Terrible Trifecta

[KevKev]

Hey ya'll,

I just joined this forum and wanted to share my story.

I'm 23 years old and was diagnosed with Crohn's when I was 11. I had some tough flareups during middle school, but was mostly symptom-free all through high school. After I graduated, I naively decided to stop taking my meds because I felt like my Crohn's had been "cured". Bad mistake.

When I was traveling in Mexico during the spring after graduation, I was eating tons of street vendor food in Mexico City (which was delicious) and became violently ill. My Crohn's symptoms came back and have been around since. I have had daily diarrhea ever since: 4 1/2 years now.

I went back to my old doctor, but no medication worked. I mean NOTHING. Not even prednisone. I hopped from doctor to doctor and medication to medication for years until deciding to see a naturopathic doctor about 9 months ago. The ND had me do a special stool test and it turns out that I have an intestinal parasite (strongyloides) as well as candida overgrowth and Crohn's. The terrible trifecta.

Has anyone experienced something like this? It's feels extremely daunting, but at the same time hopeful now that I have a better idea of what is going on in my body. I started taking LDN a month ago and am starting a candida cleanse soon. I'll also start taking probiotics and possibly pentasa soon. I'd love to avoid any medication that kills off good bacteria in my gut. And of course I'd love to avoid surgery. I've been extremely fatigued and irritable for months, and have lost 20 pounds (not a good thing: I'm skin and bones as it is). So far I've seen no change in symptoms on LDN, but I'm hopeful.

Any similar stories? Advice? I'd love to hear.

Thanks,
KevKev

 

[wild_one353]

advice? sure.

i have managed my diet for 4.5 years with diet alone and no drugs. no complications either. but still i struggle. I used some tips form a book called breaking the vicious cycle which has a diet called the specific carbohydrate diet. basically you reduce lactose and sucrose and symptoms can be controlled in most IBD patients.

now im pursuing another treatment in FDA trials that can be done at home that restores damaged intestinal bacteria. Professor Thomas J Borody Claims it may have cured ulcerative colitis and in sept 2011 at the American College of gastroenterology annual meeting, Borody reported it has put 3 patients with severe crohn's in remission.

i Developed crohn's after a course of antibiotics, and also been on lots of antibiotics in the past, therefore i believe deeply in this and wrote a thread all about my research on this therapy- http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=52400

 

[UnXmas]

My experience may not be what you want to hear, but I was told I had candida and "leaky gut syndrome" and that I needed probiotics along with other things. Like you, I turned to alternative practitioners because I wasn't getting answers and results from conventional medicine, but I wish I hadn't. If you really have a fungal infection like candida, and it is genuinely affecting your health, a conventional doctor should be able to diagnose and treat it. Don't fall for an alternative doctor telling you you have problems you don't have or attributing symptoms you do have to unrelated causes.

I'm sorry conventional medicine has failed you. I've also been left with many symptoms that conventional medicine just can't deal with. However, I have also had some incredible improvements in my various health problems, and these all came from conventional medicine. I have found two medications that help me so so much, and have had a surgery which has improved my quality of life more than I thought possible. Alternative medicine did nothing for me - and I tried it in many many forms.

However, I have read some positive things about LDN, and I think it's good to stick with some more conventional medications while exploring alternatives - if you're getting something out of alternative approaches to treatment (and many do) then it needn't exclude mainstream medicine.

 

[Kev]

Just how many people named Kev can contract this disease? Well, kevkev, I'm kev, and I stopped my disease with LDN. However, that candida you're dealing with will adversely affect LDN, so you need to get it under control. There's a very good chance LDN will work if you get the candida situation settled. And, not to rain on your parade, but it may be that what you have going on is multiple illnesses. Multiple infections from street vendor food... any of which can mirror IBD, or complicate it. Have you seen a doctor since to have bloodwork done, or stool cultures, that sort of thing. It may not be just straightforward IBD you are dealing with now (if there is such a thing). All the best, OK?

 

[kimmidwife]

Hi Kevkev,
I have to second Kevin. Get some stool cultures done. Years ago my father caught Giardiasis in Mexico. It took almost twenty years for it to be diagnosed. Especially having IBD can make you more susceptible to these things. My daughter is on also on LDN. After about six weeks on it she started seeing improvement.

 

[KevKev]

Thanks for the advice about the stool cultures. I just talked to my doctor about it today; apparently if you don't specifically request it the test I did just looks at stuff under a microscope, but I'm gonna do another test and do some cultures. We'll see what it uncovers.

I'm starting a 3-month candida cleanse. Hopefully that will help clear me out and give the LDN a better chance to work. Feeling hopeful!