In remission without meds, but smoking

Hi everyone, really hoping that someone out there has some insight, and wisdom to help me get through this. I had been a former smoker (fairly heavy for 15 years) quit about 2+ years ago when I was pregnant with my first child. When I was pregnant with my second, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Proctitis in my second trimester. One month after my son was born, I had an out of control flare - 20x a day BM, blood, mucous, and severe abdominal pain. Colonoscopy confirmed that I now had Pan-Ulcerative Colitis - son was born June 2020, new diagnosis July 2020.

Desperate, as the Prednisone hadn't kicked in yet, I started smoking again. I was prescribed Apriso, and Humira. Two weeks before starting Humira, my symptoms were gone! Crazy - going from feeling like I was going to die, and back to normal within a few months. It has been almost a month since I have taken any medication and I am still symptom free (calprotectin level was 27!). I feel great, but have intense concern about smoking. I am going to quit. No question there - but fear another flare.

Anyone have this experience? I understand there is a relationship between UC and smoking, but am hopeful that when I quit, I will remain in remission.

Anybody quit smoking (a second time) and remain in remission with minimal to no meds?

I have heard that some people can remain in remission with smoking no more than 2 or 3 cigarettes per day. I am not sure how the minimal health risks with smoking so few cigarettes compares with taking Humira. But maybe you need many more cigarettes to achieve remission, or it might be hard to smoke a only a couple of cigs a day without sliding down the slippery slope of craving more and more cigarettes.

Are you still on Prednisone? Pred is great short term but there are some serious side effects if you become dependent on it long term.

Some former smokers do find some UC flare relief from restarting smoking. Obviously, smoking had it's risks which you must factor in. You could try switching to vaping or nicotine patches which are a bit safer. Better still if you can quit and remain with little symptoms. I wish I could promise it'll work. Nobody knows or can predict what will happen. Only trial will tell.

Smoking tends to thicken the defensive mucosa layer of the intestines. UC patients usually have thin and perforated mucosa which causes a lot of our issues.

For me smoking always put me into remission the only crazy thing was I didn’t realize it at the time . I was a social smoker or a summer time only smoker so I didn’t put the two together for years.
For me stress was ALWAYS my trigger I suffered 6 episodes of flares ups from the age of 23-40 now that doesn’t sound a lot but each one lasted anywhere between 18 months to 2 years . It wasn’t till after my dad passed away in 2010 did I realize the key was smoking , which I had been doing for about a year before that. And for some reason my colitis didn’t come back that time which to date then was the most stressful time I had ever experienced.

Fast forward 6 years I had quit smoking 4 years previously 2012. It was June 2016 my mom was diagnosed with cancer and within 3 days I was fully back into my UC pouring blood couldn’t hold one single BM more then 5 mins 20 BM a day etc... I had been in remission for 9 years not a drop of blood and the stress of my mom did that to me all within days .
Now here is where I say “ if I was smoking back then would I be ok today “ now l hate “what ifs “but I can’t help to wonder since looking back each time stress hit and I was smoking no UC the times I stopped smoking due to the season ( it’s cold in Canada i rarely lite up ) my UC came back during my stressful times .
I lost my mom 4 weeks after her being diagnosed and then due to the stress I almost lost my life 5 months later due to how sick I was , and 5 weeks after being in the hospital they finally removed my colon .

Now I am not here to say “Smoking will save you “ or “ quit and take your chances “
What I have come to realize is we are all different regarding our UC and the most important thing to consider is listen to your body you know it well and go from there.
To back up the proof of just how different we are when it comes to UC my sister has the same disease ( UC ) and we have always had different symptoms and reacted differently to stress and smoking . And one of us still has their colon .
So do what’s right for you take into consideration peoples stories and find a doctor that is willing to listen to you without judgment because he/she doesn’t believe smoking may or may not help .
Did you try the patch ?
And good luck 🙏

Longtime vaper here (10+yrs). Ten months after quitting cigs after 35yrs, I flared badly for the first time. I'd reduced my nicotine level to zero percent at that time. Didn't know if it was that or just quitiing in general but I increased my nic level just in case. Progressed to Lialda+enemas and was good for 2yrs until I got uncontrollable diarrhea and ended up on Remicade.
Was starting to use a special nicotine base with something called WTA which added more tobacco additives than what normal vaping liquids have. Experiment has ended due to fed regulations on vaping and company closing. Due to such extreme regs coming down the pike recently against vaping, might have to quit and then I'll see if it was helping at all. NOT looking forward to that and would really hate to return to cigarettes.