Hi guys , my name is Dan, i’m a 30 year entrepreneur living in London. Adam asked me to share my story on the site. I hope this can be useful to some of you out there.
I have had been suffering from consistent pressure headaches from 2008, I now longer suffer from these headaches and not sure whether they are related to the following symptoms….
It all began on December 2008 when I had an episode of abdominal pain with frequent visits to the toilet. After a visit to the GP (doctor) he dispatched me home with a diagnoses of a stomach bug. The symptoms got better after 2 weeks but Some 3-4 weeks later I began to feel the same symptoms again with some signs of blood in the toilet . I went back to my GP and he insisted it was a type of bug that was persisting and the blood was the cause of minor hemoroids. I got better after one week and actually believed his crap! By the middle of 2009 I had another episode of the same symptoms, coincidently I had eaten some dodgy Chinese food in China town and again my GP convinced me this was just a case of food poisoning. By October 2009 I began to notice I was loosing weight at a fast rate, I have always been light weight 67k but I was now down to 62k. I also had developed a pale looking colour even tough I was eating like mad! My apettite remained in tact but I was consistently feeling very weak and I was always having nausea. That same October I had another episode (I now know it was a flare ups). This particular episode was with terrible nausea and weakness, and I knew that if I was to be taken seriously I needed to go straight to accident and emergency . They did an X ray and confirmed there was severe inflammation in the colon and referred me to a gastrologist. I was to be seen within the next 2 months (Can you believe this, 2 months!). By December 2009 just before I saw the gastro team I had another flare up.
That same December I saw the gastro team., after a colonoscopy I was finally diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis/ Chron disease (for some reason they can not determine whether its one or the other or both). I was immediately put on Asecol to be taken three times a day indefenetely which worked wonderfully, it immediately gave me relief. This however did not last as I had another flare up in the middle of February 2010. By this time I began to research alternatives and came across Adam who introduced me to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I began this diet by the end of February and continued with the Asecol treatment. However, by the middle of April I had another flare up which was really disappointing given the fact that I had all may faith on this diet but there was one thing I had over looked, my daily doses of Asecol contained some of the specific ingredients the diet strictly prohibits. I have now replaced the Asecol with another that is free from Lactose and Starch. But I will cut out all drugs very soon!
The most recent flare of the middle of April landed me in hospital for one week due to the loss of blood and weakenes. I was then put on some high doses of steroids ( Prednisolone) which I will talk about on the Prednisolone page.
I started site shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
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