I have spent both time and money in the last 6 months, trying to get a better understanding of why I have gut issues and why I feel pressure around my esophagus.  I had an endoscopy where the doctor looked down my esophagus and into the stomach.  Nothing obvious, just some mild irritation of the stomach.  I had follow up tests for bacterial overgrowth, for yeast, for H. pylori, for Celiac…every one of those tests came back negative.

Finally, this past Friday, the results of the very last test came back.  I almost didn’t do that test then changed my mind.  It was a test to check for about 100 food sensitivities/intolerances; I decided that if I had the odd sensitivity to something, maybe the best I could do would be to try to stay away from it.  I was thinking of something obscure that I didn’t care about like beets.  Highly intolerant to beets?  Should stay away from them for a lifetime?  I could do that.  Just don’t mess with anything that I really like.

But no.  I got the results back on Friday and I’m still in shock.  I expected that I might have some sensitivity to gluten or wheat and I did show some mild reactivity to that.  OK, fine…we tend to eat along Paleo lines so I can deal with that.  It was the remaining items on the list of food intolerances that I’m reeling from.  Moderately intolerant to egg whites and egg yolks?  Last I checked that covers every aspect of the egg and by the way, my standard breakfast is 2 fried eggs.  Do you hear me whining?

It gets worse.  The results showed that all things dairy are on the highly reactive list.  Cow’s milk, casein, whey, cheese, yogurt…seriously?

What gets me out of bed in the morning is my coffee…with half and half or heavy cream and yes I know that it’s not technically Paleo.  Do not try to tell my brain that almond milk is the same thing.  It’s not even close.  Now my whining is at full volume.

So, if I eat casein free/dairy free, gluten free and egg free, I should be fine?  Is there anything good left to eat?

My youngest son has had gut issues all of his life, far worse than me.  He has figured out that milk exacerbates his symptoms and that he has to be careful of cheese as well.  It looks like he got his dairy issues from me.

I wanted to understand what was going on so I am glad to know even though it’s going to take some mental adjustment.  I’m going to stop whining now and be glad it’s nothing worse.  Don’t panic.  I can still eat movie popcorn. Whew!