Someone had asked for UC success stories. I finally got some time to write mine out.
There are answers. You just need to find the cause first. If you're flaring due to a fecal bacteria imbalance, then fecal transplantation could help.
My Success with Subduing UC
It was 2006 and I was 44. I had been on antibiotics for most of my life, and I had been on many antibiotics that are known to destroy fecal bacteria. I was also not eating well. I had gotten divorced a few years back and was very depressed. All I was eating was chocolate. All I was drinking was HFCS beverages. I was bloated, passing gas, and having diarrhea every day. Never having heard of IBD, I was not concerned.
It was that fall that I had my first flare. I saw blood on my poo for the first time. I was scared. I searched the Internet for causes of rectal bleeding and found quite a few websites that talked about
it. One such cause is colon cancer. My blood was bright red and my stools weren't dark. I didn't think it was colon cancer. IBD is another reason. Genetics was said to be the cause of IBD, and no blood relative of mine has or has ever had an auto-immune disease or digestive issue. I knew it couldn't be IBD. Hemorrhoids is yet another reason. I thought, “Hmm... It is possible” although it did seem that I was having a bit too much blood for it to be hemorrhoids.
I thought that of the three causes, it was probably hemorrhoids. I changed my diet. I stopped eating chocolate and drinking HFCS beverages. I started eating fiber. The blood gradually lessoned. After six months, it was gone.
I felt good. I started adding chocolate and HFCS beverages back into my diet. I figured if I started bleeding again, I would just stop eating chocolate and drinking HFCS beverages. I increasing ate more chocolate and drank more HFCS beverages. I started bleeding again in the fall of 2007. Right away, I stopped eating chocolate and drinking HFCS beverages . The bleeding did not get better. In fact, it got worse. Soon my poo was covered completely in blood and there was mucus too. I knew it couldn't just be hemorrhoids. However, I couldn't go to a doctor to find out what was wrong because my insurance benefits would not kick in until I was at my job for one year. I still had about
three months to go. Three months past, and I was told I had to wait for the next enrollment date to apply. I waited, applied, and then waited again. It was a full half year from the time I first started bleeding again to the time I was able to see a GI.
I was in bad shape. I was extremely dehydrated, anemic, and peeing blood out my butt every five to 10 minutes. My colon was like dog meat. My GI could not even diagnose me because my colon was too inflamed to be scoped. He prescribed Asacol and told me to come back in three days for a sigmoidoscopy, at which time he was able to get far enough in to make a diagnosis. He said I had UC and prescribed prednisone. I was to take 40 mgs a day.
I was in such bad shape that I did not check the side effects for pred. After about
a month of being on the pred and the bleeding stopped. My GI wanted me to start weaning off pred. I looked up pred on the Internet and found out that it damages the connective tissue. I knew I needed to get off it ASAP. I got down to 25 mgs, at which point, the bleeding returned. I upped the medication to 30 mgs. The bleeding stopped. I continued going up and down between 25 mgs and 30 mgs until the 11th week had past. I had read that prednisone should not be taken for more than three months. I didn't know what to do.
I searched the Internet for answers, and I bumped into an article about
fecal transplantation. It talked about
how antibiotics destroy bacteria and how putting someone's feces into the colon can replenish the bacteria that was lost due to antibiotics.
Considering that I had been on antibiotics for most my life, it sounded like a pausible solution. I asked my daughter if I could use her daughter's, that is my granddaughter's, feces. She said yes and came over for a four day visit. I was able to do three influsions. The bleeding stopped completely after the third influsion. Now it was time to get off of pred. I lowered my dosage by 5 mgs ever two days. It was too fast of a taper. My joints started making popping noises. My hands became stiff and painful. It seemed my joints were becoming inflamed due to the fact that my body was not able to up its production of cortisol fast enough. However, the bleeding did not come back. I was completely off pred within 10 days. A couple of days later, I saw my GI.
I told him I was completely off all medication, was not bleeding, was showing absolutely no signs of a flare, and was having perfect poo. He was very surprised and had me come in the following day for a colonoscopy. He kept saying “Amazing” the whole time he scoped me. He then said, “I guess the pred worked” in a voice that suggested that it's never worked so well before. I then told him how it wasn't the pred, it was because I had done fecal transplantation.
This was March 2008. The only one who was performing fecal transplanation was Dr. Borody, who is in Australia. I did not have the time nor the resources to go to Australia to get fecal tranplantation done. So I did it myself. Here's my protocol:
Donor - I choose my granddaughter for my donor because:
She had never been on antibiotics.
Blood relative.
She was unlikely to have any fecal bacteria infections due to her young age.
Supplies - I spent less than $5 on my supplies:
One syringe with a long tip that I had bought at a local drug store.
One small plastic container that I found in the kitchen.
One small plastic spoon that I found in the kitchen.
Bathroom water faucet.
Timing - My goal was to transfer the feces from my granddaughter to my colon in as little time as possible:
Granddaughter has movement.
Grab diaper and run to the bathroom.
Scoop feces into plastic container.
Add about
the same amount of luke-warm water from the water faucet.
Mix.
Add to syringe.
Put up the butt.
Amount - As much as possible:
Babies don't poo much - about
1 to 2 syringe's worth (which is very little.)
Later I found out from others that the greater the amount, the harder it is to hold it in.
Post Edited (subdued) : 10/9/2011 12:34:22 PM (GMT-6)