Dicyclomine Help?

Introduction:

Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis summer of ’10. Pre-UC, I was a super healthy vegetarian that binged on tomatoes and broccoli, if anything. Post-UC, almost everything triggers me. I’m lucky to have a partner and a family that understands me and supports me, but UC has put my job into jeopardy and affected my social life. I’m working hard to control my UC so that I can get back to a normal life.

Symptoms:

My UC is mostly under control right now, but that is from restricting my diet So severely. Even so, I still have a very rumbly stomach and unpleasant BMs anywhere from 2-6 times a day. If I eat so much as 3 steamed green beans, I’ll spend hours in the bathroom, super sick and unable to leave home.

My Colitis Story:

I was diagnosed with UC several months ago. After the colonoscopy, my doctor prescribed Prednisone for a while, and that stopped the bleeding. I’ve been on Lialda and I guess it’s helping? I don’t really know for sure. And I’ve been severely restricting my diet.

I got to visit my GI again yesterday for a followup after a few months of not seeing him and seeing how dietary restrictions and Lialda (and probiotic, vitamins, etc.) would do on their own.

Here’s what I told him: Before the UC “kicked in,” I was a super healthy eater and a vegetarian. I could eat a whole carton of strawberries, half a head of broccoli, several sticks of celery, tons of cucumber, a bunch of fresh spinach, and a whole tomato for one meal sometimes (that was my version of “binging”) and never see any digestive problems.

Now with the UC, I’ve very carefully tracked what things trigger me, and coupled with the things that I’ve been told to never eat during active UC because it could tear at the inflamed areas, plus a couple things I’m allergic to, it’s pretty much left me with nothing to eat other than starchy foods and meat.

So now I eat nothing but bread, pasta, potatoes, chicken, and fish in fear of making myself bleed again. I mean, I could actually handle the pain from time to time if it meant I could eat what I want – but I don’t know how to tell if I’ve pushed too far and damaged my insides. (There’s no way I want to go through that steroid again, plus I can’t afford another out-of-pocket colonoscopy when I’m still paying off the first.)

I had 5 bites of iceberg salad the other day as a treat and got so sick. Two brussel sprouts made me sick. 3 steamed green beans on Thanksgiving made me sick. 10 blueberries made me sick.

I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to first of all not get to eat any of the foods I love, and second of all to be gaining so much weight because of this massive increase in carbohydrates and fats.
(And third of all, to see everyone talking about SCD or other diets that work for them and being jealous that they can still eat steamed veggies and such. Sure, I have the highly coveted ability to drink a couple beers without anything going wrong, but I don’t need beer and would trade it for the ability to eat a salad in a heartbeat.)

So anyway, I told my GI this and he prescribed my dicyclomine, telling me that I should take it when I eat a salad or something that usually triggers me, and it would slow down my digestive process so that it wouldn’t be as hard on those areas that are inflamed, and hopefully I will be able to eat them without damaging my insides.

But I’m looking it up online and mostly seeing stuff like “You should tell your doctor before taking this medication if you have UC.” Nothing really about people taking it FOR their UC. Plus a lot of side effects that look just like UC symptoms. Kinda scaring me.

So I’m hoping someone here

might have had experience

with dicyclomine

that I can draw from?

Also if anyone has any ideas to something that could help my diet, I’d appreciate it. I feel like maybe I’m whining too much, because at least my UC is somewhat under control right now – but if this keeps up and this is the only way to keep it under control,

I’m going to be 400 pounds by the end of the year. :-/

Written by Kay

submitted in the Colitis Venting Area

Added link: Dicyclomine from the National Library of Medicine