I Need Help Controlling My Colitis

Introduction:

Hello my name is Nick and i am from Australia, I am 19 and I have had Ulcerative Colitis for 11 years, basically I need help controlling it.

My Symptoms:

I have just gone 3 weeks of intense bleeding but a cycle of steroids has stopped that, at the moment I have severe diarrhea (what you’d expect from after a recent flare up) there are still some traces of blood but only small.

My Colitis:

I was diagnosed with UC at the age of 8, at first my parents were told that the reason I was losing blood (at this time my toilet trips were blood only and massive amounts of it) was from cuts around my anus… obviously my parents aren’t idiots but it took another 6 months before they actually found a doctor who knew something about it. Anyway, I was put into the hospital and treated, then sent on my way.

Now this is where the problem was, seeing as I was still growing, the drugs stopped working and i would get flare ups twice a year every year for 10 years. As a kid it was the worst thing to go through.  I would cry myself to sleep almost every night. Next month I’ll be 19, so my growing is starting to slow down which is why i finally manged to get some sort of control over my UC but only last year.. and last year August was my last hospital visit. The only reason i have started to gain control over my UC is i have made changes to my diet, but this is where I need help.

I have run out of options for what I can eat because for some bloody reason my UC gets set off by the foods that are meant to help me! Here is some of the things i can’t have (and yes i have spent a lot of time with trial and error to find this out): Coconut, ALL FRUITS, ALL SAUCES, ALL DAIRY, I can’t have protein powders or supplements, Bread, Corn or anything deprived from corn, same with wheat. When I got out of hospital in August last year I weighed 45kg, that was my worst flare I was in hospital for 1 month and if I was in there for only a couple of days more they were going to take out my bowel.

When I got out i did weights at home to try and get some weight back because i didn’t feel comfortable to go back to my daily gym routine at the size i was, it took me 6 months to gain 10kg and that was eating eggs every morning chicken rice and broccoli for lunch and dinner, i started going back to the gym as i felt comfortable with the weight and another 6 months later i managed to get myself to 65kg so i was healthy and was on my way to my goal of 70kg until 3 weeks ago, had my flare up and now i am 57kg and i am devastated, all that time and hard work gone, I am sick and tired of going through the same thing every year i need help =(.

Where I’d like to be in 1 year:

All I want is to be a healthy weight and the only way I can achieve that is to control my UC.

written by Nick

submitted in the colitis venting area