Introduction:
I love all things outdoors and artsy. I enjoy staying up late, and drinking loose leaf tea, watching shows with my boyfriend and mekingt wurdz nu sens.
Some more about me:
I like drawing and anything crafty really.
Symptoms:
Chronic diarrhea, cramping, acid reflex, joint pain.
Dealing with the Diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis
My name is Rachel and I am 18. I was diagnosed with UC in November 2012. But it began in April.
I thought I had a diarrhea bug of some sort, but then it got worse. One night I was in horrible pain, I was passing out for thirty minutes at a time and then waking up to go to the bathroom. Finally when I saw blood, after six hours of miserable pain I woke my mom up. My mom took me the the hospital and they gave me an x-ray, my colon was inflamed. It took the doctors a long time to figure out what it was. Finally, they discovered it was copalar bactor which is a bacterial infection of the colon…BUT they said it could be triggered by UC. After I got out of the hospital I was fine and resumed my normal life until about five months ago. It was then that I was officially diagnosed. Ever since I’ve been on all kind of medications.
My mom has been super supportive, she’s the one that told me about the SCD diet and I went on it for a month ( while still taking my medication). I also quit smoking, but I still felt bad everyday. Well I’ll confess I went off my diet and started smoking again- but I stopped taking my medicine and I could immediately tell a difference. I was on asacol, omeprazole and dicyclomine and none of it seemed to work. I’ve been off my meds for a few weeks now and I don’t feel as sick, but now the problem is I know I need to get back on the SCD diet and quit smoking again. I think that if I start eating food my body can handle again and stop smoking without taking the medication this time after awhile it would probably make me symptom free. I’m just having trouble getting back on the wagon…especially when my boyfriend wants to take me out to eat all the time. It’s so hard. It’s easy to pretend like nothing’s wrong and just do whatever I want, but I know It’s hurting my guts. Have you ever gone off your diet? How did you get back on it?
Medications:
None of my medications have really worked for me, but omeprazole did help my acid.
written by Rachelra
submitted in the colitis venting area
I love all things outdoors and artsy. I enjoy staying up late, and drinking loose leaf tea, watching shows with my boyfriend and mekingt wurdz nu sens.
Hi Rachael, sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I was also diagnosed around that time, in December 2012 and I immediately went on SCD. I was doing great until I started cheating a little with the diet… A few weeks ago I has some Döner (Turkish-German food, a little bit like a taco wrapped in pita). Around that time I started seeing a little bit of blood again, but I saw a little bit of blood even before I was diagnosed with UC so I wasn’t really worried. Then a few days ago I ate a big box of chocolate and just last night I started showing some obvious flare symptoms. I thought maybe I could start introducing non-SCD foods to my diet but maybe not… I’m going back to 100% SCD immediately. To be honest it’s not that difficult for me, because I would much rather have a restricted diet then go into a flare!
Also I thought you should know, smoking has actually been shown to fight UC, and a lot of people develop UC after quiting smoking (and it usually takes a more aggressive course in people who quit smoking). If I ever get to the point where my GI and I are talking about surgery, I’ll give smoking a shot first…
I think I’m also going to try out the sunflower seed and spinach diet alongside SCD. Basically all it is is eating a lot of spinach and sunbutter :)
Good luck. I think that if you’re careful about your diet, you can really save yourself a lot of trouble. But I’m not all that experienced with the disease yet either…
Diet plays a huge role in uc but as most of discover, some foods are really bad triggers. I had to quit drinking alchohol a few years ago for instance and caffeine is really bad, but on the other hand, some people can handle it. I hope you can quit smoking because the longer you smoke the worse it is for your uc when you do quit again. Best to quit now and get your uc under control. I wish you the best of luck.
Hi Rachelra-
I was diagnosed with UC in 2006 and have had 1-2 minor flare-ups, so minor that I thought I had been mis-diagnosed. This all changed when I quit smoking on January 8th. I have had the worst flare-up since then and medicine is not working! I’ve been a smoker for over 20 years and never thought I could/would quit, so I will not begin again, but if I knew then, what I know now, I would have continued to smoke for awhile. I’m in no way advocating smoking, but I suggest you get your diet under control and then attempt to quit. Don’t do everything all at once. You’ll set yourself up for failure and a horrible flare-up. Good luck to you!
By the way, I read Alan Carr’s easy way to quit smoking….I recommend. No willpower needed. I will never smoke again. No cravings!
Hi, again I’m not advocating smoking but it seems to help reduce my bleeding. I quit smoking after 15 years, five years ago, then was diagnosed with UC 18 months ago and have been hospitalized for three weeks in a severe flare-up. The meds like prednizone,6MP and Asacol didn’t do anything to help. Have saved my colon from the surgeon’s knife by a strict diet, Paleo and some SCD, and probiotics. Went back to smoking 5-10 cigarettes a day and things improved again. Smoking sucks and is bad for you, but so is UC and at least I have my life back, and don’t have to live in a toilet. Good luck and peace.
Hey there youngster! My opinion is that smoking is deadly and gross and its risks outweigh its benefits. I quit smoking three years ago. The SCD is what really works for me. No symptoms after being on the diet for just a few weeks. Now I’ve been on the diet for a couple months and am hooked! Wish i had heard of it sooner. I’ve had UC since 1996.