Went to the gastroenterologist on Monday who is fairly convinced I have ulcerative colitis, a form of inflamatory bowel disease. I'll get confirmation after my colonoscopy on 6/12. I've started on anti-inflammatory medication which may take a few weeks before easing symptoms. In the meantime I've halted the weight loss by stopping all physical activity and essentially working in bed for the past couple weeks. I just started walking and very light jogging to keep my body moving, but I can't lose any more weight by doing anything more right now.
I'm having a tough time finding information online about athletes with IBD. Once I can push this into remission I should be able to start training again. But from what I'm reading, a good number of people have atttained -- and more importantly, sustained -- remission through the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which I don't think is viable for endurance athletes. No carbs other than veggies. No sugar. It's basically a Paleo diet. I tried it for 2 days and my blood sugar crashed hard. Somehow I think other folks do it but this foodie considers that diet an 'option of last resort.' Well, the option before surgery.
I'm going to start logging my trial-and-error efforts to work my way back to full health and triathlon. I'm hoping my account can help fill the void in IBD athlete blogs and information. My coach pointed me to Teresa Nelson's blog... she's a pro triathlete with UC that's in remission... so good to see a success story! But it's hard to find her posts on this topic as I think her last flare-up was two years ago.
So for the next couple weeks/months, I'm afraid this blog is going to be rather boring on the training front. My hope is that I can start training for a fall Olympic, but long course will be totally out the window until I have this under control. There are enough nutrition and GI problems with the longer distance without layering on UC! Wish me luck.
What a bummer! Sounds like you have a plan going though. I was going to point you to Teresa's blog so I'm glad you found it anyway!
Posted by: Molly McNamara | 05/25/2012 at 02:06 PM