Bacterial infections, stress and colitis.

badslinke,

Next time I go to the doc I am definitely going to ask for script that says: NO STRESS.

This way, whenever I get stressed out by the crappy family, I can just smile and show them doctor's orders, haha.

I think all of us UCers should do the same,haha.

What do you think?

badslinke said...
Wow. So you can point to no period of stress, infection or anything else before the onset? What about diet? What had you been eating beforehand? I notice you said you've gone gluten free and that's helped. Any other dietary changes in mind?

No, nothing. I can't find any correlation. But if the speculation that bacteria are responsible, then I suspect I picked something up somewhere along the way. Before going gluten-free my diet was the SAD except that I've been a vegetarian for 15 years. I'm working my way up to the SCD although it's hard for me since I don't eat meat. Diet modification is hard so I'm doing it in steps.

colitis33 said...
I wasn't taking any antibiotics before I got sick, nor was I under any stress. Don't think I had any bugs/illnesses. One day I ate some jalopenos felt nauseous for an hour or two than it went away..few days later I ate a sandwich and the nausea didn't go away until I went on Pred and Pentasa after being diagnosed with UC over 2 months later. They did find C diff while doing my colonoscopy and put me on Flagyl which took care of it in 2 weeks.

I did randomly have explosive diarrhea a couple times about a month before I started feeling sick, but I ate a lot of junk (i.e. somedays I'd have some cookies, 3/4 a tub of ice cream, a footlong from Subway or a frozen pizza, and chex mix or chips + tons of soda and that'd be all I ate in a day.) and chocked it up to that. I haven't had any diarrhea with my UC, though so I think that's unrelated.

Wait I am completely confused. The order of events with your UC is hard to figure out here. If I understand correctly, you first ate some jalapenos that didn't settle well, and then a sandwich a few days later that resulted in constant nausea for a few months. During those few months, you had a few cases of diarrhea, but you imagine it was due to bad diet. After those few months, you got diagnosed with UC, and at that time they found a C Diff infection. They then put you on flagyl, prednisone and pentasa. Since then you haven't had any diarrhea with your UC.

Doesn't that suggest that you got a C Diff infection from the food you ate a few months previously, which gradually built until you finally got diagnosed and killed it with antibiotics? The bug would explain the nausea and occasional diarrhea, especially if you had always eaten things like frozen pizzas and soda. If that type of food never gave you diarrhea or nausea before, then it is difficult to believe that such food would suddenly account for the onset of your symptoms.

If you don't have any diarrhea with your UC, do you have constipation instead? If you are having normal bowel movements, then it sure seems like you don't have UC at all!

Can you clarify a bit? Thanks for the input!

InSoFla said...
Next time I go to the doc I am definitely going to ask for script that says: NO STRESS. This way, whenever I get stressed out by the crappy family, I can just smile and show them doctor's orders, haha.

InSoFla that is one of the best ideas I've heard in a long time hahah A card like that could be useful EVERYWHERE. Imagine a cop pulls you over and you just whip that thing out. The possibilities are endless...

I love the idea of a script for stress! What a brillant idea!
And oh yes, the j-pouch can become inflamed and ulcerated. It's called pouchitis. It's usually better managed than having a colon but sometimes it can get pretty bad.

I was happily traveling through Europe as a teenager when I got sick in Greece. My friends father gave me some antibiotics, and a few days later I was bleeding like a slaughtered pig - most probably c diff.

The situation kind of settled for a few years. I did my military service without any problems, and finished my college.

The stress started to build up during my marriage and starting to work, and has been the number one reason triggering a flare up ever since. Bad food can do the same.

Avoid stress and eat well.

Why babies get UC is beyond me.

My son was seen in the ER after two days of severe abdominal cramping  back in August of 2010 (after being seen at a walk-in clinic and by his pediatrician).   The ER doctor told us it was gas.   They did bloodwork but never a stool sample.    This abdominal pain started the day after he ate a hot dog at a Deli.  He was then seen by a GI 3 months after the ER visit and my son  lied and said he felt better.   GI never did bloodwork or stool sample.  Told me he felt it was lactose intolerance.  My son then hid his symptoms from me for months and never told me he was bleeding.   I have no doubt that he picked up a bacteria which started this whole rollercoaster ride.  I have also now become quite a bit pushier when it comes to getting to the root of the problem.

one more thing... my son was not a junk food junkie, we always ate healthy in our house.  I dont think that diet or what he ate played a role.

 

Hi MotherOfTeen,

I remember reading your posts about your son in other topics, and finding them particularly worrisome. It is VERY interesting that he had an infection from a hot dog shortly before the onset of his disease. The timing of his symptoms and mine coincide almost perfectly.

Recently Diagnosed, thanks for the input! That's a serious story. Are you sure your infection didn't precede the onset of your symptoms? From what I understand from your post, you only got diagnosed with an infection after your symptoms came about. That doesn't mean the infection wasn't there beforehand. You just didn't know about it until then. Or do I have it wrong?

I came across this forum post earlier, which is very relevant to the discussion here. It looks like there are a few people (screen names "mudua" and "diaper man") who have done a specific combo antibiotics therapy that knocked years long UC symptoms right out the window. Check it out:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=2088679

In that forum post, there is a link to a study on MAP as a common causative infectious agent for BOTH Crohn's and UC. The article can be found here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3031217/?tool=pmcentrez

The evidence for an infectious etiology of UC (and Crohn's) mounts!!

To add to it all, something very, very interesting has happened to me in the past few days. I've been taking transdermal LDN therapy for about 1 and a half months now, but it hasn't gotten me over the edge. It helped noticeably, but not enough. I then remembered reading that a leading researcher suggests if LDN doesn't put you over, there may be either some dietary changes or a persistent infection that need to be taken care of for LDN to finally work its magic.

Well, I'm terrified of synthetic antibiotics, because there seem to be as many stories of people going into massive flares after them as there are of people getting much better. So instead, I went with one of the most powerful natural antibiotics out there; olive leaf extract (liquid, not pills). The very first night of taking OLE, I had major night sweats and my body heated up like crazy, such that I had to get up and stand under a fan. When the body heats up like that, it is a sign of it fighting off an infection, similar to the sweats you get when you have the flu. The following days were not pretty. Very little form to my movements, over 10 a day, lots of gas and liquid, fatigue, joint pains, etc.

Guess what? Now that I am on day 5 of OLE, I have started to see the first signs of major form in my BMs in a loooong time. This happened just last night and today. I'm by no means perfect, but the signs of advancement were undeniable.

In short, I really believe that the OLE immediately attacked the chronic infection in my gut that I'm fairly sure I have (as previously discussed), resulting in both severe night sweats the first night, and a Herx reaction over the past several days. The Herx is subsiding now, I believe, and I am starting to heal bit by bit.

At the same time though, I've been doing A LOT of other things to help, so I can't conclusively say that its the OLE that is making me feel better. THese include major doses of l-glutamine (also started with the OLE), regular sunshine for the vitamin D, and a return to 1 VSL 3 packet a day. Given my symptoms over the past few days though, that peculiarly timed bout of night sweats upon the first day of OLE, and my overall UC condition and story, I really think OLE is on top of the list for the recent advancements in the past 24 hours.

If all of this is true, that there is a common infectious etiology for many people with IBD, then antibiotics of some nature or another may be the key that so many of us are seeking.

Serious food for thought.

Keep them stories coming!

The GOOD news is, that if it is bacterial related, a 5-10 day treatment of Human Probiotic Infusion (HPI) would have a really good shot of getting you off meds for good and without symptoms. Research it online, it has amazing results.

human probiotic infusion - it's fecal transplant?

thanks :)

You can easily treat bacterial infection with the help of amoxil (amoxicillin 500mg) tabs. It is very effective medicine to treat bacterial infection. I hope it helps you.