Fecal Transplant Log Part II

Could you use someone else than your 6y old daughter as donor? its been shown that the bacterial flora matures in the teens of most people and men have a slightly stronger flora than women

Hi Everyone

Just a quick status update on my journey to eradicate ulcerative colitis. My last post was Jan 28, 2013 where I said that I was at 10mg prednisone/day with 1 or 2 normal bowel movements/day and I'm eating whatever I want (including wheat-based breads and such). I had started taking a supplement called Curcumin as a precautionary measure since I flared last October after my first set of FT's while trying to go under 20mg/prednisone/day.

By Feb 23, 2013, I was down to 5 mg prednisone/day but starting to have some flare-up effects such as liquidy and cloudy bowel movements. I think that eating the wheat-based products over a prolonged period was causing some setbacks so I went back to safe foods only. I also started to feel full body muscle and joint pain, something I had not necessarily experienced before. Between Mar 9 - 23, 2013, I had an additional 8 fecal transplants, holding each in for a minimum of 6 hours, but these had no noticeable effects. By Mar 10, 2013, I was COMPLETELY OFF PREDNISONE and all other formal medications for the first time since about 2001 (I had been on varying and high doses of prednisone since Oct 2008). On Mar 25, 2013, I started experiencing a widespread itchy rash covering my back and upper arms. By Apr 1, 2013, I had been experiencing classic symptoms of prednisone withdrawal such as a) general body weakness and fatigue, b) muscle weakness, c) body aches, d) joint pain, e) flaky and peeling skin. I asked my internal specialist for some form of pain relief and his answer (through his receptionist) was that he didn't prescribe narcotics and so I should just take some advil and try to get through it. Since the pain was quite present and constant, I was able to get a prescription for Tylonel 3 from my family doctor. So much for support from my specialist.

Apr 2, 2013, I started taking ALIGN PROBIOTICS, 1 Pill/Day along with the Curcumin. By Apr 17, 2013, my bowel movements were getting back to normal. I had tried some wheat-based bread and Honey Bunches of Oats cereal along the way with disastrous results. So now I am definitely staying away from them until I understand what food intolerances and allergies I have.

Apr 27, 2013 - COLONOSCOPY DAY. Doctor states that although the results are a little bit better, I still have severe ulcerative colitis. But my bowel movements are fine without the classic flare-up symptoms (if I stay away from certain foods). When I asked him about this and the new symptoms I have been experiencing (itchy rash, full body pain, fatigue that I attributed to prednisone withdrawal), he said that the new symptoms were also attributed to my ulcerative colitis. Excuse my language, but ***? I think that my new symptoms are a result of my ADRENAL GLAND not yet functioning appropriately since the prednisone has been doing it's job for the past 4 1/2 years. The adrenal gland is responsible for producing Cortisol and balancing the effects of allergic reactions determining when the immune system attacks foreign bodies in the body. If the adrenal glands are not working properly and no natural cortisol is being produced, then the immune system will attack everything - hence my rash, full body pains due to inflammation, and perhaps even the visual effects of ulcerative colitis in my colon.

ANYBODY'S THOUGHTS?

Status: currently in a state of remission (?) since Nov 11, 2012
Diet: eating anything I want, except for wheat-based breads/cakes/pies, cereals, sauces, chocolate, etc. and all of the things that used to exacerbate my condition.
Medication: NONE
Supplement: 500mg Curcumin 2-3 times daily, 1 "Align Probiotics" daily.
FT: Performed Fecal Bacteriotherapy at home using my wife as donor from Aug 6-18 for 9 days, then again from Oct 13 - Nov 9 for 18 days, then again from Dec 21-30 for 7 days, then again from Mar 9-23 for 8 days (total of 42 days of transplant over 8 months).

That's great curled. Yesterday my naturopath asked me whether I'd recommend FTs given that it seems to have helped my UC but worsened my IBS. I told him, I wouldn't recommend it as its made things more difficult for me (where'as before, my only problem was ensuring I took my meds, now it's actually worrying where a toilet is everytime after I eat).

Everyone is different but I became worse because of FTs, unfortunately.

Yes there are still a lot of question marks around when FT works and when it doesn't and then we also have the nature of the treatment being so variable which is giving us different results. A lot of it probably comes from the fact that UC is more of a common set of symptoms than a common disease (I think).

I'm quite strict on my diet, the main points being not eating gluten products and staying away from complex carbs as much as possible. I did however become quite sceptical to the SCD diet and its theories after coming to understand that most fruit also contains sucrose which they argue against eating. You will for example consume lots of sucrose if you eat apricots, which they say is legal.

My diet is quite simple, I stay away from pasta, rise, bread and anything containing wheat based products as well as soy and chocolate. I don't drink milk any longer but I do eat yoghurt for breakfast and cheese slices sometimes

I eat meat, fish, mussles, veggies and all kinds of fruit. I drink whiskey instead of beer. I drink quite a lot of coffee and tea. I eat nuts or dried fruit as snacks

Hi Curl,

I've recently read your threads and am very impressed with your success and your hard work of providing information to other people who suffer from UC.

I have UC for 13 yrs now. At the moment I control it with diet and probiotics. The SCD could never work for me as I cannot eat nuts, seeds, lentils, beans (only green beans), gluten, dairy, millet, corn, citrus fruit and anything of the animal apart from honey, eggs and chicken. Strangely unlike others I am ok with spices, sugar and fat. Carbohydrates such as potatoes and rice (brown or white) never upset my guts.

I just wondered, what happens when you do take gluten, starches or sugar now, after you've achieved remission.

Thanks a lot. Your story and dedication to update us is a great inspiration to us all.

Just wanted to bump my old FT thread for all newcomers who have not read it, just to help spread the word on FT a bit. I am still enjoying remission.

Hi Hopesup and sorry about the late reply. When I went through the literature on bacterial flora of the gut I found that most evidence pointed to that the gut flora was developed until the late teens and that adult men have a slightly stronger gut flora than adult women. I don't remember where I read this (I went through a LOT of articles at this stage) but you should be able to find some info by Googling around.

I'm quite sceptical to the SCD diet as a whole being some sort of magical solution but what I do believe is that you can help a person in flare by removing some of the sugars that gets passed into the colon as the sugar will act like petrol on a fire. By that said you need to be careful about not just accepting what they write about sugars on face value as some fruit actually contain both sacrose and fructose (like apricots) and are still ok according to SCD. If I were to do this again then I would cut down my sugar intake dramatically while in a flare and just try to keep the diet really clean, like omelette with veggies and fish with veggies.

My wife was not on a SCD diet, she ate porridge for breakfast to get enough fibres to produce enough volume for the transplants.

There's also suggestions to start increasing the fibre and carb intake when you have started the FMT but I really think the studies are quite vague and weak to really make any conclusions.

I'm still in remission! I wish a good christmas to everybody!

I'm locking this due to length. If you wish to discuss this more please create a new thread. Thank you!