Hi everyone,
New to the forum and so relieved to see I'm not alone on this awful journey. I was diagnosed with UC in 1991, and was lucky that I had few and far between flareups, that were very mild and treated easily with prednisone or dipentum for short periods of time. I had a major flare up in March 2009 and ended up in hospital for 10 days. Was finally stabilised with prednisone, and salofalk enemas and then put on just dipentum (osalazine), as maintenance. After having a colonoscopy in July and told all areas of the large bowel were normal and healthy in August however, I had another major flare up and ended up in hospital again. The doctors said it was triggered by antibiotics!After a week in hospital, I've been at home for 4 weeks on 50mg prednisone and salofalk enemas. Since recovery has been so slow I've been told by my GI that I may have to consider Imuran for maintenance, something I really don't want to take. So went to see my GP/Herbalist today and thought you might be interested in her advice.
She suggested the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, especially during a flare up. Also she said I should continue with the supplements I'm taking- vitamin D, liquid fish oil, probiotics and intestamine ( a powdered combo of glutamine, aloe vera, and slippery elm). She also gave me a tonic that includes golden seal, agrimony and wild yam, all supposed to help with stopping the diarrhea. She said once I'm on a low dose of prednisone, she would alter the tonic to include licorice which is like natures steroid!! Will keep you posted on the results!
She also suggested I start meditation again, because even though the experts now dont believe colitis is caused by stressed, it's a contributing factor for most people. And I did have major stressors for 6 months prior to this latest flare up. Coincidence?
Anyway, feel better after seeing the doctor and am getting a 2nd opinion with another GI next month regarding an alternative maintenance drug to Imuran or other drugs, maybe Mesalazine would be an option!
Hope this post is useful to someone. I'd love to be able to get back to normal without having to resort to heavy drugs and their lovely side effects. So am persevering with food/ supplements. Here's hoping for good results!
