How to do Fecal Transplant at home!

This video shows you how to do a fecal transplant at home!

Fecal Transplant Therapy! (FMT)

Have you all heard about Fecal Transplant Therapy to cure UC?  Check it out!  Would you try it?





Unfortunately this procedure hasn't been approved by the FDA yet, so it may take a few years for it to be available in the U.S.

Diet

 Great news!  I am finally out of the hospital and have been for about a week.  I am still experiencing some UC symptoms, but it isn't as bad as before.  I am constantly afraid that it will take a turn for the worse again........especially since it is a super stressful time of year at the studio.  (3 weeks until the recital! OMG! So much stuff to do!)  If my symptoms flare again, I'll most-likely have the surgery.  So lets hope I can survive for a bit longer! 

Enough about me......let talk about Diet!   This is something that all of us with UC struggle with.  What the heck are we suppose to eat?  I've had many doctors tell me that diet doesn't matter.  Which sometimes can be pretty frustrating to hear when your struggling to gain necessary nutrients.  Each time I have been in the hospital my lab work came back terrible because I had gotten so sick that I wasn't able to absorb the food I ate.  At times I am almost afraid of food, and I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that feels the same way. 

I have tried every diet imaginable; SCD, Paleo, Atkins, Vegan, Vegetarian, etc.  And I can honestly say that none of them worked for me.  The SCD Diet almost killed me.  I lost 30 pounds on it, and the bleeding actually got much worse.  I stuck with it for 3 months because it's big claim is that you'll go through a detox phase where you'll feel worse before you get better.   Oh I felt worse for sure, I was miserable.  I don't recommend this diet to anyone with IBD.

While I was in the hospital I talked to a really good Nutritionist.  And she gave me some great pointers that I thought I would share with you all because this is the best information I've received regarding diet for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  It has helped me out, and hopefully it will be beneficial to you as well. 

✔Diet Tips and Suggestions!

• Eat small meals or snacks every 3 to 4 hours
• When you have symptoms, stick to the foods in the recommended foods outline below.  These foods are lower in fiber.  When diarrhea decreases, you many have small amounts of whole grain foods and higher-fiber fruits and vegetables.  Try them one at a time.  If you have abdominal pain or diarrhea, then stop eating the new food.  You can try it again at a later date.
• Drink enough fluids to prevent dehydration.  Aim for a least 8 cups of fluid each day.
• Eat foods that have added probiotics and prebiotics.  
• Use a multivitamin.  You may need more of some vitamins and minerals than you do when you are healthy.  (I also take a calcium supplement as well.)
• During periods when you don't have symptoms, include whole grains and a variety of fruits and vegetables in your eating plan.  Start new foods one at a time, in small amounts.  

 ✎ Proteins Recommended Foods

• Tender and well-cooked lean meats; poultry, pork, fish, eggs, and soy prepared without added fat.

✎Dairy Recommended Foods

• Evaporated, skim, powdered or low-fat milk
• Smooth, nonfat or low-fat yogurt
• Low-fat cheeses
• Sherbet

 ✎Grains Recommended Foods

• Choose grain foods with less than 2 grams of fiber per serving. (White rice, Bread, bagels, rolls, cereals, and pasta made from white or refined flour)  

✎Vegetables

•  Most well-cooked vegetables without seeds.  
• Potatoes without skin
• Strained vegetable juice
• VEGETABLES NOT RECOMMENDED!  (Beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and sauerkraut, cauliflower, corn, lima beans, mushrooms, okra, onions, peppers, parsnips, potato skins, spinach, winter squash, turnip, and collards.)

✎Fruits

• Fruit juice without pulp (except prune juice)
• Ripe banana or melons
• Most canned, soft fruits
• Choose canned fruit in juice or light syrup.  Heavy syrup has lots of sugar, which may make diarrhea worse.
• FRUITS NOT RECOMMENDED! (All raw fruits except ripe bananas and melon, canned berries, canned cherries, dried fruits including raisins, prune juice)

✎Fats and Oils

•  Limit fats and oils to less than 8 teaspoons per day.

✎Beverages

•  Drinking beverages with sugar or corn syrup may make diarrhea worse for some people.  Very sweet juices may also have this effect.
• Water, Decaffeinated coffee, caffeine-free tea, soft drinks without caffeine, rehydration beverages. 
• BEVERAGES NOT RECOMMENDED! Beverage with caffeine, such as coffee, tea, cola, some sport drinks, alcoholic drinks.  Avoid sweet fruit juices and soft drinks or other beverages made with sugar or corn syrup if they make diarrhea worse. 

✎Other

•  Sugar alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol) cause diarrhea in some people.  These ingredients are often found in sugarless gums and candies, as well as some medications.  

Good luck and happy eating!!!  :)

Remicade- A Love Hate Relationship!

Hello peps!

Here is my latest health update!  Unfortunately I am still in the hospital.  I've been here for 11 days now.  Who counting?  Yesterday we did another Remicade treatment.  I had received 2 Remicade treatments before I was hospitalized in February with pneumonia.  We momentarily stopped the Remicade treatments because this drug suppresses your immune system and my doctors felt that it needed to be done, so that I could recover from the pneumonia.  Once I got better from the pneumonia, I broke out with these huge painful blisters on my hands.  Which turned out to be herpes (the coldsore kind, not the STD) I am pretty sure I got it just from being in the hospital, grrr!  So again, Remicade treatment was put on hold so my immune system could battle the herpes.  Which made me very nervous at the time because I had experienced some releif from my UC, and we credited this to the Remicade treatments.

For those of who you aren't familiar with Remicade, the drug can take up to 3 treatments to work (when you are in the middle of a horrible flare this can seam like an eternity).  You do what is called an induction round to get started.  This consists of one treatment, then 2 weeks later another one, then 4 weeks later another one, then 6 weeks later, then they eventually go to every 8 weeks.  The drug is administered through an IV and takes about 2 hours to infuse.  I originally put off doing this drug because off all the horrible side affects listed, plus we knew that we wanted to start a family and my OBGYN didn't think that this would be a good drug to be on during pregnancy.  However after being in a flare for 9 months we got to the point that were willing to try anything.  Not that this is sound reasoning but all medications have risks and side affects even Tylenol says that it can cause cancer or death, if you read through all the fine print.  Anyways here is the link for more information about Remicade www.remicade.com (I always encourage everyone to do their own research for making any decisions.)

Back to the story.  Shortly after getting over the herpes break out, I flared back up.   So we did another Remicade treatment that was about a month ago.  However it takes up to 3 for it to work, and since I had stopped treatment before getting the full induction round, we weren't really sure if the Remicade ever worked in the first place or if it ever had enough time to fully build up in my system.  Recently, I haven't been responding to medications, so they sent me to the ER and I have been living at the hospital ever since.  Yesterday my doctors decided to start the Remicade induction process all over again, and I received another treatment.  This is basically a last effort to save my colon.  If this doesn't work I'll go to surgery.  So we are hoping for the best. 

 My doctors don't seam to know an exact day that I will be released yet.  I am being closely monitored, and I believe I am getting the best care possible.  However I am starting to get home sick, and not knowing when I'll be released is starting to wear on me.  I own a dance studio, and this time of year is crazy busy for us.  We have a dance competition next weekend, and a recital right around the corner.  My husband, family, and staff have been super wonderful to me during this difficult time.  They are pretty much running the studio at this point.  My clients have been really supportive, however I have this fear of losing the business to this horrible disease because I honestly am unable to work.  Bottom line, I need to get better! 

Organization

For those of you who don't know me, I am OCD when it comes to organization.  I am one of those people that actually get excited to label and color code projects.  I know I'm a big dork!

When you have UC, it is vital to your health to be able to keep track of all the medications you are taking, your diet, how many BM's per day you are having, when your last period was, ect.  It gets to be a bit much at times.  I used to literally carry a binder with me that had all my health care information in it.

Which is why I wanted to share that I found this handy new app. called GI Buddy.  Best part about it is that is free.  It is also small and much more portable than a heavy bulky binder.  (Just don't lose your phone.)  The app allows you to track all your medications, symptoms, log the foods you eat, monitor your overall well being, log your exercise routine, it even generates reports to help you see trends in your IBD, and more!  I have only used it for a couple of days, and I am already finding it really helpful.

Now this one is just for the ladies out there!  Another app that I find helpful is P.D. (Period Diary).   It is fully animated app with a cute design.  It comes complete with a calendar that tracks your period, ovulation, moods, symptoms, and more.  It even predicts your future periods which can help you make plans.  Who wants to schedule a beach vacation during the middle of their period?  This is another free app.

I hope you find these tools as helpful as I have.  Have a wonderful day!  :)

Mother's Day in the hospital!

  Today is Mother's Day, I was hoping that by now that I would have my own little bundle of joy, someone to call me mom.  However last September my Ulcerative Colitis flared up and we've never gotten it under control.  My doctors have informed us that we should wait until we get this current flare under control before we start trying to have a family.  However, since September I have gotten progressively worse.  I was admitted again to the hospital last Tuesday, I am currently receiving IV Prednisone, fluids, iron, potassium, Vicodin, and my usual drugs (Imuran, Lilada, Rowassa, Remicade, Probiatics, Birth control, etc.)  Yeah I know that is a lot to swallow literally.  None of it seems to be helping.
We are in the beginning stages of considering surgery.  I like the thought of a cure, but am well aware that their is always a chance for complications.  I just want my life back.  Since being dianosed with UC, I've had pneumonia and herpies (cold sores not the STD kind) all because of the immunosuppressant treatment that I have received up to this point.   I had my 4th colonoscopy yesterday (not a fun day), we'll meet with a surgeon later on next week to talk about what our best options are.  We understand that if we have the surgery we may not be able to have children on our own, however we are unable to currently have kids as is.  We are keeping an open mind, if we have to adopt then so be it.

We are hoping and praying that we are on the right path.  I'll do my best to post our journey and anything that we find helpful along the way.