Introduction:
I am an 18 year old girl living in Toronto, Canada. I personally do not suffer from ulcerative colitis, however; a very special and close friend of mine does and I constantly surf this website searching for support and answers, which I find very helpful. He has been diagnosed with colitis for a year and a half, starting from Jan. 2012.
Some more about me:
We both reside in Toronto, Canada. He’s a pretty active guy, very into golf, swimming and basketball and extremely competitive when it comes to the two of us on the court. He’s extremely intelligent with a headstrong dream of attending Western University and then becoming a lawyer.
My Friend’s Symptoms:
Rapid weight loss, fatigue, immense pain, constant bathroom trips with blood and mucous
A Very Concerned Friend: Am I worrying too much?
I have a friend who is 18 years old, that has been suffering from ulcerative colitis for approximately a year and a half.
Just like most other patients, he has been through the ups and downs of trying different medications. One of the first medications that doctors prescribed to him was Mezavant, but after several months of taking Salofalk and Mezavant in pill form, he found very minimal to no signs of improvement whatsoever.
The doctors reduced the amount of Mezavant taken and eventually took him off the pill completely, only to put him back on it a couple months later. Blood tests have shown that his liver was starting to form fat and one of the questions I have is, is this because of the Mezavant?
When he was on Mezavant, the blood test would show that his liver was doing poorly and then for the two months that he was not on the pill it went back to substantial levels, but when he asked the doctor about this, the doctor replied that the medication had nothing to do with this. Another thing is that for the past two months he has been trying out LDN (Stefan’s story about LDN – click here), which I found out about on this website. He has completely cut off Mezavant and Salofalk for now and has been taking 35 mg LDN every night.
In addition, he has been taking tumeric root and milk thistle (for the liver). Because I see him everyday I haven’t noticed that he has been losing alot of weight. He is 6’5 tall and started off being 170lbs three months ago and his weight has dropped to 155lbs, is this due to the LDN? What can he do to gain weight? 2-4 times a night, at least. I read that chamomile tea is very relaxing and could help with the sleeping pattern, I’m not sure so if anyone has any advice/experience with teas and remedies to sleep better, please let me know. Moreover, I read that LDN was supposedly good for helping you sleep well, but for him he has been waking up constantly during the night and this will make him very tired the next morning. I would say approximately His gastro doctor isn’t able to meet with him often and can only see him once every 4-6 months and his family doctor isn’t very trusting or experienced when it comes to colitis so he hasn’t been seeing him regularly as well. Is this a bad thing to be doing? And lastly, he is planning on taking a trip to Cuba for a week and I’m worried that the food and stress of travelling will do a great amount to his colitis.
What are some tips and things that he can do to assure a safe trip? Right now, my biggest concern is the weight loss first and then the loss of sleep second.
Medications:
Mezavant, Salofalk, a mild steroid either predisone or cortisone. Stopped all of that and is only taking LDN, milk thistle and tumeric root pills.
written by Naff
submitted in the colitis venting area
I am an 18 year old girl living in Toronto, Canada. I personally do not suffer from ulcerative colitis, however; a very special and close friend of mine does.
