Fight the Good Fight – Never Surrender!

A little intro about Travis:

I’m a Southern California native, I like motorcycle riding, off-roading, hunting and doing road trips with my wife and my kids. My wife and I own an automotive repair business and we home school our kids.

Current Symptoms:

At the moment my stools are solid and the blood is almost nonexistent but I definitely have got pain and some gut noises.

Travis and His Story Begin Below:

I have been through a roller coaster the last 30 days of my life and I owe it all to UC!

I have been reading on this site for hours and hours researching and studying trying to understand what is going on with me and my insides. First of all I’m very thankful for this site because it has brought me a lot of peace and understanding and it is helping me tremendously!

About nine months ago I went to my doctor and told him I had an uncomfortable feeling in the right side of my lower abdomen . At that time he dismissed it as gas and I excepted his answer and continued with my life. However I had an extremely stressful summer with my business and some rentals I have and ended up feeling pretty poor at the end of August. In addition to the stress I was constantly aware of the feeling again in my abdomen. It takes 30 days to get into see my doctor so I said forget it I’m going to the ER which is what I did September 3.

At the ER they did a CAT scan and they informed me that my colon and my anus was inflamed the doctor looked at me and said you’re constipated and I said really because I go everyday, and she said sir you are full of s**t! My wife was with me and got a kick out of that but I was concerned so the doctor gave me a prescription for MiraLAX Cipro and Flagyl. Off I went back home and fill my prescriptions and began to take medication.

The following week on the fifth I was able to get in with my primary care doctor to do a follow-up from the ER . He wasn’t helpful, he said I don’t know anything I don’t have the reports, which I had brought with me so that was very irritating! I felt like he felt I was a nuisance and I think he could tell because he seemed very nervous and I told him I want, angry I just needed help.  He then agreed to have the blood test done for Crohn’s on me because my dad has Crohn’s.

Meanwhile I was using the laxative for three or four days and taking the antibiotics. By the end of the week, the 8th and the 9th the blood had began to appear in the diarrhea I was now having.I started to feel absolutely terrible from around the eighth through the 18th when I had my colonoscopy. the diarrhea was bad it had blood in it had white pinkish pieces of meat or mucus or something in it. I had my initial consultation with my G.I. on the 12th and I told her then I really didn’t want to finish antibiotics because I felt like they were doing the damage along with the laxatives but she instantly said no no no you have to finish those don’t start taking them so I finished the antibiotic’s.

The colonoscopy again was on the 18th so I took the prep on the 17th which again was absolutely awful . I had now gone from having diarrhea for a week and 1/2 and being pumped full of the these antibiotic’s to just drinking this liquid that turned my gut inside out literally.

When I woke up from the colonoscopy the G.I. doctor who did the procedure which who was not the original doctor that I met with said to me while I was still extremely loaded from the sedative that I had ulcerative colitis but they were gonna give me some medication to get it under control. That was it the procedure was done and my wife took me home . I still wasn’t feeling very good but I dropped the prescription off at the pharmacy and went home to try and eat something.

That Pharmacy called me later on to tell me they couldn’t fill the script because they couldn’t read the quantity correctly, when I asked them what it was they told me it was 180 pills for one month and my jaw dropped. That was For the sulfasalazine . The other prescription was for prednisone .

I begin to look up ulcerative colitis and read all of the stories including horror stories about medications and stories about people improving themselves with diet. I made a decision not to take the drugs and change my diet drastically. The diet I’m following is somewhat similar to the SCD diet. Within three days of being home from the colonoscopy on the new diet I had a virtual regular bowel movement albeit small around in size. I have been on the diet now for almost 3 weeks and aside from the stomach cramps the blood seems to be continually diminishing and my stools are gaining size and consistency . At first some of them were hard but I drink more water and I feel things are getting better.

I have tried hard to read as much as I can before asking questions, but I do have a few questions that I would be very thankful if someone can help me with answers. I had a follow up with my doctor and she asked how the medication was doing and as soon as I told her I wasn’t taking it she got very upset and didn’t even want to go over the results of the biopsies of my colonoscopy. she told me that I had to take this medication for the rest of my life or the information will never go away and I’m gonna be at risk for cancer . So at this point what I believe I have learned is that there are three main symptoms to be aware of number one stomach pain and/or fatigue number two diarrhea and/or bloody diarrhea and third number of times that you have to use the restroom a day or urgency……. am I correct? Aside from the laxative and the colonoscopy prep I haven’t ever had any urgency even to this day.I try to go as soon as I feel that I have to go because I don’t want to hold it in I don’t think that’s healthy if you don’t have to. I also wanted to ask you guys what exactly is a flair can someone define it? Last but not least obviously we cannot see our colons so how does one know if the information is going down aside from a colonoscopy? I believe my inflanation is currently causing some of my discomfort in my gut do you guys contribute the discomfort to inflammation also or is my thinking wrong here?

I’m sorry that this initial post so long but I really was unable to get any information from my doctor all she wanted me to do was take the medication shut up and except the facts. My dad was diagnosed with Crohn’s when he was 24 years old he had his entire large intestine removed to 26 and he just turned 74 this year, and he spent his entire life drinking beer in racing motorcycles in Mexico at the Baja 1000 not that I’m advocating anyone do those things! but my dad’s a fighter and I’m a fighter too and I just don’t want to lay down and play dead. thank you for everyone who takes the time to read this and you can answer any my questions and help me in my journey I’m very thankful for the site and I plan to be on actively to learn more and to help others with this challenging condition .

Medications:

I was prescribed sulfasalazine and prednisone but I chose not to take them and instead I am currently following Dr. Robert Gundrys Plant Paradox diet. I have lost 25 pounds in the last month but I feel better today than I did A few weeks ago and I’ve been on the diet for three weeks.

written by Travis

submitted in the colitis venting area