A little bit about me: I’m a South african living in Europe. I’m 35 and I was diagnosed 5 years ago. I started getting ill about a year after arriving in Europe after a major stress in my life which I believe to be the cause as there are no cases in my family of this disease.
Since I’ve been diagnosed I’ve been more or less trapped here unable to go back to SA because the treatment I receive (remicade) is very expensive. I’ve tried pretty much everything, and probably bought all the books regarding this horrible disease, followed peoples advice on forums, tried the SCD diet which helped with flatulence but not with diarrhea (tmi I know!) but with no result, I continue to live from my bedroom to the toilet.
Fast forward to today: I’ve decided that I want to stop the meds and go back to SA but I’m so scared of the consequences or if I need a blood transfusion etc, so while researching the internet I came across a cure for crohns, its called stem cell therapy. Anyone heard of this? Basically they wipe out your current faulty immune system with chemotherapy and then take healthy stem cells from your marrow and harvest them and then implant them where they regenerate and your immune systeam becomes healthy again! I dont know if UC candidates will be able to do this but I’m so ready to do whatever it takes. They’ve done 6 in Spain and 4 in Italy and I think about 14 in the US (dont quote me on that) and since then they are Crohns free living normal lives… this is all I want and I’m sure all of you do too!
A year from now my wish is for this nightmare to be over:-(
