Advice and thoughts would be super welcome as a newly discovered LI sufferer lol

hello hello! this is my very first time posting something like this so bear with and i’ll try keep it as short and concise as possible, hopefully with as little TMI as I can but that’s lowkey hard given the circumstances haha!

to start, i need to preface this by saying that as a child and growing up i could consume dairy products of all sorts absolutely fine. it wasn’t until 2019 when i had a minor surgery and had to take antibiotics after it, that things started to go a bit awry. for example i noticed that some food would make the roof of my mouth tingle when they didn’t used to, i’d develop quite recurrent headaches after eating something that had quite high lactose content, and i also developed quite bad dandruff and sebhorric dermatitis. this lead to me taking an at home allergy prick test out of curiosity (during covid times so i didn’t particularly wanna go to a dr to do this) and lactose showed up in bright red as something i was highly allergic to. now i know these at home ones are to be taken with a pinch of salt bc can’t guarantee accuracy, but i thought why not try and eliminate dairy from my diet to see if anything changes.
lo and behold things did change and i felt better for it, so from that moment on i drastically reduced my lactose consumption. i was, and still have been able to eat pastries, biscuits, chocolate (some would give me a prickly roof of mouth), cakes (not loaded with cream ofc), goats cheese, parmesan….you get the idea! no milk, 98% of cheeses, no cream, no yogurt etc and have been leading this way of life quite happily until last week LOL

I was in Paris and on my last night there, my friend and i decided to eat at this italian place we’d tried in the past. i decided to risk taking their gnocchi dish with a tomato sauce mixed in/made with mozzarella cheese bc i had a quick google and it seemed to say it’s quite low in lactose, so thought why not - you only live once (famous last words). that evening my stomach bloated to like 3x its normal size, was sooooo painful the entire night, the entire following morning and i completely lost my appetite when i woke up as well. survived the trip back home somehow, had a quick coffee (oops) had a pretty normal BM and then like an hour later the AGONISING stomach cramps and the shits began 😭 they lasted for like 5-6hrs intermittently every half hour to an hour, until things really slowed in the evening and i was able to sleep through the night and wake up feeling totally fine the next day, and the following day after that. i did indulge in maybe adventurous food at the time during those two following days, like some tomato pasta, a lil fried chicken wrap and some chicken and chickpea salad type thing. but nothing CRAZY!

the following day my stomach kinda hurts and the thought of food is a bit sickening but i don’t think much of it and have some salad for lunch with a bunch of raw veg etc and then have some beans and turkey for dinner. BIG mistake my stomach gets bloated and painful again and i feel like crap, end up having another coffee the day after and finally have a BM that’s not liquid but not super solid either so i think wtv im on the mend. then followed a day or so of upset stomach from just cream crackers and some sports electrolyte i bought, could’ve still been the after effects of the coffee i had the day before tho idk. so then i stop everything fancy, and go on a very bland diet of just rice and bread and peeled and boiled potatoes. still got the shits two days ago, yesterday morning my BM wasn’t super loose but not solid either but then i had two short sessions of loose BM in the afternoon. like what??? then this morning had the most solid BM i’ve had in like 8 days followed a few hours later by a short loose BM AGAIN and i just can’t take this anymoreeeee im losing it ☹️ will i ever be normal again 😭

my concerns are; is this all still a normal timeline and recovery process from a very angry and big gut reaction to lactose? how about the back and forth BM consistencies for like over a week now? and lol i also have a trip coming up on sunday which includes a flight which im terrified about :( i bought imodium but never used it before and idk how im gonna continue to eat plainly whilst away as well? and i cannot and do not want to entertain a diarrhea sesh on a plane or a train or a public bathroom :/

anyways this is so long oops sorry!! but id love any advice or insight anyone can give me pleaseee 🥺 and ill probs see a dr when i get back from my trip anyway but im just curious to hear any thoughts or similar experiences from anyone!! thank youuuu