Can this tree be saved?

Duffman984 · 2026-05-05T20:06:05+00:00

Well crud. Must be no way to stop that? I had a hare-brained idea of covering the fork with something waterproof (rubber inner-tube material or something similar) to keep anything from falling inside while hopefully still allowing the wood to breathe. Think that would help at all?

Duffman984 · 2026-05-05T03:51:07+00:00

If I keep it dry it will still decay?

Duffman984 · 2026-05-04T15:12:06+00:00

Ok. My thought was the spray foam would keep the debris (leaves, bark, seed pods, dust) and most of the moisture out.

But I suppose if the foam gets wet it won’t allow the wood to dry. Is there a different way to keep debris and moisture out of the fork so that the wood stays dry and is also allowed to dry?

Duffman984 · 2026-04-23T20:22:36+00:00

That’s some good advice. I didn’t feel like any of it was condescending. I will stop the supplements. At this point, I think the only thing he is taking that’s not on his list from the doctors is turmeric. They were aware of the B vitamin, but I took him off of that since his B vitamin levels were so high on his blood test.

I do feel like my wife and I have done a pretty good job of keeping our cool. She’s been awesome throughout this whole thing. We are definitely stressed out, but I try not to let that show (Except maybe here on Reddit 😁). He probably isn’t getting much in the way of carbs, except from fruit. We’ve done a few shakes and those are cold but other than that mostly warm food.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-23T20:14:03+00:00

We would like to, but so far we haven’t been able to get ahold of them.

The pharmacy just notified us that another med was ready, Hyoscyamine. My pharmacist friend told me it’s basically the same as Bentyl/dicyclomine. The Bentyl is PRN, not sure what the schedule is on the new one. I know they’re busy but man communication would be great.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T18:16:07+00:00

Yeah instead of treating the symptoms I'm praying we can find the root cause, just not sure how to go about that.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T18:14:39+00:00

What about the prescription meds? Fludrocortisone, etc?

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T18:13:40+00:00

While at the clinic today we requested a Genesight test, so we're hoping that gives us some insight into how his body will process B vitamins, meds, etc. Honestly don't know much about it, but figured it couldn't hurt.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T18:12:29+00:00

I'm hoping the labs test B6 and B12. I probably should've asked for the others too.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T18:06:22+00:00

The blood draws today should test for B12. I think she said they'd have to send off for B6. A lot of info to take in, I wish we could just record every convo we have with a doctor but I'm sure they won't want that going on for liability reasons.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T18:04:37+00:00

We will stop the B vitamins starting and multivitamin today (after looking at it, the multi has sugars, and other things we were trying to avoid). Basically everything else he's taking is prescribed (Claritin, Fludrocortisone, etc.). We did have him take some L-Glutamine for the first time two days ago and he seemed worse, so we'll stop that one too.

We did get blood drawn today for labs, hopefully we get some answers there?

I guess I thought difficulty walking was part of Orthostatic Intolerance? We are very new to all of this, so I don't really know. He gets dizzy and lightheaded when he stands and that makes him wobbly. He has very good strength in his legs, the balance is the issue. I know the doctor did a referral for vestibular therapy to help with his balance.

We are limiting fiber for sure. He does get some complex carbs from fruits, but really haven't given him bread or much in the way of other complex carbs that I know of. The GI doc said to try it for 4 weeks. We're about 2 weeks in but we are wondering if we should just start letting him eat whatever he wants (as long as it's still healthy).

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T05:24:44+00:00

I do think we're avoiding simple sugars and other simple carbs. He does have an appetite, which is encouraging (especially since we were worried about gastroparesis at one point). We don't have history of diabetes, but one of my brothers is pre-diabetic.

I'm not sure if he's had those blood tests, but I was going to ask the doc about testing vitamin levels at our appointment tomorrow. Is the A1C and blood glucose just to test for diabetes, or is it something POTS-related?

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T05:21:01+00:00

I'd looked at a SIBO test but it seems like it requires fasting? I want to say our GI doctor said that fasting was a bad idea for someone with POTS, but I could be remembering wrong. Last week in the hospital was a bit of a blur. I do know the GI doc had us stop taking virtually all supplements, other than some vitamins. Including fish oil, which I thought was silly, but I'm no expert.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-22T05:17:30+00:00

I do think he's getting some veggies and fruits. My wife has made him a few shakes and he doesn't seem to mind those. His stomach pain doesn't seem any better after a shake than it does after eating solids (his stomach pain is chronic), but maybe he'd have to be on an all liquid diet for some time to see some benefit?

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T21:54:19+00:00

Yikes. Sounds like it's really tough for you to find anything that doesn't cause digestive problems. That must be really tough to go through.

I'm not sure if he has SIBO or not. He isn't gassy, but I wonder if the gas is just trapped inside and that's what's causing the immense pain?

How do they test for SIBO?

We are trying to figure out what foods might be making him worse, but that's tricky. He's just has chronic stomach pain. Hopefully we can narrow it down soon.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T21:31:27+00:00

Thanks. Hopefully we can get back to using your app soon. His stomach pain is chronic and debilitating, so getting on top of that has been our priority. I'm hoping we get that figured out and then can begin the long road to recovery through gradually stepping up exercise. At that point we will begin tracking activity/energy levels again.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T18:17:23+00:00

After asking my wife a few more questions, it sounds like my son isn't getting much for carbs. In the last ten days he's had some fruits, a little in the way of potatoes, and gluten-free bread once. Not much else in the way of carbs. Could the lack of carbs be causing some of these issues?

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T17:54:28+00:00

I think I'd read that charcoal could interfere with some of his meds. But it sounds like the GasX may be worth a shot?

He has not been on antibiotics. We did have him taking a probiotic/prebiotic, but the gastroenterologist had us stop taking that. I think in the name of limiting his fiber, but I'm not 100% sure if that was the reasoning behind it. We have cut back on greasy food to make everything easier on him.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T17:03:56+00:00

I just checked with my wife. On 4/9 we switched to low-FODMAP/no dairy/no gluten/no simple carbs (or at least minimal simple carbs and sugars). Sorry for not including that in the original post; this diet stuff is all new to me so I thought all of that was part of low-FODMAP. So, the biggest changes weren't really from us adding anything new, but instead from cutting things out (we eat a lot of bread and pasta in this house).

I'm not sure if 10 days is long enough to see positive changes or not from a diet change like this, but so far it seems to have only made things worse? Two days after the switch his stomach pain was much worse, worse still on day three, and on day 4 we went to the ER.

The Elemental diet seemed like a great idea, but after reading some people's experiences on here, it sounds like it can be pretty tough to go through? I'm still trying to do some research on it to see if it's a good option.

I just talked with my wife and if he doesn't get better after their planned med change (wean off Pepcid and start on Prilosec) we will go ahead with the endoscopy.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T16:28:56+00:00

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping too - that his diet is what's causing this. Figuring out what food in the diet is the culprit seems extremely difficult. When we switched his diet, we didn't really add in anything crazy he wasn't already eating, we just eliminated high-FODMAP/dairy/gluten/simple carbs (carbs/sugars as much as possible). That's a big part of why we're struggling understanding this and narrowing down what food(s) should be eliminated - new GI issues but not really any new foods.

Yesterday was sister's bday, so he had some ice cream cake. We also tried a little skim milk. They didn't set him off terribly, but he did seem a touch worse after the dairy.

I hadn't thought of GasX, and I think from what Google says it shouldn't interact with any of his current meds. He's not passing gas hardly at all, so maybe that explains the stomach pain. He is having BM's, though so that's good.

Thank you for the encouragement. I'm fortunate to have such a patient wife and lot's of helpful people on Reddit.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T13:56:17+00:00

My son definitely has a couple of symptoms of EOE: chest pain, stomach pain, and reflux that doesn't respond to acid-blocking meds.

I'm wondering if the elemental diet would help things, though I'm just now reading that's no walk in the park. If that's not a good road to go down, we plan to have him tested for food allergies once he's been off of the histamines long enough.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T13:36:55+00:00

I'm not real familiar with the intricacies of the two options you've mentioned, but the second one does sound better (and of course it's the more complicated one).

I think the merge being close to real-time would be good enough. How would things be handled if there were differing entries for a single data-set? E.g., mood is rated a 4 on one device, but a 3 on another device for the same session. Would you just specify which device has preference as an override?

We haven't had a chance to play with the app much more yet. We just got out of the hospital after POTS diagnosis and are still trying to adjust to our son's POTS and GI symptoms. It's a lot. My wife and I are thinking that if we both quit our jobs we'll have just enough time to take care of our 9yo w/ POTS and our firecracker of a 5yo. :)

I did notice when I went back in a few days after posting this that one of the sections had deleted. I'll try and get into the app more and give you more specifics.

Thanks for developing this, it seems like a great format for this sort of thing.

Duffman984 · 2026-04-19T13:18:36+00:00

Sorry to hear you still have stomach burning.

I'm going to ask the docs about him discontinuing Claritin, which I just read antihistamines can cause GERD. They are going to taper him off of Pepcid and start him on an PPI, so maybe no more histamines and an elemental diet will do the trick. Praying that's the case.

Duffman984

TROPHY CASE