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8 weeks into a flare in on end in site

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 7/22/2013 3:20 PM (GMT 0)
Remicade stopped working for me after 18 months and I've been flaring bad for the past 8 weeks.  I was hopsitalized for 3 days and it didn't do any good.  Now I'm home for the past 2 weeks and have 20+ bloody BMs per day. 

I'm taking humira now (just did the 4 shots 2 weeks ago) and then 2 more shots tomorrow.  It has not done a thing for me.  I"m supposed to be tapering off the Pred too. I'm currently at 30mgs and the doc wants me on 20.  going to push back on that one.  I'm taking Canasa morning and Night too.  I tried Rowasa and it was awful.  The first night I woke up and couldn't get to the bathroom in time.  The next night I had the worse diarhea of my entire life.

How long do flares last?  I'm 37, extremely healthy otherwise, physically fit, eat well and my only vice is coffee and wine.  I'm completely lost right now on how to get out of it.

I've been eating very light as I have no appetitght.  For lunch today I will have a homemade smoothy (milk, banana, greek yougurt, peanutbutter, protein powerder) and for dinner I will have a bowl or 2 of homemade chicken soup (water, chicken, noodles, carrots, onion, salt, pepper, bay leaf, rosemary, garlic). 

I've cut out spicy food like Curry which we used to eat 3 days a week and I don't have much sugar or artifical sweetners.  How long can a flare go on given the level of drugs I'm taking?

Posted 7/22/2013 5:20 PM (GMT 0)
You may want to investigate your diet more. Many can't tolerate milk, bananas, some yogurts, peanutbutter, carrots, salt, pepper, and some other spices. Your body may be having something similar to an allergic reaction to them, causing your symptoms to be worse.
Posted 7/22/2013 5:46 PM (GMT 0)
You are in pretty tough shape. I'm surprised they let you out of the hospital w/o improvement. Have you tried hydrocortenema..?...I would also try a nicotine patch, what have you got to lose. Cut out coffee & Milk. And consider getting a second opinion. Good luck...Rod
Posted 7/22/2013 8:57 PM (GMT 0)
I agree with Gary, I was In a nasty flare for 2 years, finally with only mesalamine and a different diet, I'm in the clear. No more Coffee, alcohol, dairy products, however I have replaced milk in my milkshakes with rice milk, no raw veggies at all and only cooked carrots, absolutely no cooked onion, no pepper, no tomatoes, garlic.....actually,pretty much ever thing you mentioned is a HUGE no no for me. Basically I got out of my flare by following this diet for 2 weeks.
BREAKFAST
rice milk
Banana
Ice
Blend in blender
Egg whites
White toast (plain)

LUNCH
No fat turkey breast deli meat in white bread ( no condiments)
Panela cheese

DINNER
Grilled, boiled or broiled chicken breast without skin (olive oil)
White rice
Cooked carrot
Sometimes I would have a flour tortilla as well

SNACKS
banana
Jello
Digestive cookies
Cooked apple without the skin
Natural fruit juice, non acidic

It's super hard to stick with this however it's only for 2 weeks in my case, and now I am slowly incorporating other things in my diet like mustard on my sandwich, smooth peanut butter, salt, margarine (not butter) white wine....

Try this and see how you do
Posted 7/22/2013 10:28 PM (GMT 0)
Ok. Tomorrow I will try cutting out everything. At the hospital they had me on a liquid diet and it didn't help. My blood tests showed that I have inflammation but my iron level were perfect.
Posted 7/22/2013 10:30 PM (GMT 0)
8 weeks?!

Dude I'm two years in, start date; May 2011. Someone, shoot me!

I went to the lawyer and drafted my will and other legal documents today. Well I went primarily for other reasons but did my will anyways.
Posted 7/22/2013 11:06 PM (GMT 0)
https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=1060451


if I was where you are, I would give this a shot - it takes a damaged colon a loooong time to heal - 3 days is nothing - my last flare was 3 months - that's how long it took to heal so I could get back to fairly normal living -

have you done any food intolerance testing ?  i'm in a pretty good place right now by not eating any grains - when I go to the store, I do the old stay away from the middle aisles where all the breads, cereals, pastas, etc are - I don't want to even walk by the stuff - blood testing pointed me in the right direction -

Post Edited (soystud) : 7/22/2013 5:15:59 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 7/22/2013 11:21 PM (GMT 0)
If I was 2 years in I would have my colon removed.
Posted 7/22/2013 11:30 PM (GMT 0)
according to my math you're 1.5 weeks shy ?
Posted 7/22/2013 11:59 PM (GMT 0)

rguyer said...
If I was 2 years in I would have my colon removed.

You're right, but I'm a Taurus as a sign. You know about Tauruses, stubborn as sh**t.
Posted 7/23/2013 12:12 AM (GMT 0)
How long does it last?

It can go on indefinitely. You may flare until you find something to stop you from flaring. It's also possible that one day you go into remission spontaneously. None of the dietary stuff has ever done anything for me. Medically, if you're tried immunesupressants, 5ASAs, prednisone and biologics, you're nearly done. You could try other things like antibiotics or FT. Have you tried stopping the 5ASAs? Maybe you're having a bad reaction to them.
Posted 7/23/2013 1:54 AM (GMT 0)
My last two flares lasted about six months each from when I first started seeing blood to when I was completely symptom free, with the middle two months bing full on flare. This current flare seems to be shaping up about the same - at least I hope it is. I'm on the mend so probably another two months until I'm in the clear. It really takes a long time for things to heal up.
Posted 7/23/2013 2:44 AM (GMT 0)
Prior to going into remission 18 months ago, I was flaring for 6 months. I thought I was never going to flare again thanks to remicade.

The first dose of humira didn't do crap. The 30mg of predisone arent working and I had a horrible reaction to lialda and roswasa. I want to start immuran again. If this doesn't work I am pushing for simponi and then takedas new drug.
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