My intro

Hi everyone, I hope I'm writing this in the right place.

My UC story is pretty crazy but so far I'm still here and in tact so I guess that's saying something. I am hoping that I can get some advice from people about what to do next because I have some problems that I'm not sure how to fix.

I was on Entyvio for most of this year but I had to stop recently because in one of my stool samples they found aeromonas hydrophila, blastocystis hominis, and some other bacteria that didn't belong there. My infectious disease specialist thinks that the Entyvio made it possible for this stuff to thrive because normally aeromonas is fought off quickly in healthy people. I was getting painful, frequent bloody stools while on Entyvio and couldn't figure out why so thank god there was a reason. Weird thing is that my stools were solid the whole time, no diarrhea, which isn't my usual UC.

So they stopped Entyvio and I'm supposed to get more coming up next week. They put me on three antibiotics, which were tinidazole, septra, and paromomycin. I'll be re-tested soon but I feel better in my guts, and my stools are the best quality they've been in years!! Still frequent though (like 6-7 times a day), and there is rectal bleeding, but the main UC stuff seems to be OK.

I'm really confused about a couple of things.

One is... could it be possible that my IBD was caused by parasites? If so, maybe I could recover now? What worries me is that maybe my body has gotten used to being this way and even if the infections are gone this is now a habit of my immune system. Does that make sense? A lot of people with IBS seem to get better when they treat parasites but I don't have much info on IBD sufferers.

The other thing is, I'm really anemic. I have no iron left in my body. Even though my inflammation seems to be close to zero, according to blood work and a CT scan, I'm just not absorbing iron. I eat high iron foods every day like canned oysters and beef, but my blood level keeps dropping and I keep having to get blood transfusions. It's really annoying and stressing me out. I can't take oral iron, last time I tried it made me flare, so my doc is also afraid to do IV iron for the same reason.

Anyone here have experience with anemia and UC? Just what are my options? I am tired of feeling exhausted all the time and I don't know how to coax my body into absorbing it. What confuses me the most is, I thought UC only affects the colon so I don't get why iron absorption is a problem.

After those antibiotics I'm taking a lot of probiotics, like VSL#3, kefir, and sauerkraut. My other concern is that maybe now that I have wiped my guts clean of all bacteria, that might cause other problems.

Just don't know anymore... there doesn't seem to be a huge pattern emerging.

Sorry I know I'm asking a lot of stuff here. If anyone has some advice about anything I've said or something else please chime in!!

Hope you're all having a good day wherever you are.

We're more prone to gut infections/bacterial overgrowth due to our uc and biologics like entyvio. So, I'd agree with DB that this infection was a secondary thing that developed after your uc diagnosis.

I always thought I had a parasite or something along those lines, but it persisted after all sorts of treatments. I think you have to wait and see how it goes, but as DB said, the pathology usually tells the story. You had the UC and you were on entyvio, so you must have been on other drugs, and been struggling with this for quite a while. I am hoping it's something curable for you!

It absolutely can. Without enough oxygen in your tissues, healing is definitely depressed. I highly recommend Iron IV infusions to get your blood levels back to normal.

Pay special attention to your hemoglobin count. It should be between 13.5 to 17.5. Most of suffering from anemia have numbers way below 10. And take a close look at your ferritin stores. Please let us know what your numbers end up. And I hope you feel better soon. Low iron levels can cause lots of frustrating symptoms and low energy levels.

Blood transfusions get your iron counts up the quickest, but you need to be the hospital to get them. The idea behind the iron IV infusions is you can get them outside of the hospital. And unless you are bleeding heavily, the iron infusions will keep your levels where the need to be and counteract any minor bleeding.