Remicade May Have Been Working, But…

Introduction:

My name is Nick and i am 25 years old. I was diagnosed with UC August of 2010. I have been on countless different meds until i landed on Remicade August 2011.

Some more about me:

I consider myself to be fairly active. I play Disc Golf often and I love it. I walk around downtown with my fiancee checking out new places to eat. I love food! I enjoy going on hikes and trails. I Bowl and just started Snow Boarding this year. I write hip hop songs with my buddy haha and write stories on occasion..

Symptoms:

Currently i have mucous in the stool, gas, bleeding, and urgency. a mix of watery stool and normally formed stool right now so its hard to say which.

My Story:

I have had ulcerative colitis for over 2 and a half years. it came on very sudden and i was scared sh!tless(ha!) when I saw blood and that it would not stop, only getting worse until I went to the Quick Care medical down the road. My PCP did not have a clue and said I may have IBS. I thought to myself there is no way, as I know people with IBS and it is not this bad. He gave me a few prescriptions for IBS symptoms and none of it worked. I was then referred to my Gastroenterologist.

I got a Colonoscopy shortly after and was then diagnosed with UC. At first he called it Mild to Moderate, and then decided it was Moderate to Severe. I was put on Prednisone and Balzalicide and I was feeling great again! This lasted for about 5 months and then I started having bad symptoms again. I was again prescribed many different meds, none of which worked, and I was put on Prednisone again. When I was weened off the Prednisone, the bleeding came back and i was put right back on it. I suffered for about 4 or 5 months and just dealt with the pain and tried to live my life as it was summer. I would still go Disc golfing and go out, I had a hard labor job in the Meat Department with horrible hours such as 11:30am- 9pm one day, then the next would be 4:30am-1pm the next, and i would go without a day off for sometimes 8 days or more. Not impossible hours, but for someone with a long flare up in Ulcerative Colitis it was not helping.
August 2011 I was finally put on Remicade and that has been all i have been on from then til now, with only a few hiccups along the way. Before i started Remicade I had lost 20 pounds in about 5 months, and i was skinny to begin with. after being on remicade for a few months i gained my weight back! I recently let the medicine get out of my system 3 weeks ago and I seem to be in the begining stages of a flare up. You might call my “begining stages” already an intense flare up with the blood, diareah, gas, painful cramps, etc. I only call it begining stages because i know it can still get worse. when i was first diagnosed i think i went to the bathroom 22 times that day? Brutal.

Anyways, the reason I got off the Remicade, stupid as it may seem, was to find a natural cure that I keep hearing about. Remicade may have been working, but I know its only a matter of time until it doesn’t. And then what? I am one of the healthiest eaters that I know. I am gluten free, beef free, coffee free and now alcohol free. When I was first diagnosed and initially felt better, I was happy to be ‘normal’ again and I ate whatever I wanted. After 1 or 2 relapses I smarted up and I eat 1 or 2 veggies a night, all natural chicken breast or all natural pork, or wild caught fish for the protein. I also have a Macro Greens smoothie every morning which is equal to 5 servings of Raw fruit and veggie nutrition.

So here I start my journey full-force for a natural help, free of meds and all the BS that comes with it. I know how bad it can get and I will not let myself get too sick before I seek help. but I have hope and am determined.

I current take a multivitamin, Macro Greens smoothie each morning, eat zero processed foods, buy organic most of the time, take aloe vera juice, L-Glutamine Powder(though i need to upgrade to fermented), and a probiotic(that i also need to upgrade to the good stuff).
Nice to meet you all, this website is great!

Medications:

To be honest I cannot remember every medication they put me on as i got switched around quite a bit, multiple times. I was on Balzalicide for about 9 months, few other things that did not work…i was put on prednisone at least 3 times for a 2 month ween each time.

Finally i was put on Remicade and that actually worked for the most part. i started Remicade in August 2011 and stayed on it up until about i let the medicine get out of my system 3 weeks ago.

written by Nick L

submitted in the colitis venting area