The Latest Self-Experiment

The decision to try the AIP eating plan for three months is, as I have mentioned, my latest self-experiment.

Last year I was taking 2 tablets of Salsalate morning and night.  My stomach rejected them.  It took me several months to figure out that the reason I would randomly get physically ill was medication related.  My doctor had me experiment with the meds to determine the culprit.

That was Fall 2014.  I was totally off of the Salsalate by the end of November 2014. 

In Spring 2015, pain was ramping up, particularly in my ankles and hands, and my doctor insisted that I needed the Salsalate again and that I should take Prilosec to keep my stomach from rejecting it.

Around this same time, I learned that there were bone chips in the joint of my ankle that were the source of much pain and had them removed.  Over the healing process, I have found that most pain in my ankles gets resolved with use. 

However, in June I was still experiencing the pain in my hand so my doctor told me to experiment with increasing the Salsalate dose and that I could go up to 4 tablets morning and night.  He gave me a list of symptoms (side-affects) to watch for and to back off if those were noticed.

After all the experimentation, I landed at 3 in the morning and 3 at night to avoid side-affects and have pain relief.

During the same time as all of this, I was recovering from the ankle surgery and then family came to visit.  So I was very distracted and busy with those preparations, as well as the end of the school year for my son, and my job.

After my family left, things became a whirlwind.  My son wrecked my car the night before we needed to drive to the airport 90 minutes away.  We went on that trip and I worked with the collision company remotely.  When we got back, I had to catch up on work and at home, get rid of the old car, and find a new car.  Then there was another trip.  Back home for another attempt at catching up and then a third trip. 

II’ve been home one month and am almost caught up on things that have been set aside since April.  I’m starting to be able to relax.

In all of this busy-ness, I have been so distracted that I haven’t listened to my body.  I haven’t been vomiting so I assumed that my stomach is handling the Salsalate ok with the Prilosec. 

But this week I have started to notice that my stomach feels agitated all of the time.  Some days I have had trouble deciding what to eat, not because there is a lack of choice, but because I am afraid I will get sick.  It took me a couple days to realize that this is why I was having trouble eating. 

I’ve noticed that the agitation in my stomach gets worse if I don’t get enough water but I struggle to drink the water because I am afraid that it will come back up.

Last week, I did a smaller experiment.  One day I only took one dose of the Salsalate.  The next, I did not take any.  My stomach stopped bouncing around 24 hours after the Salsalate dose. (According to my doctor, Salsalate has a 20 hour half-life so the reduction in potency might correlate.)

So, now, within the frame of the larger gut-healing/testing experiment, I am also going to have to experiment with my medication to see if my stomach can handle a smaller dose of the Salsalate, if I continue the Prilosec, of course.