My ulcerative colitis story
Hi Everyone
This is the first time that I am sharing my experience with UC. I am hoping that my experience could help at least a few people. I have been through hell. Now I am in full remission. Still hard for myself to believe it but I am in full remission. No signs of colitis in my colon (according to my latest colonoscopy). Even my doctor was surprised to see that.
I am trying to make my story very short. I could write 100 pages about my experiences but then nobody would read. I was diagnosed in 2007.
Doctors put me on Prednisone, Mezavant and salofalk (Suppository). I stopped Prednisone after 6 months because of bad side effects. I had mild colitis at the time. Occasional bleeding and diarrhea. It was nothing I could not handle.
2008 to 2013: I was doing OK. I had added Vit D, Probiotic, fish oil and all those good stuff to my diet. I had occasional bleeding and diarrhea but things were manageable. I could still live my life.
2014: Me being me decided that doctors were idiots and they were wrong and my problem was not UC. I thought I only had some undiagnosed food intolerances. After all, nobody in my entire family had this problem. So… I decided to stop Mezavant. (At the time I was only taking Mezavant). I also stopped taking all supplements except for Vit D. I started a very healthy diet.
2014 to 2016: I went through hell. I lost 80 lbs. I had diarrhea up to 20 times a day. I did a colonoscopy and had Pancolitis (Meaning my entire colon was very inflamed). The exact word the doctor used was that my colon was 9 out of 10 inflamed. Now I know the reason for that terrible flare up was stopping the mezavant. The doctor put me on high doses of Prednisone which did not help at all. Then they put me on Azathioprine which did not help at all either. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks. I was ready to start Biologic medications.
I thought to myself, let's go back to Mezavant. So I did. My symptoms started to improve in 4 weeks. After 6 month I was doing much better. From 2017 to 2021 I was taking Mezavant. I had occasional bleeding and diarrhea. I had to rush to the toilet occasionally. I could live but not a normal life.
2022: I made the best decision of my life. I had heard about FMT but I was not gonna try it mainly because you can not do that in a hospital in Canada. So I thought to myself why not try probiotics as enema. I was very hesitant about it. I did not know what the outcome would be. Eventually I did it. Truth be told I was very scared. I started with a very low dose of Probiotics mixed in distilled water. I bought a Rectal Enema syringe from Walmart. Microwaved everything to make sure they were disinfected. At first I had a hard time keeping it inside but after a few trials I learned how to keep it inside. 3 Weeks after my first enema I noticed that my BM had zero blood. I had zero diarrhea and absolutely no symptoms. My BM looked as healthy as it could be.
Now it has been 7 month since my first enema. I do one every 3 weeks. I am not sure what the appropriate interval is. I have had zero symptoms in the last 7 month. ABSOLUTELY ZERO. 6 weeks ago I did a colonoscopy. I did it mainly because I wanted to make sure that I was not wrong. The result surprised both me and my doctor. My colon is in full remission.
One more thing that I guess has helped my digestion is the apple cider vinegar capsules. I am not going to write about it here but I think they do help. I hope my experience helps some people out there.
Join the conversation