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crohn's flare control w/o meds

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 7/10/2009 8:08 PM (GMT 0)
I was diagnosed with Crohns and I just got my first real flare. Everything I eat goes straight out 5 to ten minutes later. I've also started staining even though I'm on birth control for nearly two years and never had an issue. Anyone have any idea how to get over this flare w/o medication or once I'm in it that's the only resort?
Posted 7/10/2009 8:15 PM (GMT 0)
2qts,
I'm sorry you have to be here, but I'm glad you found us....

You're asking a loaded question with SO many variables...

But the only simple and direct suggestion I can give, to ease your troubles without any medication, is to try boiling your own chicken to make home-made-no-chemical-having broth. Try drinking just the broth.

With your rapid rate of elimination, you are going to dehydrate in no time - and that makes the diarrhea even worse sometimes...

Please keep in touch with your doc!
Posted 7/10/2009 8:26 PM (GMT 0)
That sounds like a gr8 idea s/t i'll definately try to keep my body running. as i havent been in touch w my doctor for so long I felt I should just go in to ask him all my questions. I'll be in next week.
Posted 7/10/2009 8:28 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry you're not feeling well.

Please keep in touch with your doctor. When I am flaring, I switch to a liquid diet to let my stomach rest. I drink Gatorade (for the Electrolytes) and soup broth (if you can't boil a chicken, try buying an organic broth). If the pain and D subside, I then introduce Ensure (I like the chocolate shake flavor), then I go to plain noodles with garlic salt, then rice, etc.

For me, even when I flare on meds, giving my system a rest from food for a few days helps more often than not.
Posted 7/10/2009 10:43 PM (GMT 0)
May I ask why not take the medication? Crohns is a chronic and incurable disease. Diet can help to control the symptoms, but it can't stop the microscopic damage that CD causes. I once went med free during a 20 year remission, it ended abruptly with an emergency resection due to a complete obstruction. That was not a pleasant experience and it has taught me that maintainence meds are needed and I will take them forever. JMHO
Posted 7/10/2009 11:12 PM (GMT 0)
I went 6 weeks not able to eat or drink anything due to a flare I didn't know was Crohn's... I went to emergency so many times for IVs for dehydration because i couldn't even keep gatorade or Ensure or broth in the D was so bad. I lost 40 lbs in a month and damaged my kidneys too. I waited WAY to long to go on meds and ended up in emergency with an obstruction. I'm on Entocort now, which is easier on the body then prednisone (I have other health problems and so we didn;t want to go straight to prednisone unless we had to). I think i probably have scar tissue now too, I have another CT scan and biopsy coming up... my GI says I am probably going to have to have surgery since my intestine keeps blocking up. Had I known I had Chrohn's, I would have taken the meds. I'm not sure why I was so afraid to in the first place. It wasn't my first "bout" like this... I'm glad to hear you are going to go talk to your doctor... you don't want to end up with scar tissue or permanent damage to kidneys or other organs.

once I was on the meds and feeling a bit better, the homemade boiled chicked water was my staple! I added a bit of white rice to it later on too..

I hope you feel better soon, I know how awful that is to go through!
Posted 7/12/2009 4:49 AM (GMT 0)
Wow, I'm so glad I joined. I am learning so much about this diseases. Thank you all so much for your replies. I will definately be taking it more serious than I have until now. Thankfully, the D has calmed down though the pain has come out with a vengence. Hopefully that will be gone soon too.
Posted 7/12/2009 4:36 PM (GMT 0)
I have been diagnosed for over 17 years and have had 3 surgeries. about 3 years ago I lost my insurance and could not keep up with the cost of the meds. At first my GI was giving me a ton of the free samples but eventually I could not keep up with that since he was more than an hour's drive from me. I have been completely med free for about 2 years now. Luckily, I have been in remission for most of this time. I have had a few flares and I would switch my diet to rice, noodles, and steamed veggies and this helped tons. I have recently gotten new insurance and have been back to my GI. I was surprised he did not put me back on the Pentasa. I do have to go in for a colonoscopy this week. I knew that would be coming. Good luck 2qts!
Posted 7/18/2009 2:46 AM (GMT 0)
I was diagnosed with Crohn's in 1991 and tried all the crohn's drugs to no avail till I had a resection
in 2004, in all 1m of small & large removed. I tried prednisone 40mg taper to 5mg over the course
of a month for ~8 years, left with mania when high and severe depression for 3months after taper.
anyway I've been taking Seroquil 200mg since October 2008 and went from 155 to 195 lbs - the most I ever weighed. If I had known about this before the surgry I would have done it to gain the weight. The Seroquil is for Bipolar and allows me to sleep. Something I was never aware of before the surgery was Vitamin D at 2-4g per day - look this up - it's water soluble and any thats not used is flushed. The main thing with the Seroquil is that it gave me normal stools where Imodium made me feel cramped, and didn't work anyway. If you decide to try it start at 100mg for 1wk then goto 150 or 200mg. Seroquil affects 5 different chemical pathways - the main one that I think might apply to Crohn's is the histamine H1 (IC50=30nM) pathway. During the First 2-4wks it makes you sleepy and hungry, also there is no floride in it just C42H50N6O4S2•C4H4O4. Check this with your Doctor First.
Anyway hope you feel better - the vitamin D is a white pill not the A&D combo.
Posted 7/18/2009 4:48 AM (GMT 0)
I'm sorry your in a flair up. It's a tough thing to deal with. Take meds. It's the only way to get yourself back into remission. The meds are our friend, as long as we are taking the right combination. Do you have a good GI doc?
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