Yes. this "
location question" is very important. The rectum is sometimes also referred to as distal colon because it is at the far end.
In UC inflammation almost always begins at the rectum and works up. It is very rare to have right-side inflammation and none in the transverse, left, sigmoid, or rectum. In fact, this is almost always a sign of Crohns instead of UC. Crohns can occur in the small intestine and cecum.
But, given you urgency, I think something got garbled and your inflammation is at the rectum end. If you have inflammation any further up than half-way up the left colon, rectal-only will not cut it. You will need oral to reach higher up.
Also, while FT done many times over months has some success in published case-studies of UC and there is now a clinical trial ongoing in Canada, the remarks above were grossly overstated.
GutZilla said...
One thing that has not been mentioned is that FMT is a strong candidate (imho) for curing UC. No, it's not been proven in double-blind placebo-controlled studies. But there is enough information avaialble, and enough stories of success, to make this something worth considering. Dr Briggs started a thread wherein he recounts his story of remission (at the least) or being cured (at least, this is our hope).
It is a candidate, but not a STRONG one. Clinical evidence has been very weak and mixed.
There is some information available, there is NOT "enough" information available.
There are SOME stories of success and
just as many (if not more) stories of no success. It may be worth considering if more promising options all fail, or there is more promising information coming out of the Canadian clinical trial.
I won't even get into the bug-a-boo of remission vs cure.
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The thing is that many folks here think that there is only a small difference between encouraging anecdotal reports and clinical trials. They speak like "we know" and having a trial is only a technicality at best. -- Well the difference is enormous. Vast difference. It is never clear if the success stories were a placebo effect, the effect of other concurrent medications, or resulted because the person had c.diff infectious colitis on top of (or instead of) UC. You just don't know with anecdotes.
We do know that when this has been scientifically studied, that FT seems to work very well for c.diff colitis, and that FT may work in some cases of UC when the procedure is repeated a lot over months (e.g., some case reports were weekly for 6 months.)
Any account (or even medical case study) of UC put into remission with only 1 or 3 treatments is either anecdotal, or about
20 years old and coming form only 1 doctor's practice.
I will watch the FT research with interest. It is a kind of probiotic therapy, and there is plenty of reason to believe that probiotic therapies may play a large role. But when I see FT, or supplements, or a new drug, or anything overstated or misrepresented, I try to make a comment for the record.