Here we are again

In 2017 after struggling with my personal health for a while I decided to see a doctor to try and find out what was going on. Over the course of 6 months I had countless diagnostics, scans, and was poked and prodded, culminating in a fibre-optic bronchoscopy and 8 biopsies that lead to my diagnosis with a condition called Sarcoidosis. I documented this whole process on another blog during that time.

I recently decided to restore all of my old posts from almost every blog I've ever ran. They have been uploaded here, so my apologies if you happen to subscribe to this blog via feed and were probably wondering where the thousand odd posts that were recently uploaded came from. In amongst these posts are those that documented the journey I went through with Sarcoidosis

I'm once again facing struggles with my health but this time it isn't related to my breathing but instead relates to my stomach and GI tract. I was having problems for months and I was reluctant to pursue medical advice for the simple reason that I didn't want to relive everything I went through before. I've been sent for blood tests which turned out to be rather traumatic in itself. It two nurses three attempts to try and get blood out of me and in the end they only got 2 half phials and hoped it will be enough for the tests the lab needs to run. Meanwhile my left arm has some minor bruising but my right arm now looks like I've been struggling with a heroin addiction.

The thought of going through the same 6 months back and forth as before to finally get a diagnosis for whatever might be the cause of these most recent struggles is draining. I honestly don't know if I have it in me. I'm lucky that I live in the UK and all of this is free and the thought of having to pay for it isn't adding to the stress and anxiety. The tests alone, blood tests, liver function, CT scans, PET scans, possibly an MRI, and possibly needing an endoscopy makes me want to cry to be quite honest. The Bronchoscopy was by far the worst experience last time around and having already read up on the process for scoping the stomach it's pretty similar, same point of entry up the nose and down the oesophagus. I know I shouldn't meet problems before they come to me but I don't like uncertainty to this degree in my life and knowing more about what to expect at least on some level provides a sense of certainty.

To give you an idea of what I am dealing with, it's got to the point where I throw up after pretty much every meal. I have a suspicion it's an allergy to rapeseed oil [canola oil] as that seems to be present in pretty much every food that I have thrown up after eating, whether I know or not. Foods without it seem to be tolerated by my stomach much more robustly. An allergen test is amongst the many tests that have already been scheduled to rule it out as a possibility. My doctor has also said she doesn't think these stomach problems would be caused by Sarcoidosis so I can at least rule that out. Part of the reason I am so convinced it might be an allergy or intolerance to this specific oil is because every time I throw up it looks like melted butter coated in a slick of oil that glistens like cooking oil sitting on a pot of water because they don't mix. Again my apologies for the graphic description but my sense of decorum is fleeting at the moment and I have little desire to try and pretend to be fine and composed when I'm not.

For added background, the most popular oil in the UK for cooking was Sunflower Oil for decades, but three quarters of the sunflowers cultivated in Europe for Sunflower oil production were grew in Ukraine and supply chains have been disrupted ever since the war began. UK producers can't grow Sunflowers on the scale needed to replace the disrupted products so they are growing canola instead. I've noticed on the labels of food where Sunflower oil used to be stated now Rapeseed oil is stated instead and being forced to pay attention to what foods it is and is not present in has made me realise it's in almost everything we eat.

You could legitimately blame Brexit too, making importing goods from alternate suppliers more expensive encourages cheaper lower quality ingredients to be used in their place. On top of that Rapeseed oil is legally classed as a pesticide in the EU which the UK is no longer part of, and banned outright as a food additive in 11 EU countries so make of that what you will. There is even a Food Standards Agency [UK] report from 2022 where the agency concluded because of a lack of data to the contrary that it was deemed safe for consumption - a lack of data does not constitute a proof that it is safe though, regardless the report concluded that UK food producers could legally replace sunflower oil in their food with rapeseed oil without having to state it on the label. In other words they can continue to state their ingredients as sunflower oil and use rapeseed oil instead. If I am indeed allergic to it then this leaves me in an uncomfortable position where I can't even check the labels of the food I want to eat and be confident that it's not going to make me puke.

My diet at present has been effectively reduced to almost entirely dry foods to try and avoid this reaction until I can get some confirmation that this is the case or some clarity as to what is causing me to throw up so much. I've also been able to rule out a stomach ulcer as a culprit as high fibre food with no oil is tolerated, and dairy is also tolerated, both of which would aggravate an ulcer if it was present.

As for the mental component, I'm confident that isn't a cause for the simple reason that I have ate foods that I 100% did not expect it to be in, only to throw up and then check the ingredients to find to my surprise it was present - this has ranged from innocuous things like plain white bread, to apple juice which was a surprise, through to things like Ben and Jerry's ice cream - why is there oil in ice cream?

For now I just have to wait for the results of the first round of tests to come back before I can move on to the next. I feel like I've stepped back in time 7 years to 2017 back into the system waiting to be processed. I'm trying to remain mentally resilient but it is taxing to say the least. Anyone who follows me on socials has probably noticed I've been quiet of late, even here on this blog I haven't posted much lately. Restoring my old posts was partly for the sake of having everything in one place, and partly because the story I thought was over and done with has simply moved onto its next chapter.