Fecal transplant question

Cure is a difficult word to use here. It is well documented that you could be put into remission long term without needing ongoing meds...call it what you want. At the very least, I believe it can be used as adjunctive therapy and really help stabilize things.

The theory I buy into is that UC is caused by an underlying infection that has yet been identified. Modern science does NOT know the majority of our gut flora "dna".

FT works great for cdiff, often just one transplant is needed. For UC, however, the "unknown" pathogen may be more resistant and thus, needing more FTs to work/colonize. There are various FT protocols for UC. The one I see GIs referring to the most is: Daily for a week, every other day for week, then weekly for 5-6 months, then monthly for 5-6 months or longer. That said, there are people who will get immediate results early on and without followup. I think it depends on severity of your disease...

To answer your question, NO, you shouldn't have to do it forever.  Worst case, seems to be a year....A small price to pay to feel well.  That said, after the first couple weeks, the rest is smooth sailing.  My son has had great success with this, however, he is also on remicade and keeps getting strep throat.  When he does we have to put him on abx....and yes, it messes up our FT protocol and his gut flora.  Even with this nightmare scenario, he is doing much better than he has with any other meds.  I feel in time, we will be able to get him off the remicade and onto something non-immune suppressing.  Long term, our goal is med free.  Baby steps!  

  

Post Edited (trojen) : 1/17/2012 6:03:47 AM (GMT-7)

Trojen, why keep your son on Remicade if you saw improvement from the fecal? Did he see improvement from the Remicade before the fecal also. What is great success?

trojen said...
That said, there are people who will get immediate results early on and without followup. I think it depends on severity of your disease...

I tend to think the results have more to do with the bacteria of the donor. I have fairly mild UP and did over 25 transplants. I used my daughter as a donor. All my symptoms except bleeding went away while I was transplanting. I never could get the bleeding to stop, When I stopped transplanting my other symptoms returned. If I ever find another donor I'm going to try it again and see if I have better results.

wow that's amazing that after just one FT you have stayed symptom free for so long. Well done!
Do you take any supplements now?

sas said...
Luv2jump: your daughter has the same bacteria/flora that you do - you passed yours on to her during birth. You may have better results with a different donor.

That makes sense. I wonder if using my twin sister's son would do? Or would he have the same flora because his mom is my twin?

sas said...
Hi

I had a FT on June 14 and have been symptom free since about a week afterwards.  I had one via colonoscopy and never did home protocol.  I have severe UC but at the time of FT i was having mild symptoms. 

I am also happy to report that I have been through a series of really stressful times (moving a family to a different state and in and out of a Childrens Hospital for my son in another state as well, etc), normally I would be a flaring mess because of stress.

At this time, I am med, pain and symptom free.  :) :) :).

I do not consider FT a cure but it will be my first line of treatment if I start to flare.

Stacy 

Where did you go to do the treatment, I'm trying to find a place, but nobody is offering unless its for c diff.

sas said...
I had mine done in Rochester, NY. My email is in my profile, send me yours and I can give you some more info.

 

Ok ty, I will do this right after I get off work.

Allswell,

My son had severe cdiff and UC at the same time. We did the original FT via scope and it stopped the cdiff in its tracks. Then my son picked up strep throat 3 separated time during the next two months. So we had to put him on abx....yes, worst case scenario. We pushed off the remi just to see if his uc would return and it did start...so we did another remi and it stopped. It never worked that well in the past. So, we are using FT now as adjunctive therapy along with the remi. Once we can keep Jack healthy from strep and using abx for a while, we will try to wean him from the remi.

Great success means remission. He was NEVER in remission until we added FT to our protocol.

The gut flora resides in the colon....millions of bacteria multipy very rapidly to compensate for the ones lost in a bm. Once the FT takes place, the new bacteria are off and running in their new environment. We HOPE they migrate up the entire colon and eventually colonize. So yes, you may pass some of the "good stuff", but certainly not all of it.