Suggestions: Other than Bone broth soup & Slippery elm?

This flare came on fast, and hard. When my parents visited in september, I was becoming comfortable assuming what menu items had or did not have gluten. I definitely made a few slip ups and that week, and was dealt some pretty crapty cards as a result. Not a lot of pain, just a lot of poo. Things have slowly been getting worse. And especially through the last week.

My last flare was in February and what I truly believe got me out of that flare, was having a tsp of slippery elm nightly, before bed, along with prayer.

Things have been steady ever since, until June, I noticed things slowly going downhill. This is the first time, i'm not stressing about this flare, i choose not to, but I feel like i've run out of options. The only thing that makes me feel good is my own homemade bone broth soup.

I'm considering ordering more Inflaguard, taking Cats claw, Slippery elm 3x a day, bone broth soup for my meals... ugh. Makes no sense how I can be alright for a quite a long time, then have this happen again.

Any ideas? Any remedies or supplements that you swear by through your next chapter?

Why not get back on the supplements if they were helping? I would... I have asked that question so many times "why all the sudden". I think this illness is just one where it can flare up at any time without warning. It doesn't matter if you've been rock solid for years, it can still rear it's very ugly head... That's great that you've been able to manage the symptoms on natural treatments. Try to think positive and increase the supplements and see how it goes. Of course, there is a point where you may have to experiment with medicine but i'd cross that bridge when I come to it. Of course soup and supplements would be preferable to anyone over pills.

The most widely acclaimed fire extinguishers for flares on this forum are rectal meds such as Rowasa enemas. I would use them if I weren't allergic to 5-ASAs.

I refuse to take the "big gun" meds. That leaves me with supplements and alternative cures. Luckily I find that powdered psyllium seed mixed with probiotics works wonders.

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=2152224

aint that the truth !

there's another guy on this forum, I wont mention his name (garyloovill) for fear of reprimand , who also makes those statements - " I have ibs and I would never use those scary, really scary drugs" !

I think he made that claim about pred, which he is now taking -

 

Thanks for the help.

Babeinthewoods, I've been thinking about adding psyllium husk/powder for a while. How do you take it? I imagine right now, it'd be too much roughage for a raw-gut, yeah?

I literally woke up at 2am, emptied myself and looked at the clock, saying "this is bad, i haven't ever had this since my beginning of UC in 2011". We were out of toilet paper in both bathrooms, so I had to quietly exit the apartment without noise, and risk being mugged to go fetch some TP from the local Parkers. What a riot.

On a side note, i've found that anytime I have cramps or pain, I just press my thumb against my index finger and it distracts the pain from my gut.

In order to relieve stomach pain I would chew DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice) capsules about 20-30 minutes before eating food. Chew well before swallowing because in order to be effective it must interact with saliva. I came upon this solution because I thought my pain originated from ulcers. It turns out that I had UC and this worked during my last flare.

I still take DGL sometimes. Last week I had pain and bleeding symptoms for a day or so after eating broccoli. DGL snuffed out the pain so I could get some sleep.

During my last major flare I regularly took DGL 20 minutes before bedtime to avoid waking up in the middle of the night with somach pain. And do not use the 'tasty' DGL that contains sorbitol and fuctose. I find that these flavorings aggravate my stomach. I use Nature's Plus which is in capsules and probably not meant to be chewed, but at least it is pure.

Later I found out that the Chinese are researching DGL licorice as a cure of ulcerative colitis.

BTW I never thought the soluble fiber in psyllium seed was hard on my gut no matter how badly I was flaring. I take it the same way you take slippery elm, in a little juice or water with some probiotics.

"I apologize for my earlier glib response to you. I know as well as anyone how lucky I am to have such a mild form of this disease that it can be controlled by diet and supplements. I feel really bad for some of the others here.

Guys like us really know our backs are against the wall when we are desperate enough to begin taking enemas. LOL"

lolol enemas...btw, don't worry, I don't get offended easily. Whenever I surf the internets I gotz my shields up. I zing people also lol.

I'm in the midst of my worst flare, after having nearly reached remission with natural remedies. Still doing my old routine but now on pred. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but as you all are saying here, when your back is against the wall you'll do what you have to. I hope to taper soon and with a new GI find a better plan when I move in two weeks. This thread appealed to me because I do drink bone broth daily. I think it's been a good boost to my overall immune system and beyond this flare I've been feeling really healthy and no colds, etc since starting to have some daily a few months ago. Good luck to you as you work to find some relief.

Somedude... thanks for saying it.

When people say things like they refuse to take biologics... it's like saying I am a lesser person because I am.

Trust me... I didn't want to end up on the medication that I am, but my options were:

1) Move on to "the big guns."
2) Have my colon removed.
3) Die.