My story

Ok so I'm 25 I've been in the navy 3 years and I just reenlisted for 6. I loved my life and everything about it. I am very big in to fitness and health nutrition. about a year and a half ago I noticed blood in my stool soon followed by urgent diarrhea immediately after eating. I thought it was just a stomach bug so I dealt with it for a few months and it went away on it's own. A few months later the symptoms returned but with such urgency that a few times I wasn't able to make it to the head. As a 23 year old military member who strives for health and fitness this was one of the worst psychological situations I had ever found myself in. I was big into weight lifting and body building so to see my body deteriorate and lose 25 lbs in a month was so disheartening. I decided enough was enough and I went to the doctors to find out what was wrong. After blood tests biopsies and a colonoscopy I had been confirmed to have Ulcerative colitis. This almost kicked me out if the service had it not been for the fact that I was able to control it with herbal remedies like cayenne pepper, turmeric , and a mainly paleo diet. I was cleared to continue to serve and eventually was stationed forward deployed on the uss Dwight d Eisenhower.
While at sea I was doing quite well. I put weight on fine I was a healthy strong 210 at 5'10". Unfortunately for me sickness on a ship is pretty common so I contracted what's called viral gastroenteritis or VGE. Which a good portion of the ships 5000 strong became afflicted with. This pasted about four days of violent vomiting and deffacation. The worst part was that this episode did something far worse for my situation. It sparked a full on flare up of not just my descending colon like before but pancolitis or my entire colon. Since then about three weeks ago I was medevac'd off the ship and I now weigh 185 with movements 20+ times a day of painful bloody stool that looks like sand. Walking or moving or even just changing position to get comfortable makes me nauseous.
I went to the er and the only escape was narcotics like morphine to stop the pain. I've never even drank a beer or smoked a cigarette now I'm downing 60mgs of prednisone, taking mesalamine enemas and eating tramadol for the pain. I'm almost certainly getting kicked out of the navy over this but more importantly I'm not living anymore. I haven't been able to go to the gym, or be with my fiancée or enjoy good which I love to cook and eat so much. It's really eating away at me emotionally and I'm not responding to the treatments anymore which is even scarier. I don't want to become weak and feeble from all the prednisone side affects and I don't want to live with this pain. Surgery is looking more and more likely. I guess I'm just looking for answers or advice or anything really. Thank you for your time.

I was diagnosed with UC while at USMC bootcamp, so I wasn't able to finish due to constant blood in stool and urgency.

Careful man, look up cushing syndrome images, that is a side effect of the pred you are using.

Man oh man, if you want to drop me your email/phone maybe we can chat?

Thanks and yea I'm definetly at a low mainly because I'm a firm believer that if there's a will there's a way. I was a fat unathletic kid that got picked on growing up so I lost 70 lbs and worked hard to stay in shape. I did what it took regardless of how hard it was. This is different and frustrating because even though I changed my diet, followed the rules essentially to beat this thing I'm still in constant pain and agony relying on drugs to feel normal. It just doesn't make sense

I am determined I want to beat this thing. I just can't seem to get a foothold. Right now walking from my bed to the freezer for a pedialyte freeze pop is enough to make me nauseous and sit in the toilet for thirty minutes until I can walk back to my bed to lay down in pain and more nausea. Reading out loud and talking makes me nauseous. At least I wish I could do something that would start the turn around process

Hey Bud,

You can click me and look at the few topics I posted, mainly my intro. I was in the marines for 6 years, on my 4th and final deployment to Afghanistan in 2010 I had the same symptoms. I limped through it and stayed in shape and shrugged off all the BM's, blood and pain. I went to medical and they did a flex sig and said I had proctitis. I never went back and my symptoms worsened, I didn't want to be sent back until my det was fine. Well the lack of treatment made it worse. After about a year I went into remission and then flared and have been battling it since. I hate the meds and try the diets, it's just a different beast.

The best thing I can tell you is that you're not alone. Keep up hope and keep fighting. If surgery becomes the answer then so be it there are tons of people on here and the ostomy forums who seem to have a great quality of life. These forums help me a lot too. Especially in the middle of the night when I'm sitting on the toilet.

Good luck and stay motivated.

Ps - if/when you do get discharged make sure you go through the proper channels for disability and treatment through the VA (also another beast). If you have any questions regarding military or VA stuff just send me a PM.

I have read about c-diff here, have you been tested for that?

Thanks Meredith. I definetly need to learn more about all the surgical options. I love my job in the navy. I am a nuclear operator and I want to learn and do it as long as I can so if I could stay in that would definetly be ideal. Did you have surgery ? If that's ok asking

I know! I heard people talk about it here so I looked it up. Now I am a germaphobe! Glad you don't to!

Yea raptor it's just normalcy I want. It kills me that I'm not limited my by will or my want to train and fight and mold myself into what I want I'm instead limited by the way my stomach feels. This flare has been the worst I've experienced. For example I said I weighed 210 my arm measurement around was 17" 1/5. Now three weeks of eating nothing but well the inside of my colon? And I weigh 185 with 15.5" arms. It took me two years to get there had only three weeks to fall back. I want to see gains and hit numbers that I feel like now are un reachable. I hope we are both around and young enough when the world beats this disease so that we can train till they shut the lights off.

Ask away! No, I have not yet had surgery. But I have been researching my options for a few years as I was diagnosed with this disease at 12 years old and I'm now 29. After 17 years of dealing with this disease and now wanting more from my life with my husband and 3-year old and 10-month old daughters, I have the BCIR surgery set for June 28th. If you'd like to send me a pm, I'd be happy to share with you whatever you'd like to know about it. Basically, I will be having my colon and rectum removed and a small, internal pouch with a flush-to-the-skin internal stoma will be made using the last couple feet of my small intestine and ileum. I will be able to intubate with a catheter on average 3 times a day at my own leisure (once upon getting up from bed in the am, once during the day when I see fit, and right before I go to bed). If you're wanting to see what is possible with something like the BCIR and k-pouch, check out Michael Nelson's youtube channel (see link below). He's a bit of a meathead, showboating, gym-nut (I can say that, I used to date one). LoL, but you'll get a reference for what is possible. Again, surgery is something that is a HIGHLY personal decision that only you can decide if you are ready for. I've dealt with this beast for 17 years and I'm ready for something else. I know that I'm trading in one set of issues for another, but at this point in my life, I am at peace with the trade-off. I wish you nothing but the best and thank you for your service to our country! And again, feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions about surgery (my email address is listed in my profile). I'm an open book! http://www.youtube.com/user/bcir?feature=mhee

Navy and Rabbit,

Really sorry to hear about your situations. And the massive impact it has had on your careers.

I'm curious to know during your lifting you've mentioned bodybuilding supplements. Did either of you take Creatine? I guess you probably did as it's one of the most common and one (of many) that has a reputation for facilitating great gains.

My curiosity stems from a common pattern I've seen and experienced myself. I've lifted previously and taken creatine and it made me flare. I think it can affect a small minority of people who take it by contributing (maybe even causing? - I have no evidence of that) to bowel issues like UC. Wondering if you guys like me are part of that small % of creatine users that have had issues.

I've quizzed a few people in the past who have posted on here after saying they were lifting bodybuilding etc and had UC flares. One common denominator has been Creatine. I've seen it referenced on bodybuilding forums etc as well.

Anyway I hope you get through this journey with UC.

Post Edited (Jimbo NZ) : 6/3/2013 5:57:31 PM (GMT-6)

Bad colon,

Yea I can totally see how extreme diets could make things worse its something I need to get more info on so I can get more natural and clean in my body building and workout regiments.

Jimbo

Hey man yea I took mono hydrate from optimum nutrition which helped mostly just for muscle lubrication retention and strength gain from the water held in the large and medium muscle bundle sections. I have been cycling in and off for years with no pattern related to my flares. I took a log of each supplement to track and see if any had an effect and to be honest none have. It's always been caused by a sickness. Like a bad stomach bug that lead to a flare. Or to be honest my divorce that cause emotional strain that led to a small short lived flare. But nah supplements as of yet haven't hurt me they've kept me healthy and provided me with much needed nutrients.