Colostrum...
I don't know if I'm responding correctly here or if this answer will appear twice, but, my journey with colostrum was a positive one and it made me feel much better almost immediately. However, I am on a new quest to find out whether I should restart it due to a cancer connection. Below is my story:
Hi! Thanks for the welcome! My journey with IBD began in 1994. I was very pregnant at the time and began to have rectal bleeding. My doctor was, in hindsight, very lame and he told me that I was pregnant so I should expect weird things. He then gave me a tube of salve (!?). I just figured that I would be out of the woods soon and that all of the problems would go away so I didn't argue or pursue the situation. However, the whole situation became very intense. Our baby had been in a breech position and due to the same lax attitude on behalf of my doctor, our daughter died during labor. It is a very long and disgusting story that I won't elaborate on here, but suffice to say that it changed how I viewed life permanently.
After this tragic experience, I continued to be ill and it was recommended that I be scoped. I was and it was determined that I had ulcerative colitis and that I should not get pregnant again. I can only say that I went from one bad doctor to another at this time. I left this practice and found an older doctor who was known from our church and he calmed me down quite a bit and after looking at my medical records determined that my disease was not too severe. It involved only the large intestine and rectal area and he felt that my life would be pretty normal.
After his advice, I began to heal from both traumas. I then began the journey to try to get pregnant again. It did not come easily this time.
In 1998, I became severely ill again. However, this time it was my stomach that was afflicted. The illness began on Christmas day and I remember this because there had been so much stress and I was so intensely worn out. It hit like I had been shot in the stomach. I couldn't even stand up. I became nauseous and vomited for a week, almost without letup. There was no sleep or rest, just constant vomiting. During this time, there were trips to the emergency room and doctors and we would think we would be o.k. and get home and the process would begin again. I finally wound up in the hospital for 9 days.
Mysteriously and miraculously, the illness cleared up. The gastroenterologist that I had at that time was unclear as to what caused this bout. I was supposed to have bile ducts cleared at one point, but when they went in to take care of this, the bile ducts that on a scan had appeared blocked, were clear. I truly attribute this to God. There was no other explanation.
I went home and again began the process of healing. During it, I became pregnant again. Wonder of wonders and miracle of miracles!!! However, during the pregnancy, I became deathly ill with vomiting again. Many hospitalizations occurred. It was of concern that I would lose our child. But finally the day came and she was born.
Now the real journey began and probably this is the part that would be of most interest to others with IBD. First of all, due to the nature of my illness -- not much of the colon involved; acute stomach involvement; relatively healthy periods between illnesses; and lack of understanding as to what was causing such stomach distress -- I was not under constant doctors care. I didn't stick with medications, I didn't need to do so. I didn't need to see doctors because I was usually well.
But after the pregnancy, all that fell apart. I was so sick. I couldn't even care for our child. I would be sort of o.k. for a day or two and then in the middle of something -- dinner, church, shopping -- I would feel suddenly weak and begin vomiting and then vomiting blood. The stomach was always my weakest point. I was scoped again at this point, and it was found that everything was ulcerated - stomach and intestines. I could not survive this way. I was on many medicines -- Previcid, Sulcralfate, Azulfadine -- nothing was helping. After a year, I began to search for alternative answers.
I saw a nutritionalist and a holistic doctor. Their plan combined with the doctor's plan began my path to health.
I continued my medicines, but also began to take supplements. Two of the most important were colostrum and glutamine. I can't say enough about how much better I felt after taking these two. The pain in my stomach would be immediately relieved. Gastrosooth was another product that helped my stomach to heal. We also limited my diet. I did my best to stick to a "cave man" diet -- very basic foods like simply cooked meats and vegetables, gentle fruits like pears, no grain, no dairy.
I began to heal and I have remained healthy and pretty much symptom free for 12 years. I say pretty much because there are things I can't eat -- night shade foods always cause me problems. If I am run down, my stomach can still get a little weak. If I get the stomach flu, it's a little serious for me.
What are the most important things I've learned -- and I want to say these things because if I could, I would send out a lightening bolt flare to anyone who is sick like I was so that they could know the following and be spared even a moment of suffering:
1. Ask questions and do your own research.
2. Know that if you are in the middle of something that dehydrates you, you will not be able to feel better until you are rehydrated. It is so important NOT to be dehydrated!
3. If you are given directives to follow that are overwhelming to you, do the best you can. The "cave man" diet that I was given was worrisome to me for a number of reasons -- it was so restrictive and I had such a hard time wanting any food at all (there were times when I didn't know how I would ever eat again), that if I thought I could eat a small cheese sandwich, I did, even though dairy and grain were not so great for me. This ideology came from my nutritionist and he was wonderful. I think some people are intimidated by some things in life, not just this, and they are afraid to even take a small step or begin anywhere. Just do the very best you can. It is better than doing nothing at all. (P.S. I don't know where else to put this info, but Rice waffles are excellent!!)
4. Stay away from food products that have an ingredient list that looks like a foreign language. If it's fake or processed FORGET IT!!!!
5. Eat living foods -- raw fruits and vegetables. They are full of living enzymes that we need for life. "Dead foods" cannot be the main menu items. (By the way, this goes for house pets, too!)
6. Probiotics are very important!
7. Know that your digestive mucosal lining has been compromised. Learn about this and all of the roads that will open about understanding your body and your "gut", as they say.
8. Don't be discouraged. You are still you after a bad doctor appointment or a bad day. By that I mean that you can still think and make decisions and move forward.
9. Trust God!
My new status is a recent colonoscopy that shows inflammation. I don't feel sick, but the doctor believes that I should begin taking medicine. I will talk to my holistic doctor and try to compare notes between this current colonoscopy and the last. I am wondering about restarting colostrum -- I see some info out there about it causing cells to grow, including cancer cells. It's interesting to me that my last colonoscopy showed many polyps that had to be removed and a section that looked suspicious but was benign. During that time period, I took colostrum daily. Last year, I stopped. Now this scoping showed only one polyp, no suspicious areas, but inflammation. Could it be that indeed the colostrum healed the inflammation, but it caused cells to grow that developed into polyps? I don't know. It's so upsetting, because colostrum did work for me, but what if in the future it could cause cancer? It's another journey I am about to begin and I would be happy to share any info I find with those in this forum! God bless everyone!
