Hi all. Just a quick story about my colitis battle. I started with c-diff infection 3 years ago and have had some ups and downs, including a nasty dvt blood clot and being on coumadin and prednisone for 6 months. Each time (3) I have flared while tapering off prednisone and would suffer for a month or so and jump back on it. I had all the nasty side effects as well and just took it and kept going hoping that it would heal up somehow. I tried the SCD diet twice and was extremely strict, but it still wouldn’t help my symptoms in the slightest. The 3rd time I tapered I flared up the last week or so and tried any supplement and remedy I could think of or read about and here is what worked for me.
After a month of bleeding and crapping my pants and all of that I started to read about a juice fast. So I bought carrots, kale, spinach and cabbage and juiced for 2 days. The bleeding was a little better, but I thought that it my be too hard on my system, so i switched to white grape juice for a day and it was good but not great. During these 3 days I was reading as much as I could about juice fast so i could find ideas and support. I found a great forum where someone mentioned young coconut water and the benefits so i raced to whole foods and bought 10 cans of it. Next 2 days that was all I consumed. Some gross stuff was still coming out down there which was weird, because I had not eaten any solid food in quite a few days even leading up to the start of my fast. But, the awesome thing was that the bleeding stopped and everything went to brown downstairs. I decided to break the fast after a week but very slowly. At first I added just 1 banana a day for 2 days and then I ate 3 bananas a day. Eventually added gluten free toast and so on. I stuck with the BRAT diet for about 3 weeks and everything started looking better in the with each BM. I’ve slowly added foods ever since avoiding dairy and any heavy fiber foods and so far so good. Ive been eating chicken, brisket, sausage, gluten free bread, blue corn chips, salad, granola bars and drink the smooth and mellow low acid coffee from TJs that i first spied on this here site. I will say the most important thing that helped me was the coconut juice in a tall boy can from Whole Foods. Anytime I feel that my BM wasn’t as good as it’s been I give my colon a rest and just drink these and things seem better the next day.
A few things that went thru my mind as I battled this last flare. 1. I read something Adam posted on here about your mouth healing fast after burning your mouth on a piece of pizza. It was something I knew well and thought to just give my colon rest so it could heal just like the roof of your mouth. 2. I saw on here thru an advert that amazon.com sold VSL#3 and thru that found it at Costco really cheap. I thought it would be really expensive and you would need a script but found it cheap at Costco and it helped immensely. 3. I read on here about squeezing half a lemon into water to drink in the morning an hour before eating to balance your system which made since to me to start out on the good foot before breakfast and i think it really helps.
I should say this stuff worked FOR ME and to take it as just food for thought. LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR. I just wanted to post this info for someone like me who spends their day searching for any remedy that might help.
Stuff that worked and didn’t work: all of these from Whole Foods and Trader Jose…
tumeric
– in pill form made things worse
bee propolis
– didn’t work in pill form
cod liver fish oil
– i take this every day
omega 3 fish oil
– i take this every day. i took a lot at first, now just 1 a day
salmon oil
– i take 1 every day
revital X
– not sure if it worked. i think the sugar is bad for me in this.
glutamine
– really helps. i take 1/4 tsp at nite. bought the cheap stuff at walmart
vsl #3
– the best. i took 5 a day at first and now do 2 a day.
reuteri
– i like this stuff and it’s cheap. i take 2 at lunchtime.
asacol hd – i take 2 a day
reuteri– really helps the gas somehow. i take 2 a day.
I talked to my doctor before I started taking this stuff, so be sure to do the same. I feel it’s a blueprint I can come back to if I flare again.
-Submitted by “Gee”
All of the posts from “Annonymous UC” are from ulcerative colitis people who anonymously submitted stories or Doctor Reviews, medication, supplement reviews etc… I post all these stories to the site, but they’re different from my own personal stories so hopefully this account makes more sense:) -Adam – founder of iHaveUC.com
