Trying to Get Pregnant with Ulcerative Colitis

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on this website. A lot has happened to me – I changed jobs, got married, lost a parent….. all these things are stressors and have affected me in one way or another.

Something Interesting About Lara:

I love to nap! This could be because I’ve got a chronic illness and I need more rest than the average person, but I will try to get a nap in whenever I can.

Let’s start at the beginning:

I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis five years ago.

My husband has been very supportive throughout this entire experience, which I’m thankful for. We had dated 6 years before we actually got married (and have been married now for almost 2 years). I love my husband, but planning a wedding and actually learning to live with each other was difficult. We had never lived together prior to being married and I was nervous because I couldn’t “hide” my UC symptoms. Not that I think I did a good job of that before, but I was still nervous nonetheless. During that time I had increased frequency, not always formed BM’s, blood, some pain, etc. Once things settled down a lot of those things subsided, but not all the way.

Next, my mom gets admitted to the hospital out of the blue 6 months into my new marriage. She hadn’t been in the best health and I think the family thought she’d be there for about a week and would then go home. Only it didn’t work out like that. She was admitted for kidney failure and some other things – it’s a blur so I can’t remember it all. Her body couldn’t handle the dialysis and she passed away 3 days after her admission. That was a ROUGH time. It was sudden. I was heartbroken that I was starting this new phase in my life and I wouldn’t have my Mom to talk to. She was the one who took care of me when I was first diagnosed and throughout that horrible flare. My symptoms began to increase again. Stress will do that. I barely made it through the funeral – I had to run to the bathroom several times. My Dad became very worried about me and my husband made me rest. I saw my GI doctor and he didn’t add any medications, but wanted to do a colonoscopy.

I get the colonoscopy and not much healing is taking place. By now I’m on Remicade and Apriso. He wants to add Uceris and I start taking that. I hated Uceris – it gave me horrible mood swings, but I did notice some relief of my symptoms. I did a follow up with my doctor and he recommends that I see an IBD specialist when I tell him that my husband and I would like to start a family. He also adds Canasa to my regimen. I wasn’t thrilled about giving myself suppositories, but it did help. Though not all the way….

Fast forward…

I work in healthcare and we had our annual state survey. It’s always unannounced and that left me working 12-15 hour days, not eating right, etc. Symptoms came back with a vengeance. The day after the exited I was scheduled to get a sigmoidoscopy. Looking back on it, I guess the timing was ok because my doctor could actually see what stress does to my body. And the stress showed some bad things – lots of inflammation and bleeding.

I go see the IBD specialist the next week and she recommends that I not try for a family right now. My body just isn’t ready. She also recommends I start on Rowasa enemas and do some specialized labs to see how I’m handling Remicade. She recommends I get off of Uceris, which I’m only too glad to do! She also categorizes me as high risk, so I now need to find a high risk obgyn when trying to get pregnant and care for me throughout my pregnancy. Lovely! All these results are forwarded to my GI doctor.

I started on the Rowasa and notice almost immediate results. Solid BM’s, no blood, 1-2 times per day….. Life was good!! I also did these specialized labs and it turns out that I’ve built up antibodies to Remicade. Fun! So it’s no longer effective and I get to start on Humira.

Let me first say that Humira sucks. I was prescribed the pen and it hurts. Truly painful!! I did my first dose today – 4 shots – at the doctor’s office. It was rough. But I’m at least proud that I was able to do it myself. Right now I feel tired, but I did just get a mega dose. Hopefully this will help get me healthier. I’m to give myself 2 more shots in 2 weeks and then 1 shot ever other week from here on.

Questions:
[highlight] 1. Has anyone been on Humira while pregnant?

2. How has pregnancy been with your UC in general?

3. Any issues in getting pregnant?[/highlight]

Current medications:
Apriso
Humira
Rowasa

Past medications:
Remicade
Uceris
Canasa
Prednisone

written by Lara

submitted in the colitis venting area