weeks.
By mid way through the second week I was becoming irritable. I could not eat or drink enough and what ever I did eat came right out with a vengeance. These episodes of diarrhea were unlike anything I had ever experienced. Not only did the food and nourishment leave me at an almost ballistic-like rate, but after each bout I was left feeling as though I had been hit by a truck. I would be left feeling weak and unfocused. This feeling would last an hour or more after a blast of diarrhea. In less than two weeks my life became this unpredictable chaotic mess where if I made plans I could not be sure I could keep them. I never knew when an episode of the shits would overcome me.
By Monday of the third week I called the doctor and said "no mas". I could not take it anymore. She agreed and told me to stop taking it and resume a diet with little to no sugar.
The diarrhea DID NOT STOP!!! I REPEAT DID NOT STOP. Over the course of the next week the diarrhea did not stop. I had a complete lack of energy, I was hungry beyond words and could not drink enough. I had made a return trip to the doctor for fecal culture and more blood work to again see if there was something medically causing this digestive distress. Everything came back normal.
During the fourth week, I had few bowel movements that were more "predictable" yet by no means what I would describe as firm. By this time, we were coming into the holiday season and I could not have been feeling worse. While the diarrhea was not nearly as severe as it had been it had not exactly cleared up either.
By the time Christmas rolled around I was finally having some firm bowel movements but still having explosive blow outs 3-4 times a week at random intervals. We did everything trying to find out if it was certain foods that were causing it and nothing could be ruled in or out with any certainty.
There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to what caused my diarrhea. It was February-March 2019 when I had a flare up of diverticulitis that really exasperated things. I cut everything out of my diet that would irritate the diverticulitis and that coupled with now frequent diarrhea had me back at the doctor. More blood work and some extensive food allergy/sensitivity tests were ordered. The initial blood work came back negative and unfortunately the allergy/sensitivity testing took at least four weeks to get back. It was also during this time that I had an ultrasound done on my gallbladder to rule out that as a cause of the diarrhea. I had known for a couple of years that I had a gall stone and while I was symptom free in regards to a gallbladder flare up we just wanted to rule out any other causes. This ultrasound came back that I indeed still had the stone. A surgical consult was ordered for some definitive answers to what in the hell was causing the massive amounts of completely unpredictable diarrhea that was now going into its seventh month of happening. Going into May 2019 we also decided to schedule an appointment with a highly recommended GI doctor in Toledo. I was to the point of great frustration as I was not getting any answers and still having symptoms. It would be July 3rd before I would be able to get in with the specialist but at least I had an appointment.
It was around this time that my food sensitivity/allergy tests came back. At this point, I wasn't looking forward to finding out I may have food allergies/sensitivities but I was desperately and I mean desperately seeking answers to my issues. I was by no means prepared for what I was about to hear from my doctor. According to my test results I had major food sensitivities to amongst other things the big three, dairy, gluten, and eggs. The test results read to AVOID foods containing these things and a list of many many more common foods.
I was not born with the panic gene. I have been blessed with remaining pretty level headed when the shit really hits the fan (no pun intended). However, being told that eating all the healthy foods you just spent the last year retraining yourself to eat and enjoy were actually the same foods that were slowly killing you over time was a bit overwhelming. I came from steak and potatoes, pizza, pop and candy and was healthier than I was at multi-vegetable, chicken breast and salad. My ever supportive lovely wife scrambled the jets and hit the health food stores for foods not only compatible with my diverticulitis but also my new found food sensitivities.
It was by no fault of her own that what my wife brought back was nothing short of horrible. There is a reason you never see bone broth souffle on the menus of great restaurants (or any restaurants for that matter). For the next two weeks I tiptoed though some of the grossest foods I ever put in my face cave. I was becoming more and more malnourished and was feeling washed out and very very tired. My voice of reason was my
What I have come to realize is there are food sensitivities and food allergies. People with food allergies are the folks that go into respiratory distress and shock upon even looking at suspect foods. I don't have that. I have symptoms of digestive distress. Over the course of the next three weeks to a month I have been testing the waters with suspect foods and the foods that cause me to poop my brains out and the ones that I eat very little of.
As of this writing, I have been relatively symptom free and pooping normally for the last six weeks or so. It has brought back some confidence in doing things away from a toilet and has returned some normalcy to our lives.Oh and the trip to the GI doctor cemented what we are doing is the right thing. Slow but the right way. I hope that my seven months of water shits are behind me. Plus I get to keep my gallbladder.
And fuck you Metformin.
Miked
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