Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum, but not new to Healing Well. I have had fibromyalgia for over 25 years and chronic lower back pain.
about five months' ago I caught what I thought was a cold, but it went on for two weeks and I had a lot of achy muscles and overall felt like garbage. Because of fibro, very difficult for me to decipher a fibro flare from the flu, but at two weeks, I figured it was indeed a flu, even though I had a flu shot. Then suddenly diarrhea began. I thought ok, this flu bug has not settled in my GI system. Well, it continued for three months. During that time, I was having a lot of lower back pain along with sciatic pain and I really didn't know which way to turn, what to take care of first. The "D" was pretty bad, during the entire period, never had a normal BM, and I was going on average 6-12 times a day, complete water. I decided to get an epidural steroid injection for my back and the very next day the D stopped, for three weeks, then out of nowhere, began again and so it continues through today. Today I went to see a gastro doc, brought with my stool culture records which showed all negative except for white blood cell count which was extremely high. Also brought with a copy of colonoscopy from 5 years' ago which was completely normal. He asked me a bunch of questions and then told me he feels I have collagenous colitis. He recommended I take Pepto Bismal, 3 tablespoons four x a day, only cooked fruits and veggies, very bland diet, no caffeine and go for a colonoscopy to confirm diagnosis. I came home and began to do some research and read that there are some studies showing holistic treatments could work, a specific probiotic along with some herbs and for the life of me I can't remember the name of them. Wondering if anyone here has tried to control this with holistic treatments? He also wants me to take steroids, he said they are non-absorbable, so will not have the side effects of something like prednisone. I would love some input, please. Also, is this something that can be cured or do I have to prepare myself to live with this? Thanks so much, Miriam