Will I ever be able to eat normal food again?

   I was hospitalized on 11/04/07 and diagnosed with UC after a colonoscopy on 11/08/07.  They put me on Asacol and prednisone and when I left the bleeding had stopped.  Since I've been home I've been bleeding again and having a lot of pain, and it seems the more pain I have, the more I sweat and the faster my heart races.  I can have the smallest bite of something and really pay for it.  I was just wondering if I'm ever going to be able to eat normally again?  I'm just learning how to live with UC so any advise would be greatly appreciated.  I do know what foods to avoid and what foods to eat I'm just getting sick of all the blan food.

                                             

Diagnosed with: UC 11/08/07, ApL 5/11/98, and Lupus in 2000.

Asacol 4/400mg tabs 3xday, prednisone 1/20mg tab 2xday, hydrocortisone enema nightly, multi-vitamin, probiotic, calcium, iron, Aloe Elite, Ambien CR as needed.   

dont worry. i was in same situation with hospital and food... u will be normal again.
just hang in there!

resource fruit drinks (juice box) are like a full meal supplement and they really helped me out in hospital and when i got out.
same with ensure. those are like full meals as well. you just drink em and your good to go and they are easy on the gut.

jello is good too.
bland food sucks, but do it for a bit until you can start to tolerate a little more.
if you give your colon a bit of a rest, it can heal some and then you can eat other things much easier.

its trial and error tho. everyone is different and everyones UC is a bit different as well.
good luck.
and merry xmas!

When I'm flaring - it's toast, toast, and more toast.  Then I'll add in some rice or baked potato.   I also try eggs - although sometimes even those bother me.  No vegies work at all - although now that I'm in remission I eat just about anything - within reason.  I still limit my vegie intake and don't really eat any spicy food.  Trial and error is the name of the game.  And like others said - go easy on your stomache - it takes getting used to - but eventually you will be able to eat just about everything again and feel pretty much back to normal!!

FUNMOMMA said...
Thanks everyone for the advice, it's great to have someone to talk to who's going through it or is with someone who's going through it. It's also great to know someday I'll be able to eat normally or pretty close to it. Last night even my blan foods sent me into tears, but today is a litlle bit better. It starting to feel like I take two steps forward and two steps back, has anyone else experienced this? At first the prednisone and Asacol seemed to work but the more time that goes by the more symptoms seem to becoming back. I guess I'm just looking for a little hope.



Diagnosed: UC 11/08/07, ApL 5/11/98, and Lupus in 2000

Asacol 4/400mg tabs 3xday, Prednisone 1\20mg pill 2xday, hydrocortisone enema nightly, probiotics, multi-vitamin, calcium, iron, Aloe elite, & Ambien CR as needed.

Funmomma,

I question highly your use of oral iron supplements. If you are indeed critically anemic then you should opt for iron infusions instead. Oral iron will only irritate the colon. I'd also throw out aloe elite. If your doctor refuses to take you off oral iron supplements then find a new doc. One last bit of advice would be to only take iron supplements with vitamin E and NEVER take it around the time you take vitamin c as iron and vitamin c will form super highly reactive oxygen radicals.

#1Chloe- I feel for you, sometimes I think it's harder to watch someone you love suffer than it is going through it. Thanks for the advice, I will look it up. I hope you had a good X-mas and cograts on getting to bring your hubby home Thursday. You know I've been hospitalized for about 16 weeks all together through out my life (I'm 25) the longest stretch was 5 weeks and I was always ready to go before they would let me. But, this last time I was feeling so lousy, I really didn't want to go. What made me want to go home was my 2 1/2 yr old daughter, who until then had never spent more than 2 nights away from me. So, your husband is a very lucky man and I hope he gets felling better soon.

Chloe - I really feel your pain. I had to bring my husband to the hospital against his wishes on Mother's Day - within an hour with an IV and some pain medication he was put out of his misery with the intense pain he was in. (We were fortunate to get there at the exact right time with no waiting and immediate attention) Once he was out o pain.... of course he was very happy I insisted he had to go as I could not bear it any longer. It is very tough for you and him. Hang in there and remember if he gets cranky definitely do not take it to heart. This disease, the discomfort, the meds really takes its toll on them. (Prednisone is so mood altering.)

Hopefully the Dr will find the right medications to help him sooner rather than later. If you have done a lot of reading of posts here you will find so much helpful information. This is an awesome community and resource. It will greatly benefit you and him to get as much info from here as you can to better educate yourself and be the best advocate for your husband that you can be.

Print off info you think is very helpful or take good notes. You may find you want to discuss some of the things discussed here in this forum with the Dr. My husband just doesn't get on the computer much at all as he did in the past. I report to him info that I think is relevant and we discuss with his doctors. When the doctors inform and discuss things with us we are so much more in tune with everything now as we are not hearing something for the first time since I have so much info from others here to compare notes with.

We are retired so I have time to devote to this - in the beginning I was keeping logs of everything. Depending on what medication was being tried and if there was a need to monitor blood pressure we would take it accordingly.

Prednisone meds I kept a very comprehensive log of as he was on and off and on again. Finally off the stuff and I hope he can stay off it for a long time.

I also did a chart relating to the BM's, date, time, frequency, urgency, blood if present, level of pain, log of foods eaten and when to see if any thing in particular bothered him more than others etc.

I always kept his medications on the computer and date them. If you only want to keep one listing going I make sure I print off the most recent one before I make changes. Make the changes and update the date and print off. This way we can always refer back to what he was taking when. At one time it was the same meds for the longest time.... but once the UC came I was updating the list very often. Without the notes and lists to refer to we would never remember from one day to the next...lol.

Good luck to you and your husband. I truly hope 2008 will be a much better year for both of you.

kazygirl-Are the infusions hard t o get because when I was in the hospital they were so worried about my enemia they were drawing blood daily. If my level got any lower they were going to give me an, at the time I thought transfusion, but now I think infusion. It didn't get any lower but, it also wasn't getting any better and I'm tired all the time. I have a two year old I can't be tired all the time. So, would I talk to my physician about the infusions or my gastrointerologist? Thanks for your two cents I appreciate the advice I'm just trying to learn what I can to get into remission.