New to the Forum....my story

Hi everyone, I recently decided to join this forum because I am having one hell of a year and my colitis is just the icing on the cake.

My name is Nick, I live in Willow Grove PA and I am 25 years of age. 

On the good note before I joined this site, i was about 2 years symptom free of colitis.  I was first told I had colitis my Freshman year in college.  Very bad cramps, going to the bathroom a lot with some of those times a heavy amount of blood.  Needless to say i was scared as hell.  They had put me on Asacol 400 mg tablets 2 pills 3 times a day.  By my senior year, probably the end of my freshman year it was well undercontrol.  Since i had graduated, no blood, no symptoms, life was awesome. 

This year, I am not going to even mention the economic down turn resulting in my job loss or go into that story, but just keep in mind it happend, 2 weeks later, i was in a motorcycle accident.  Shattered my knee cap, broke my femur in 3 places, broke my arm in 4 places, factured a vertebre between my shoulder blades as well as a rib, broke my nose, and had multiple bruses. 

 after the accident and after battling the emotional and mental distress that was caused, because before the accident, i was a very active person the flare up started.  I was very confused and at first rote it off until one night when me and my wife were looking at houses on the internet i went to the bathoom like 3 times in an hour.  The next day i schedualed an appointment with a GI doctor, not my usual doctor but a person that was filling in for him.

He had me go for blood tests and stool samples, which BTW i have never done before and is a very humilating thing especially when they mess up twice and make you go throught it all over again!!!!!  In the office though he had told me some very agressive things that he was planning.  Like Pred, enemas, and sapositories ( dunno how you spell it ).  I was thinking to my self whoa whoa whoa, even when I was first diagnosed they never thrown that at me.  Although I do want to go for a colonoscopy because I haven't had on it 2 1/2 years or so.      I also told him that I was taking a  lot of pain medication for the surgery and was told to take 4 ibuprophen 2 times a day then to go to 1 aleeve  a day.  He suspected that this was probably the cause of the flare, the medications i was taking finally taking a told on my colitis and agrivating it a little. 

There--- now that I have told my story to a certain extent.  Can anyone identify with this and share some advice, insite, stories etc..  I would very much appreciate it.   

Hi Nick and Welcom to HW. You will find the nicest, caring and supportive people on this site. I have dealt with UC for 4 years and now being the worst hemmroids and maybe a fisstual. I have never been in remission and so I think you're doing better than most keeping yours under control. I would recommend food allergy testing (with needles not just blood test) and maybe this will help alevate some of your symptoms. I take a good probiotic by Klaire Labs, Therebiotic Complete and it has stopped the blood for me. Know you have a great support team here!

 

I used to take Advil like candy. I often wonder if that helped bring on my UC. Were you on antibiotics after your accident? That could have contributed to your current flare as well. Hope you get things under control ASAP.

Hi, I think if you can find an alternative to the ibuprophen and Aleve, you might get the bleeding stopped. I have back trouble, and when I can't resist taking these drugs for more than a week or so, I bleed more.

Probiotics might help, can't hurt. Just start them slowly, they will give you lots of gassiness at first. Good idea to get the colonscopy, if your instincts tell you your gut trouble might be a flare.

Good luck, know that this rough time will pass, soon I hope!

I used to take ibuprofen like a mad woman. I was diagnosed with UC shortly after my 20th birthday. I had it 6 months before I went in for a colonoscopy -- bad idea to wait, but I had to finish a semester at school.

Some say it's triggered by a bacteria somewhere that interacts with your mutated gene for this illness. I think I encountered that in the darn dorm rooms at my first school right out of high school.

Anyway. I would echo what everyone has already said here. I haven't taken probiotics in a while because the shops I went to kept running out of what I had purchased, and I couldn't find a right fit for me.

Also, I try to stay away from 'bad' foods for me, and that seems to work. However... Sometimes you have to live a little, and if I have a little bit of a 'bad' but oh so good food, I'm okay.

I go for a Bloody Mary every Wednesday. (I know, reallllly strange!) I share it though, so I only have half, if that. I drink more than that probably once every 3 or 4 months. It's different for everyone..

I had to celebrate my 21st birthday with half a drink because I was so sick at the time. Whenever I'm not having any symptoms, or they're tolerable, I can have a few and be just fine.

Wow, Nick, I'm not surprised you're flaring since you experienced several things that can contribute to flares: increased stress from you physical injuries and job loss, NSAIDs (Ibuprofen and Aleve) and probably lots of antibiotics (orthopedists love IV antibiotics.)

You didn't say whether or not you were still on the Asacol when this started, but I hope you were. A chronic disease, unfortunately, requires chronic medication to keep it under control.

Rectal medications can be a huge help in controlling a flare. I know the idea is gross, but it's a really good way to get medication right to the affected area, and because there's less systemic absorption, you're less likely to have unpleasant side effects. And once you get used to them, it isn't such a big deal.

Prednisone is properly used short-term to control a flare if other oral and rectal meds don't.

NSAIDs are not recommended for those of us with UC because they can cause bleeding. Given that fact, some of us can tolerate them and others can't. Try using Acetaminophen for pain and fever relief.

Sorry your UC has reared its ugly head, and I hope you're soon feeling better.

it is now 9:43, just got done watching Bruno in the movies with the wife, which I will probably get my ass kicked tonight, i forgot to mention her in the paragraphs above. Even before we were married she was an amazing support system that i owe a lot to. Also when I was in the hospital due to the accident on my motorcycle. now that I think of it, darn!!! we've been through a lot.

anyway getting back on subject. its now 9:43pm. and today i had only 2 bowl movements!!!! Both of them, yes apparent that there was blood, but only two!!!! I think thats pretty good what do you guys think?