Hello and welcome! My name is Acacia Burns and I am the face behind The Nourishing Tummy. Over the next couple of weeks, months, and hopefully years, you will really get to know me personally, with a little too much information sometimes!
I want to start with how I came to the decision to start The Nourishing Tummy…
Growing up, I would hear my parents tell me stories about when I was a baby (which is normal for any family). However, one particular story stuck with me. When I was a couple of months old, I would be up at all hours of the night screaming and crying because of what my parents assumed was a stomach ache (my poor parents). Throughout the night, my dad would have me face down along his forearm while he would walk up and down the street. Eventually I would calm down and go to sleep. This supposed stomach ache has continued on for the rest of my life.
Every once in awhile, as a family, we would go out to dinner and sometimes, my sister and I would get to take turns choosing where we went. When it was mine, I would, of course, choose one of my favorites (usually Greek or Mediterranean, or Mexican - which are still my favorites). Once we got there and it came time to order, I would not get anything even after I chose the restaurant. My stomach would start to hurt just anticipating the upset stomach I would inevitably get after I ate. I would refuse to eat because I didn’t want a stomach ache. It got to the point where my mom took me to the hospital to get me checked out on more than one occasion. Numerous CT scans, X-Rays, Ultrasounds, and more later, the only thing they found a little constipation.
Now this may start to get a little personal and not what you want to hear, but I was always constipated. Twenty-five years into my life, I am still constipated. I have never been “normal” or “regular”. So this news from the ER doctors was nothing new; we all knew this.
I also want you to keep in mind that the above all occurred before I was 10 years old. I was tiny, or short, as my mom would say.
As the years went by, we kind of just gave up and forgot about it. One year, probably around the age of 11 or 12, we were in Maui as a family and my mom found a homeopathic clinic thought, ‘Hey, why not? Let’s see what they have to say?’. So we went and it was such a weird experience! I was hooked up to this machine with little holes in it. The clinician would put vials of different foods in the holes and my body would react to it, without even close to digesting it! I was tested against foods that are common for allergies: corn, gluten, dairy, wheat, soy, and anything else you can think of. The clinician concluded that I was allergic to everything but chicken, fruits, and veggies. That meant no sugar, no soy, no wheat, no dairy, no red meat, and so much more! For a little 10 or 11 year old, I was heartbroken and scared! But with my mom’s help, we tried! And we really did! It was so hard! This was probably in 2005, food allergies, clean eating and all that is so normal now, was not back then! There was nothing that we could find that I could eat with variety. So we gave up. Again.
Looking back on it, we probably should have stuck with it. But, and there were a lot of buts, there was no legitimate proof, in my head, that proved this was what would have made me feel better. The clinician wasn’t an actual doctor, he did not look in my stomach, or really do anything further than hook me up to this machine.
Another 10 years go by. We didn't try again to find someone during that time. I just dealt with it. I was in high school then college; I was playing lacrosse, always moving. Yes, I would still get stomach aches but at that time, when you’re going through puberty, I thought it was maybe being caused by my period. Women, you know how that is. So I just put up with it.
My junior year of college, I turned 21 and started to date my boyfriend, now fiancé. I met his family, both his mom’s side and dad’s side, and got to know them. At this point in my life, I was avoiding all red meat; I would only eat chicken to try to keep the bloating and pain down. His dad and step-mom always, and I mean always, made a tri-tip when we would go over but would make chicken for me (eventually I gave in to the tri-tip). One day in the spring of 2016, his step-mom made a comment of “Oh, no, I cannot eat that. It is against the diet”. I started to question her comment and discovered that her symptoms were exactly what I suffered from! She began to tell me about her new gastroenterologist, what he talked to her about, what she was tested for, what the results were, and what she had to do now. She had Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, or SIBO, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS. I was convinced that I had the same thing and thought, this is it, this is the end, this is the answer that I have been looking for! Her gastroenterologist was just down the street from where I worked at the time so I made an appointment for September! He was so busy and in high-demand that I could not get in any earlier.
September 2016 comes around and I go in to see the doctor, with my mom in tow. We had been through so much as this point that she wanted to hear what he had to say. I explained my symptoms and he agreed that it sounded like a combination of SIBO and IBS. He gave me a test to take home with me for SIBO and told me to complete it, mail it in, and to come back in 6 weeks later.
The test for SIBO was an interesting test. I had to follow a specific diet for the days leading up to taking the test; then I had to fast for 12 to 18 hours before actually taking the test. The test was based on samples of my breath, which could show what and how things were being digested in my stomach. I had to do a sample breath before I started the actual test; this would determine my “base line”. Then I mixed a powder in a small amount of water that mocked a sugary drink. Every 20 to 30 minutes for the next few hours, I had to blow into a new tube, seal it and label it. Once done, I mailed it out to the labs.
Here was the agonizing part, I still had to wait two weeks for the results and six more weeks to see my gastroenterologist! I was impatient (as I always am) and wanted to know! About a week and a half later, my doctor called, I had a small case of SIBO; it was enough that he could detect it but not overboard. The SIBO test showed that the sugar was not being processed at an even rate; it was going up and down and up and down. I was prescribed Rifaximin for two weeks, a medicine that was used for IBS and diarrhea (told you it would be personal).
Four weeks later, I go into my gastroenterologist and we chat for awhile before I say “okay, so what’s the diet” (impatient, remember?). He gave me “the diet”. It was to be followed at all times for the rest of my life.
Well here I am, a little over two years later. I follow my diet 80 to 90 percent of the time (hey, I’m human). I feel so much better knowing what I have and how to control it! It doesn’t always help, I still get bloated and am still constipated at times. But I am so so much better!
So thank you for joining me, for reading my story and supporting this journey!
I hope you enjoy but also that maybe it helps you a little too!