How my UC might have started

Bear with me,little long. Still young and healthy.

Korea 1971,out in the field,eating from washed dishes from the field mess.There is a reason they call it

a mess. Anyway dishes were hand washed.

Came back, severe burning diarrhea for two weeks, then felt something tare in the rectum, then burning

in that spot for about 3 days. Went away in a few more days.

Came back to the states Jan 72, sometime in 72 got a big rectal abscess,needed emergency surgery,removed

golf ball sized mess of pus. Had a flap for 6 weeks until it healed.

Then was fine for a few years, then got another,where he did an I&D in the ER,threw a scalpel at it until he got it,boy did that hurt. Anyway now developed fissures , learned to take sitz baths with ultra hot

water to kill them off. Had many over the years.

Quit smoking 1977, proctitis 1980.

The old proctolgoist that would stick the rigid scopes into me thought,that probably the proctitis was

due to all the bacteria that grew in the fissures/fistulas/abscess.

I still get an occasonial one today, but I kill them off with antibiotic cream and hot sitz baths quickly.

I have also found that probiotics help to prevent.

Anyhow that's my story and I'am sticking to it.

Old Mike

PS: One way to break these abscsses is to go fishing on a small boat,in a narrow inlet. If it is ready

to break,all the bouncing will do it. Not recommended if you don't like pain. 

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 5/3/2012 6:32:23 PM (GMT-6)

Mike- did you get a lot of antibiotics after the 71-72 issues? As you kmow, I once nad a ten year med free remission- one so robust that I really was convinced that my original UC years were a misdiagnosis eg some undetected parasite that was finally ejected or whatever... but I had a strong bout of antibiotics two years in a row during the winter for strep throat and the second year I did that developed IBS for about 4 months and then full blown IBD with blood again after that... So it was the antibiotics that killed my fairy tale. Good reminder for me to floss etc so as to never ever end up with root canals and failed root canals again... But even then I will stay away from antibiotics I think, no matter what they say.

For me, maybe it was the traveler's vaccines that did it.

You know, the Hepatitis A B C , and others. I also had the H1N1/Flu twin vaccine.

Maybe it's the vaccines and antibiotics that did us in. I can't say I took many antibiotics in my life though.

Gut flora....We should start a thread asking if ANYONE does NOT suspect their flora to be at the root of their UC problem. ANYONE? For the record, an inbalance in gut flora that leads to an overabundance of "bad" drug resistant bacteria, is considered an infection.