son newly diagnosed

My 18 yr old son was just diagnosed with severe UC and is on steriods and Remicade. We are doing low residue diet. He is going to go to college, out of state, at the end of summer and needless to say, I am concerned.

Welcome to the forum, but sorry your son suffers from the same bowel issues as we do. Remicade and steroids are both pretty quick-acting medications, and your son should start feeling better in 6-weeks or less, and be able to return to his studies in the fall. Remicade worked well for me, and put my UC into a remission (that is a total absence of UC symptoms) and I hope it works as well for your son.

Ask us anything.

I'd try and stay positive as many of us have an easy to moderate time with our UC. However, I won't sugar-coat UC as it is not all puppy-dog-tails and rainbows, as some of us have a real hell of time with UC.

Sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis. Most people with U.C. lead normal healthy lives, although sometimes it takes a while to tweak the meds and find out what works. In your son's case, I think it is smart for the Doc to treat it aggressively so he can get to college as planned. Has he been prescribed any kind of mesalamine? That is an effective drug for the maintenance of remission and for most people it has very few side effects.

The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America has a good read/watch on lymphoma risks of biologics.
Webcast: programs.rmei.com/CCFA139VL/presentation/player.html
Transcript: http://www.ccfa.org/assets/pdfs/risk-and-benefits-transcript.pdf

The odds are 0.06% versus 0.02% for tge general population assuming he's using combination therapy of an Immunomodulator (imuran/azathioprine or 6mp) with the remicade. A lot of the newer research places the lymphoma blame strictly on the immunomodulators, as the initial remicade studies had zero instances of remicade-only patients getting a lymphoma (only immunomodulators plus remicade simultaneously patients).

Thanks for all the informative responses.
I m so glad I found this group.

Hello:

I understand your concern, my daughter was diagnosed with proctitis when she was 19. She is almost 21 now, college student.

It is a challenge to eat out. Once your son knows what he can eat he might be able to prepare it himself.

She has to be very careful with the foods she eats, and has identified her foods irrritants.

Your son should do the same.

She has always been vegetarian, and has to avoid the following:
Gluten, milk products, acids such as orange lemon, vinegar, black pepper, quinoa, millet, raw vegetables, carrots.

She can have, tofu, white rice, gluten free pasta, polenta, steamed or sauteed vegetables, some beans, potatoes, yams, squash.

She has never taken steroids and now she is doing well.

Indigo naturalis (Qing Dai from Atlanta Acupuncture) helped a lot. It eliminated bloody stools, frequency etc.
Also phyllum husk (in pills from Costco) has helped.
Vitamins as gummies are easier to digest

This is not a commercial, just sharing true facts about my daughter's UC.

I hope it helps.