help. I'm new. make me feel better.

hello. I'll keep the intro short. (im lying) a brief stint in the er today, 8 hrs or so, after doc admitted me due to ibd concerns. bad diarrhea for a week straight, while also being constipated, stomach pains, overall icky feeling stomach. I've had a long history of stomach "issues" but never formally diagnosed with anything, other than SEVERE anxiety, that happens to be fully connected to my stomach, (anytime i have anxiety, which is every day pretty much, diarrhea, or simply having to go to the bathroom usually follows.... usually within minutes) until the Dr. at the er said I had what looked to be ulcerative colitis. they gave me an iv with some fluids, some antibiotics, a couple scripts and sent me on my way. so I prematurely started googling colitis, and of course only the most horrible things about it were staring me in the face. somehow I ended up here, and decided to register for what judging by a lot of these posts, may be the long haul.
this freaks me out. not only did I not have a clue this disease existed, but now I'm reading that it looks like I'm going to be making some serious lifestyle changes. my diet isn't great, I love junk food, energy drinks, sugar sugar sugar. I'm a 33 (I think? we can double check later ;P) y/o male, who's quality of life is already pretty unliveable with the amount of anxiety I deal with. basically, I can't do anything. can't work, can't go out, can't see friends, I literally sit at home all day every day. now I get hit with the icing on the cake- ulcerative colitis.

is it really as bad as I'm reading? am I going to have these awful "flare ups" sending me to the hospital for weeks at a time? am I going to be giving myself daily enemas? I've never even had an enema. it sounds fun. no... actually it doesn't.

doctor appointment next week on Wednesday, its 540am now Saturday. after being released from the ER at around 7pm last night, I was feeling pretty good. came home, had some dinner, then it hit me, all over again. this crapty stomach ache, constantly going to the bathroom and half the time not being able to go, like, its all happening again. what I wouldn't do for a solid nights sleep... ugh. my anxiety is really high right now, so I'm sorry for this long pointless post.

I'm rambling. you will notice I do that. but we might as well lay all the cards out, since we are gonna become besties, all of you and I.

Is there no easy way to deal with this? is there no one time deal, and maybe I'm one of the lucky ones who dealt with it one time, took care of it and now I'm just in remission forever? the things I'm reading are really freaking me out. the signatures stating remission dates, prescription intake, last flare-up, its all really getting to my head. I never expected to find an entire community of people with this, let alone the biggest one on this entire site. I feel like I've just stepped into a new nightmare, that may be taking the front seat to the rest.

tell me... am I going to survive through this?

concerned and scared,
Sean

Did you have a colonoscopy to confirm your UC diagnosis? If not, you need to see a GI and go from there. You can't take the word of an ER doc unless testing has been done.

first with red's response- no, I have not. seeing my regular doctor next week who will also be putting me in contact with a gi- so i imagine the fun starts in that regard soon enough. you could say I'm jumping the gun out of my pessimistic nature, out of anxiety, and out of generally expecting the worst out of my life over the last 10 years or so. even something as simply put as your reply, sort of slaps me back Into reality. true, I have not had the colonoscopy or even talked with my doctor about anything yet. just going on the word of my er doc, who probably saw 60 people yesterday, which conveniently is just about half of his age worth, give or take a few decades, and google. the symptoms are definitely there, but I mean how many different category's do I fit into with internet diagnosed symptoms? let's see... a quick google search of my symptoms and I have cancer, gout, chrons, an inner ear infection and a broken sternum. I see your point. still freaking out, but point taken none the less. :D

to conquer- 27 years old. ****.

I'm sorry if I don't know the rules just yet about language, but until someone corrects me, I'm just gonna let it fly off The top of my head.

Google is my worst enemy and my best friend. I'm sure its like that for everyone. I can guarantee you I have never liked what I've seen after trying to google a symptom lol.. yet here we are.

I couldn't agree more about needing to change my diet. I eat like a 600lb diabetic pie eating contest champion. only thing is I'm barely 140 lbs sopping wet. I've always eaten whatever I wanted. I have an incredibly addictive personality, I'm sure I will rant about that at some point too- but I eat absolute garbage. I've recently self diagnosed myself as lactose intolerant. I take lactaid pills before I eat any kind of dairy. I'm addicted to Ben and Jerry's "Chocolate therapy" ice cream. pint a day for a few solid months now. I'm rambling again. point is, I wish I had listened to the doctors and family telling me my crapty diet would catch up to me. I laughed at them, probably spitting chocolate milk out of my nose onto a plate of cookie butter covered donuts.
enough jokes.
I really appreciate all of your advice and I will try and take all of it into account. i am SO SORRY that you had to go through all of that just 4 weeks after pregnancy :'( what a nightmare.
I've had some pretty crapty things happen in my life thus far. my mother is diagnosed with IBS, and had her colon burst on her about.. I'd say 10-15 years back. it was horrible. I remember thinking of how helpless I felt warching her suffer. she has extreme anxiety as well, and we frequently look to each other for support more and more nowadays.
so FMT- I suppose I should mention it to my doc when I see her next week. as of now I'm taking Zoloft, suboxone, and prilosec for stomach pain more frequently than not lately. is it safe to say I'm not the only one living off imodium?

bottom line is red is right. I need a full work up and diagnosis before I start nailing my coffin. but honestly, uc or not, there is something majorly wrong with my guts, and has been for years. anxiety has kept me from even going to the doctor about it! its only this past year that I've been more serious as to find out what the hell is going on.

fingers crossed.

thanks DMC. I was just about to actually google fmt and was having trouble deciding if I should right now or not. I'm too tired to start crying again :P the last time I cried was in 2007. I dont cry very often. I'm not saying I'm this manly beast of a guy who thinks crying is for sissy's, I'm just saying it takes a lot for my emotions to get the better of me- yet reading some of the things tonight have had the faucets running quite frequently. I'm just scared. I feel so cheated lately and this would really just top it all off.

I'm sympathizing with everyone here- and feeling really guilty for being happy that other people have suffered enough to inform me, and I'm sure to plenty of other people too. I feel for all of you I truly do.

Some good news for you (if in fact a colonoscopy confirms you have UC or Crohn's) you won't die from it. It's not cancer.

Don't waste time being anxious until you know the results of your c-scope.
If you don't have bleeding then your diagnosis might be IBS. Some of us have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) in addition to our UC (which is one of the IBD's-Inflammatory Bowel Disease).
Yes lot's of terminology that you shouldn't bother to learn until you know what you have.

My UC and IBS have both been helped greatly with diet modification. Don't blame yourself for getting any/either because of your diet. I ate a healthy vegetarian diet when I got UC/IBS.

I love Ben&Jerry's too but it causes my gut to meltdown, especially anything with chocolate. For me it's not the lactose (I think) but whatever it is I avoid it. Might be worthwhile to start a food diary and see what foods are co-related to symptoms. Yeah a pain but so are the symptoms.

Calm down, breathe, stop chocolate and caffeine intake for a week (you can do it) and see if things get better. Come back and tell us what your GI said after c-scope.

will do guys thanks for all the feedback. trying to get an earlier appointment next week so I can get in asap and get to the bottom of it.
a food diary is a great idea and seems like a simple enough place to start. I may find some use for this note 4 stylus after all!

just to touch on something gardener said about IBS and bleeding. on occasion, not just recently but thought the last couple years, off and on I've seen blood but only on the paper.
without getting into too much nasty detail, its been more of a dark stool with the consistency of grinded coffee- which I'm told is in fact blood (I think) and that has been present a lot this week. never any solid red tho.. I suppose I should stop speculating and wait for the results.
will update as soon as I get some solid information.

A pint of ice cream a day is enough to make anyone sick! (love your humour btw!)

I'd bet that once you eliminate even 1/2 of the junk food, dairy and sugar you'd feel better; including your anxiety. I wouldn't suggest starting a diet until you've done the research, cleaned out your cupboards and are ready to commit to at least a 3 month trial. It's overwhelming at first and you likely will fall off the wagon, like the rest of us, but it's ok, just get back on again.

However, you could make some small changed now but eliminating bread, pasta and that dang ice cream!

Try reading about the SCD diet. And for now make a home made chicken soup, with really well cooked veggies, mashed bananas with a little honey, rice, eggs, salmon, sweet potato and if you can handle it some plain yogurt. If you have a craving for sweets (and you will) cook some apples (peeled) in a little butter, and add a couple of berries.

once you get stable and have an idea of what's truly going on you may find you can re-introduce or modify some things. For example i make a chocolate "cake" with eggs, chocolate and sugar. Or homemade "ice cream" with frozen berries and egg whites.

It is a very difficult disease and most of what you said resonated with me. I'm sorry you've joined the club:( but support is here. Best advice is become your own advocate. Many people achieve remission and there's no reason you can't too!

"tell me... am I going to survive through this?"


more than likely - but it might be a little bumpy along the way - hang in there


"Uc requires medications for life."


for many people, this statement is true -

but for some, it simply is not -

for some, uc does dictate a change in lifestyle, eating habits, addition of supplements, etc.

and for some, there is spontaneous remission that lasts a lifetime -

with uc, there are no absolutes -

banana- yes ct scan. (I think?) is that where they put the contrast in your iv and slide you through the giant un-edible donut? if so, then that's what they did.
also, with the amount of anxiety I deal with, telling me to take a chill pill and breathe is quite hilarious :P if only it were that easy.

the ER doc also gave me 3 scripts to take home and use for the next couple days til I see me doc. which I started this afternoon.. some stuff for diarrhea and two antibiotics.

my anxiety is at an all time high once again, at 5am. tried sleeping, but my mind is off to the races in a million directions. I have such a headache from lack of sleep :/
I've never really felt sick for this long of a period of time. feels like its never going to end. new symptoms arising every hour it seems like. I NEED SLEEP.

ahh yeah, you had a ct scan. if that showed inflammation, that's not a good sign already.

you're right. this diseases causes a ton of anxiety so i have been there, too. i just know that worrying takes away the peace for the day.

if you're on antibiotics, do you notice a difference in symptoms? even if you don't have c diff (did he check for this?) some people do improve on antibiotic therapy. that would be a good sign for you because your gut might just need very strong probiotics. you should be taking them now because of the antibiotics anyway.

oh yeah. there's this ongoing joke about sleep i've seen. we are so exhausted all the time but when we wanna sleep, we are wide awake. you can basically kiss sleeping goodbye until you get your bowel movements under control. luckily, i'm still alive after getting 1-2 hours of sleep a night for YEARS.

well, formed stool is a good improvement!! hopefully, more doses will ease the other symptoms.

kefir is great. drink up!!! it will help prevent c diff while you are on those antibiotics. you really should buy a probiotic supplement though just to cover your bases. culturelle is great for avoiding c diff and yeast overgrowth as well as renew life advanced immunity. these are both capsules so you won't taste them.

if you are going to the bathroom a lot, the two biggest things i can recommend to slow things down are resistant starches and chia seeds. resistant starches add bulk to your stool and help encourage the growth of good bacteria which you need right now. great sources are baked and cold potatoes (potato salad), rice/tapioca pudding, cold pasta salad, green bananas, green plantains, raw potatoes. chia seeds are HIGHLY absorbant. they absorbed water in the intestines fast and are very helpful for diarrhea. i take 1-2 tbsp a day mixed with 1/2-3/4 cup kefir and let them sit overnight to "bloom."

I do now. Thanks buddy.

;)

Swaz- if you have rotten dead teeth in your jaw then that could be the sources of problems. Teeth are rotten because you have a soup of infection-fungal-parasite-bacteria-spirochette. You do realize that this can go through your entire body. Ask any knee surgeon or heart-they understand that dental infection can go to the knee or heart. No doc in the world leave an untreated infection!
Go to a biological dentist-someone who wont make this worse. Regular dentis usually just see the jaw as mechanical and not part of your body-they refuse to read the last 100 years of research.
If and I said IF that is your cause then a biological dentist can fix it. Expensive sure-some pain but you life with more right now-will take some time.
Just for reference-it was the cause of my stomach problems (I had for years) and it was my cure. Idont miss the days of waking up holding my stomach-being weak-being afraid to go anyplace-weighing 148. Today I am 210-at 6'1 that looks better and most importantly I feel better. FYI-no drugs
This really could be good news-if that is your cause then there is a cure