Posted 2/22/2014 4:08 PM (GMT 0)
Had my first follow up appointment yesterday after being diagnosed with UC in January. It was a bit interesting because I knew already the doctor would give me the ever popular frowny face and here is why.
I am on 4.8g/d Asacol HD and tapering my steroids (currently at 30mg/d) 1 Omega-3 daily and Iron pills (the last two are OTC) . When I was on 40mg prednisone daily I still had what I call the leaky faucet blood drip at the end of my stool. This bothered me but I wasn't feeling inflamed or having any other blood signs except the final drip at the end so I decided to look into different methods that had been used to stop bleeding and inflammation. I ended my journey with a Vape Pen and began a dose of 6 mg nicotine eliquid and by the end of the day no blood in my stool! Now while I dont advocate this method of control it did work for me and when I told my doctor FROWNY FACE OF DOOM. She sternly told me to stop the nicotine and if I continued bleeding to come see her again and they would most likely transfer me to Imuran. She did not seem very conducive to alternative medicines when I threw out other options and asked her for her advice on them. After a little bit of prodding into not forcing more prescriptions down me and instead looking at more holistic or alternative methods she finally told me about Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) as a possible alternative to nicotine.
So I ask the wonderful minds of the HW community.
1. Have you ever heard of or taken ALA before? If so was it positive or negative?
2. What are your collective thoughts on supplementing with nicotine with a vape pen vs traditional combustion methods (cigarettes)
3. What is your frowny face count from your doctor?
4. Just any additional things you want to talk about.
Again I do not advocate the use of nicotine, I am merely trying out different methods and this one has currently worked for me. It does not mean I find Nicotine as my end goal and will consider it the status quo.