- Joined
- Jul 7, 2010
- Messages
- 21
This really barely qualifies as a complaint compared to 99% of the stuff I read on this forum and I know most of you would kill to have my problems but here goes anyway.
Apologies in advance for the long post but you have been warned
When I was first diagnosed in september 09 I was flaring really hard, completely blocked up, I was put on prednisone for 2 months but no longer since my doc didn't want me on it long term. I saw a surgeon and while I was very much a candidate given the state of my guts the surgeon said I was too young to start cutting me up.
The pred had it's downsides but it definitely helped stabilize my condition. (afterward, my GI switched me over to imuran, which wasn't nearly as effective as the pred but it still helped partially alleviate the symptoms). My doc pushed me to try remicade but I was hesitant and didn't want to escalate to a more serious medication given that I was already experiencing significant side effects.
Nothing really changed for the next little while, I kept having D and pains and fatigue for a 2-3 days out of every week.
In september '10 I decided to seek the help of a naturopath. I'm a healthy skeptic when it comes to this sort of stuff but at this point I was willing to try anything. My family is eastern european and we're big believers in the whole natural healing process so I had the support of my family throughout, couldn't have done it without them!
5 months of strict dieting/supplements/enemas/you name it and I've made what I consider to be remarkable progress.
I've had to cut out sugar, lactose products, yeast, flour from my diet, switched from sugar to honey and from salt to pink salt.
Overall my health has improved tremendously, I've gone from having D every week to almost never having D at all. My pain which was at 10/10 when I first flared which went down to about a 6-7 after the pred/imuran treatment is down to maybe 1-2/10 on a daily basis.
I still can't eat meat and there are foods to avoid but overall it's night and day to what I used to experience. The fatigue is still there a little but but about 50% less than before.
The last symptom that I'm trying to stamp out is that I still experience daily bloating when eating food. It seems fine when I first eat but as soon as the food starts passing through the afflicted area it seems to bloat the entire right side of my stomach and makes extremely loud gurgling noises. The bloating itself causes mild discomfort but the noises are really frustrating to me especially when I'm in a social setting and someone always makes a stupid "SOMEBODY'S HUNGRY" joke and it really annoys me.
I was thinking of seeing if I can try salofalk again or something to alleviate the bloating or transition off of imuran. Unfortunately my GI's secretary doesn't seem to give a crap that my condition has changed, according to her I'm feeling better "because of the meds" and she won't squeeze me in for an appointment because the GI is overbooked and I can't see him till april.
It also seems like my naturopath is out of ideas, when I asked him about the bloating he said that my intestines should be in good shape by now and that it's "probably the drugs that are causing this". This is frustrating as well since its obvious to me that imuran is still helping me to an extent (I went 2 days without it when my perscription ran out and my symptoms were way worse).
Anyone know how to deal with the bloating?
Apologies in advance for the long post but you have been warned
When I was first diagnosed in september 09 I was flaring really hard, completely blocked up, I was put on prednisone for 2 months but no longer since my doc didn't want me on it long term. I saw a surgeon and while I was very much a candidate given the state of my guts the surgeon said I was too young to start cutting me up.
The pred had it's downsides but it definitely helped stabilize my condition. (afterward, my GI switched me over to imuran, which wasn't nearly as effective as the pred but it still helped partially alleviate the symptoms). My doc pushed me to try remicade but I was hesitant and didn't want to escalate to a more serious medication given that I was already experiencing significant side effects.
Nothing really changed for the next little while, I kept having D and pains and fatigue for a 2-3 days out of every week.
In september '10 I decided to seek the help of a naturopath. I'm a healthy skeptic when it comes to this sort of stuff but at this point I was willing to try anything. My family is eastern european and we're big believers in the whole natural healing process so I had the support of my family throughout, couldn't have done it without them!
5 months of strict dieting/supplements/enemas/you name it and I've made what I consider to be remarkable progress.
I've had to cut out sugar, lactose products, yeast, flour from my diet, switched from sugar to honey and from salt to pink salt.
Overall my health has improved tremendously, I've gone from having D every week to almost never having D at all. My pain which was at 10/10 when I first flared which went down to about a 6-7 after the pred/imuran treatment is down to maybe 1-2/10 on a daily basis.
I still can't eat meat and there are foods to avoid but overall it's night and day to what I used to experience. The fatigue is still there a little but but about 50% less than before.
The last symptom that I'm trying to stamp out is that I still experience daily bloating when eating food. It seems fine when I first eat but as soon as the food starts passing through the afflicted area it seems to bloat the entire right side of my stomach and makes extremely loud gurgling noises. The bloating itself causes mild discomfort but the noises are really frustrating to me especially when I'm in a social setting and someone always makes a stupid "SOMEBODY'S HUNGRY" joke and it really annoys me.
I was thinking of seeing if I can try salofalk again or something to alleviate the bloating or transition off of imuran. Unfortunately my GI's secretary doesn't seem to give a crap that my condition has changed, according to her I'm feeling better "because of the meds" and she won't squeeze me in for an appointment because the GI is overbooked and I can't see him till april.
It also seems like my naturopath is out of ideas, when I asked him about the bloating he said that my intestines should be in good shape by now and that it's "probably the drugs that are causing this". This is frustrating as well since its obvious to me that imuran is still helping me to an extent (I went 2 days without it when my perscription ran out and my symptoms were way worse).
Anyone know how to deal with the bloating?
