Bloody shite

Okay, here goes. A few years ago, 25 to be exact, I started getting hemorrhoids. I was in the missionary training center in Provo, UT, and eating as much as I wanted the times a day, then sitting most of the rest of the day on class. Pretty much after each meal, I'd spend some time in the bathroom. I've been known my whole life to take a while in the bathroom defecating. So, I spent about 20 minutes after most meals in the bathroom for 10 weeks. During that time was the first time I remember having blood occasionally in the toilet. Come to find out, it was from the lack of fiber and all the creepy food I was eating. Were there better choices than what I always ate? Most likely, but I was taking an opportunity to eat what I typically want able to eat growing up because we just didn't have those foods. It was good food. Later on, I started getting hemorrhoids again, while in Peru. I wasn't sure why. I spoke with my mission president's wife, who had been a nurse before retiring. She told me to not strain, don't hold it, and eat more fiber (maybe that last part, not sure). Why had the hemorrhoids flared up again? I'm not sure. It could have something to do with stress. It could have been because I was finally eating well again - avocados every meal for about a month along with cheese and bread. I gained 40 pounds in 3 months. It was awesome. I say awesome because I had lost 30 pounds in the previous couple of months from a gastrointestinal bug. The place we had been eating our meals had been giving us water straight from the tap, no boiling. All 4 of us, Peruvians and North Americans were dying. We all had diarrhea. We all had to go all the times. Very sick. Anyway, I don't know what caused the flare ups. When I returned home, off and on, I would have flare ups. Over the next 15 years, the times I would end up with diarrhea and/or blood in the water, would increased in frequency. In 2017 or so, I created a sourdough starter, made sourdough waffles and/bread each weekend. After a few months of this, I had broken out with zits on my arse and thighs. I also had a bad itchy butt with a rash. I finally went to the doctor. He prescribed some cream and antibiotics then send me to a proctologist or whatever butt doctors are called. She gave me a colonoscopy, and I made her laugh by having Heather draw a scream face with my hole being the mouth. My butthole is now apparently famous as a picture on their office wall. Anyway, nothing was found other than some polyps that were ligated and fell off after a few days. I don't really want to have to do that again anytime soon. So, last year, when I decided to take care of my allergies and get allergy shots, I asked the allergist about my reactions to citrus and oatmeal. He referred me to talk with a gastroenterologist. Almost 1 year later, I talked with one. Oh, I almost forgot, over the past two years or so, I realized what foods make me bleed or have explosive or violent diarhea. Every time I ate too much oatmeal, pretty much in any form, it rips through me. Any time I have any citrus, especially mandarins, I bleed, quite a bit. Citrus is worse than oatmeal. I realized this after two different backpacking trips where I took a bag of cuties. I love oranges and citrus, but after spending too much time squatting over a cat hole and using wet wipes to take care of any diarhea and blood, I came to realize what they were doing to me. So, I no longer eat oatmeal or oat whatever if I can help it unless it's in small quantities and infrequently. I also don't have citrus. Except for the other day. I'll come back to that. Back to the enterologist. He said I most likely have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). He gave me a list of foods to avoid and some to try. 6 week cleanse and elimination diet. It's pretty difficult and I'm not following it completely because I just can't avoid spices as much as I'm supposed to. It's basically a low FODMAP diet. The other day I decided to make a smoothie for the whole family using some rice dream "milk" (I don't like it as it tastes like oil, which is a main ingredient, Yuck!). I added some frozen mandarins in there as they kids love to have orange juice concentrate in their smoothies or else they don't drink it. They didn't drink it anyway as they didn't like it and I did. The next day I spent too much time in the bathroom losing lots of blood. Luckily(?), because the blood is bright, it's from the colon or lower intestine area, not from above or in the stomach. No ulcers, people! In just a few days, I'll go for my follow-up appointment with the gastroenterologist and we'll talk about a few things. I have been keeping a food and poop journal again the last 3-4 weeks. I'll share this with him on Friday. He also gave me some antibiotics to clean everything up and start over. Another thing that happened was they did some labs and I had really low levels of iron and B12. Shocker! Iron deficiency comes from not being able to absorb (if you are ingesting enough foods with iron) because of low B12. B12 deficiency comes from not being able to absorb it in the intestines. This is what we have to figure out, why can I not absorb it? I figured I was iron deficient because of fatigue and blood loss, so I have been taking iron. This is no fun. I don't know when I'll be able to eat citrus or oatmeal again, but I want to get fixed so that I can. That's it for now. Will update later.