Yet Another Stool Test

At my naturopath's office I recently picked up my take home stool test kit. OH JOY! LOL I must abstain from all probiotics, digestive enzymes and betaine hydrochloride for 3 days before using that test. Then I can do the test Tuesday morning, call Fed Ex for a pickup and return to using whatever digestive aids I believe I need.

During the past 24 hours I enjoyed the break from taking probiotics, which cause gas and bloating; betaine hydrochloride, which cause acid reflux if I don't eat soon enough after taking those; and digestive enzymes, which I need to take 30-60 minutes AFTER I begin meal. Taking those digestive supplements plus removing Invisiline aligners before the meal, then after the meal brushing and flossing my teeth, brushing the aligner, and reinserting the aligners makes meals pretty complicated, not to mention preparing food.

However I noticed yesterday that whenever I eat any meat and maybe fats, I get pains in my upper right quadrant, where my gallbladder is located. So I suspect using the HCl either increased my acid level enough to stimulate production of pancreatin (enzymes which digest fats and protein) OR just taking pancreatin supplements helped me digest fats and protein. Whatever supplements I took previously, I'm not taking now. So the pain suggests that I really do need those supplements. If I seem to be guessing what I need to resolve digestive difficulty, I observed doctors and naturopaths do the same thing--THEY GUESS the cause of symptoms, prescribe a treatment and wait for that symptom to disappear or get worse.

I need to continue eating without digestive supplements for 2 more days to clear my body (and intestines) of anything that might prevent bad bugs from appearing in my test sample. So all the dangerous critters get a 3 day holiday until my test on Tuesday morning. LOL Meanwhile I will eat more vegan protein sources which are easier to digest. However at this point I'm uncertain whether I really need HCl before meals or just pancreatin after meals. I'll try just one or the other with the first meal I eat after I mail in my test results on Tuesday.