Meet Lynn:
I’m the mother of our 18 year old college freshman who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in May 2012, symptoms since January 2012. Our family eats very healthy though our son was one to go for fast food when he started to drive.
The UC Conflict:
My husband and I and our daughters are very frustrated with our son, their brother. Yes, ulcerative colitis affects more than just the person with UC.
Our family has always taken the natural approach to healing. Since our son is 18, he is an adult and is living at college so he has the freedom to choose what to do with his life and this treatment for his UC. He wants a quick fix so is listening to the GI doc for treatment. We have gone to a few naturopathic doctors and basically they have suggested similar supplements. I portion out his supplements so it is easy to take in his dorm room and also prepare and portion food prepared from home. I think he eats the food but he does not take the supplements or if he does not correctly. He then says they aren’t working.
This week he scheduled an appointment with the GI doctor to try Remicade.
He has it all planned out and thinks it is going to be a quick fix. He doesn’t want my husband and I to go to the appointment with him.
Should we be quiet and let him make his own choice or intervene and say no way? One determinate factor is going to be cost of treatment. I know humira has some kind of deal at $5.00/month? I know the disease is a bummer and I feel for him but I do think the body can heal itself and he doesn’t want to take the time and figure that out. His colitis symptoms developed after having the flu and he had his appendix out in September 2012. He was doing well with supplements and tapering from his first round of prednisone and then the appendicitis.
He then started to regress and is now on 20 mgs of prednisone with the GI doctor wanting to put him on a harsh med. This GI doctor does fecal transplants on C.Diff patients but refuses to do the procedure on our son because he said it doesn’t work on UC patients. So as I write this post going into this week with this big decision we must make, I am very uneasy. My husband and I do not want our son to go on these heavy meds but what choices does he have?
He doesn’t want to go the alternative route. Is there any “safe” level of prednisone? Which is safer prednisone or humira? Extremely frustrated parents as our son is not on the same page for treatment as we are. Would love to hear other parents take on this. Do we let him make the choice that could cause him irreversible damage to his health? Most of these harsh drugs have not been used very long so do not know what the long term affects could be.
written by Lynn
submitted in the Parents and Friends Venting Area
I’m the mother of a young man who’s in college and was recently diagnosed with ulcerative colitis just a few months ago.
