First time poster with Ulcerative Colitis

Hi everyone,

I'm a long time lurker but first time poster here. I'm 26 and I was diagnosed at age 14 with Crohns Disease by my first Gastroenterologist and was in remission for about 1 year until I flared uncontrollably and he could not get me back into remission. After about 2 years of suffering I went to a different Gastroenterologist who is still the same one I have to this day and he stated that I do not have Crohns but rather Ulcerative Colitis. He put me on Asacol, Entocort, and Prednisone which he later tapered me off of which put me into remission for about 3 years until I flared again. We tried Lyalda which gave me hives but put me into remission for about 4 years. After 4 years of having no symptoms I caught C-Diff which was terrible since it not only sent me into a flare up but it was a chronic infection of the intestines as well. After about 1 year suffering with this and going through Cipro, and Flagyl, he put me on Imuran and cort enemas which held me in remission up until just about 2 months ago. I just got through my worst flare yet which I was hospitalized for 2 days since the pain was literally debilitating and I almost needed a blood transfusion from the loss of blood. I had a colonoscopy so he could see the damange and he stated that the disease has spread from my descending colon to the entire colon and he couldn't even get his scope into the ascending colon due to the swelling being so bad. He currently has me on 1200mg of Asacol 3 times per day, 100mg of Imuran at bed time, 40mg of Prednisone first thing in the morning, and Remicade infusions that started 3 days ago. I was extremely terrified of Remicade due to the stories I've heard about it but I know someone that I work with that has been in remission 8+ years from it as well. I went along with the Remicade treatment and within 24 hours my stool had NO blood, and the diarrhea was subsiding. Day 2 after the infusion and the swelling was almost completely gone. Here I am 3 days later at 99% remission with no bloated feeling, no pain, and only some discomfort just before a bowl movement but still improving. The only side effect that I got from the Remicade was being extremely tired during the infusion but he said that is quite common. They started me at an injection rate of 30mg for 15 minutes to see how I took that, then went up to 60mg, then 120mg, and finally 260mg which I accepted. I have to go back in 2 weeks, then 4, then 6, and then every 8. I truly hope that this inspires others and gives hope to the others that suffer from this terrible and painful disease that there is relief and hopefully you find yours as well.

Thanks for listening,
-Paul