10-year "Newbie" to the forum saying hello!

In the military, been dealing with this almost 10 years, seems to be getting to me worse than ever. Currently on 9mg Uceris (which is now driving me nuts like Prednisone did before) and Lialda but I've taken just about everything else. Really fed up but UCLA says NO WAY should I have surgery at this point. Ahh!!!

Oops, sorry! Hello everybody, I'm Dave, and I'm frustrated!

I'm surprised the military has kept you. There have been many who posted here saying they were booted out. Welcome.

Hello and welcome, Frustrated Dave!
Thank you for your service!

Dave, welcome to our club. You will meet many great people here who offer plenty of help and support.

Apparently it's limited to the very end of the colon, which has made a few doctors figure it'll be easy to treat, especially with enemas and suppositories. But over the years it's just gotten worse. Asacol worked for a year, then stopped. 6MP worked for a while then would stop. 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg. All worked for a while then stopped. My blood work showed it was taxing my liver so that med was discontinued. Started Humira and had very weird side effects every day on it (panic/anxiety).

Honestly, last year I was so fed up with medication I just quit everything. My wife and I went on a vacation and my symptoms stopped. Remission for 7 months, the longest I'd gone in years. But this time it's hit me good. Now I'm ina vicious cycle of waking up every day at noon in pain, getting out of the house around 5 to try and walk to get some sort of exercise (still in pain), eat my one meal of the day around 7, then sleep meds at 10 to try and knock me out. I'm trying hard not to take any pain meds (Tramadol or Norco) but honestly I get no pain relief if I don't. A constant dull pain in my gut. And since I've started Uceris (about 6 weeks now), in addition to this pain I also can't seem to sleep well, the Ambien is hit and miss but I surely can't sleep without it.

So this month makes 17 years that I've been able to serve my country and I'm very proud to wear the uniform, but my feeling is that I won't be able to make it to 20 as my goal has always been. I've been in and out of ER for pain, multiple unscheduled visits to my gastro doc, and multiple unscheduled visits to my military flt doc. I've been out of the office about 3 months...I can't see a MEB going well.

I thank y'all for welcoming me, and I will be doing a lot of reading here to learn what I can. I know I'm a bit down because I fear it will cut my military career short (I definitely did not want that) but I'm trying to keep my head up. I just find it difficult when I'm having pain, insomnia and emotional swings (definitely not as bad as when I was on 80 mg of Prednisone!) that keep me praying for this to end soon!

Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum! Sorry you're a part of this crappy club. Hopefully, the Uceris will kick in soon and help out. Sucks that many meds have failed...what about adding some alternate things in addition to meds? Probiotics help some,slippery elm may be worth a try (taken away from needs). Also some have luck with the nicotine patch/gum, started slowly. Do a search about it for more info. Some also have luck with diet changes. This disease is hit or miss. Just a few suggestions...search in the search box for done alternate things to try.

Thanks for serving our country snd keep us posted!
B
Also I fully agree on rectal meds..yeah not glamorous but helps better than anything else IMO.