Hi all. I Did fecal transplant and in remission!

Hey Healingwell community,

about a month ago I visited Dr. Lawrence Brandt of Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, Ny. I just couldn't get into remission. I have been living with this disease for about two years, this past summer after another round of prednisone, I felt helpless. My gastro locally explained that Dr. Brandt is the chief of gastroenterology in the United States, he referred to him as a legend. I was definitely not sold on fecal transplant, not only of the icky part, but read up that it might or might not help people with UC. Well, after waiting about two months for a consultation, I met with Dr. Brandt and what a guy! Very straight forward and with a wonderful personality, he explained how fecal transplant has been helping people with gastro intestinal disorders tremendously. Brandt explained that the donor must not have taken any antibiotics within the last 3 months, no piercings in the last year, and other strict rules which I forget but my mother did qualify. She was tested, we were a match and here comes mommy to the rescue again! He explained that I should see results in a month or more, which all depended on how inflamed my colon was. He also explained that this works extremely well for people who are new with this disease and by new, he meant 3 years or less. So I set up a colonoscopy and he performed the first transplant that morning of the procedure. I was on my own after that and yes I still am in the process of transplanting right in my own home.

I saw results in four days as oppose to his month. Now I went from very loose, bloody stools six to eight times a day, into perfectly formed stools. Bowel movements with no pain at all, no urge to go to the bathroom and shockingly, no odor. His protocol is extremely simple and I will provide it for you all. I highly recommend trying this, better yet seeing Dr. Brandt personally. It is a very individual disease, some treatment may or may not work for others, I am just sharing that this has worked miracles.

Brandts Protocol which Dr. Borody is now following : Stool mixed with a saline solution or regular filtered water (ex. poland spring) until it looks like chocolate milk. Now put this wonderful mix, through a strainer and into an empty fleet enema bottle.

Once (or twice) daily for a week. You can take larger amounts if tolerated; to some extent the more you put in the better.
Every other day for 2 weeks.
Once weekly for 2 weeks.
Once every other week for a month.
Monthly maintenance.

Any questions feel free to ask me. I will be browsing around the forum again to help anyone in need. We are in this battle together, keep fighting! According to Dr. Brandt, I was told us "UC" sufferers are only a couple years away from receiving very good treatment for this disease.

All the best,
Rami

I would be more interested to know what factors you think got you a good result. had you previously had any response from probiotics? How bad was your flare? How much of your colon involved? Someone here was turned down because their flare was too bad. Also, some here have administered dozens of daily FT to self or kids and not seen remission - maybe just some stool improvement.

It clearly does not work for everyone, and help in identifying those who it is most likely to work for - well that would be very valuable.

@Conquer UC - Honestly, I dont know what tests he did in order to tell me my mother was a match. I assume he did check for parasites, as that would be the logical thing to do, instead of infusing parasites into me. We both took stool tests and submitted them to the hospital. I then received a phone call saying that my mom can qualify as a donor.

@DBwithUC & Gary - My flare was moderate-severe and so was my colon. At the time Brandt performed the colonoscopy , I was awake the entire time and he explained that my UC is moderate-severe. This was 3 weeks ago. I have pan colitis, however my lower track is more severe then the rest of the colon, coming from the biopsies. I have tried Probiotics and was on VSL 3 Double strength for about 6 months in 2011. That didn't help at all. Last year I was on prednisone for a month, which kicked me into remission for about 3 months, then it came right back while I was on a strict diet and taking loads of supplements (including the VSL3 DS). The meds that I have tried and failed are Lialda, Colozal, Hydrocort enemas (which worked quite well for a short period of time), Apriso, a steroid that supposedly is not absorbed (forget the name), Prednisone and Rowasa enemas. I have never tried 6mp which according to Brandt was a great drug. He did explain that it takes about two months to work, but with fecal transplant I could possibly see faster results. So I was basically trying to gain remission since january of this year. I did notice in April when I took an antibiotic for the course of 5 days to fight off strep throat, I instantly became worse. That took about a month to recover from going to the bathroom 20+ times a day, back to my usual 6-8.

It does not work for everyone with UC, which is extremely confusing however, this is a cure for people with C-diff. That is a fact. Clearly this has been this best treatment for UC I have ever received, which mind boggles me even more. I wish I knew what factors got me a good result, because I too had extreme doubts about this, praying at night, that it would work. Probiotics did not help at all, but this did? Also, in 4 days I was in a complete remission to a point where I feel completely normal? We are made up of bacteria. We have much more bacteria in us as humans, then cells. There is no doubt that something in my mothers stool is "helping me".......

Post Edited (ramaNYC) : 8/30/2012 6:04:29 PM (GMT-6)

This is great news!  Discover magazine (Oct 2012 issue) has a write-up on this very subjuct.  Others have done this and gone into complete remission. I saw posts on this board dating back to 2009. Hope they are still in remission.

Lets hope all our docs worldwide get on board with this treatment.

Thank you all!

@ Itsalive! - Nice! Im looking forward to reading that article so thanks for the heads up.

@ Old Mike - I agree with your theory and it makes sense. I know Dr. Borody was doing something similar to this from what I have read. According to Brandt, he disagrees with the use of antibiotics because for us "UC" patients it can evidently hurt us.

Hi Rami! So happy to hear you feel well and that FT's are helping! I have been doing ft's since March and do a transplant every 2 weeks..I could probably go longer now but I love feeling so well, so I am nervous to taper down more. I do use it as maintenance and have been given the go ahead to taper my Aza(Imuran), I no longer do enemas of any kind and am only taking Asacol for prevention of colon cancer not for remission. I would rather do FT enemas than so m any drugs for maintenance as they were wanting to put me on Remicade next. I also got better very quickly..I have had UC for 17..might be 18 now. I am just so happy to hear of your success! Good Luck to you!

Donna

Great to hear from another FTer! Thanks for sharing your experiences! I'm still a firm believer in FT as a therapeutic method. Still in remission after completing mine and feeling great so far.

gary, mike, & db - just curious - have any of you tried ft - and if not, why ?

Won't rule it out, but not yet.

Reasons:
1) I don't have c.diff, 2) I wanted to try oral probiotics 1st, 3) all published studies have great news for c.diff and only very weak evidence for idiopathic UC, 4) many discrepancies in anecdotal accounts, 5) best results seem to be with colonscopy not enema, 6) I am improving (frustratingly slow at times) on 5asa, 7) there are about 50 other things I have not tried yet, and some of these have more evidence support

That said, my questions/focus were to the point given the mixed results folks get. Answers to questions such as I posted above could potentially move FT up in my list.

although i've only done it a few times, i can't rule out that it may have been of some benefit - i don't know -

when contemplating a new direction or protocol in my treatment of this stuff, i try to weigh the cost vs potential benefit - in the case of ft, my son was the donor, i spent less than five dollars on equipment, and the time invested was minimal depending on the time of day it was administered -

i guess what i'm trying to understand is why don't more people give it a go - the chance for any significant damage seems pretty low -

trying to find definitive answers in the search for wellness from this elusive affliction ? i don't have the time - just gotta do it sometimes - especially when the starting price is a bargain -

and who doesn't like like shooting things up the butt ?

great to see another FT'er doing well. I'm still here and hanging around Feeling great not having any problems with my tummy at all. I'm pretty certain I'll be flaring at some point again and I'm also pretty sure I'll be doing FT when I flare again. I'm a firm believer in this method for getting into remission.

I'm still eating a restricted diet but I am becoming more and more skeptical about the SCD diet but that is an entirely different subject.

I might give it another shot, as I tried with Brandt too. We're you on steroids when tou did it? If not how bad was you flare at the time of the transplant. I was unable to retain mine. I think I lost most of it in recovery. I tried at home too, with my daughter, 8. I thought he Sid the older the better so I am wondering about the three and a half year old.

Definitely, why not.