Good for a While

I've been quite healthy for a long time.  I have been taking various home remedies and it has somewhat fixed me.  I still can't eat whatever I want without paying for it through pain of some sort or discomfort, but I can survive eating anything if I really want it.  I have solid poop, which is fantastic and it has been that way for a couple of months.  I went to Mayo Clinic and the doctors there suggested that I hold off on an operation unless it flares up again in a bad way.  Mayo said they would see me again if I had an issue. 

Lately it has been getting worse.  I guess I don't write on this blog unless it is bothering me.  I have slowed down taking the herbal stuff and vitamins because it is expensive, but I really should take all those supplements.  I can feel that it is necessary or my body is in pain.

2 April 2012

I feel almost like I don't have UC anymore and without drugs. My joints ache though and I am very tired despite getting enough sleep last night. Working out helped me a lot. I had a protein shake this mid-morning and it seemed to aggrivate my UC. I see the surgeon again on the 11th of April. I am gathering a stack of qustions for him on the operation to remove my colon. My joints are hurting. My stomach is swollen. There is no blood though and there hasn't been for two weeks. I missed my period last month, but just got it again today. I am dizzy when I get up. I don't know why. Everything goes kind of black for a few moments and I have to stand with my legs apart incase I fall down so the impact woln't be as bad. Usually it happens when I am working out though but sometimes when I just get up.

24 March 2012

Still suffering. I decided I would get the operation to remove my colon, but now that I think of it I am too scared again. Ugh. I almost wish I would have a perforated colon so the decision would be made up for me. I am so tired of waking up every night six times a night at the least. One night it was every 20 minutes all night. I've read novels on the toilet. I've tried to figure out how to get food in me. It seems to work with little bits of food. It is difficult to control eating very small amounts. Sometimes I just want to eat a lot. Nuts are really really bad. I like them though. I ate these crackers with a lot of nuts. They made me really ill in terms of pooping and feeling ill. My daughter keeps talking to me while I am typing this so I am just going to log off. My 15-year-old daughter.

26 February 2012

I was pretty good today, but I didn't eat all day until late in the evening. So the whole day I ate nothing. Besides this evening, the last I ate was yesterday at one p.m. After I ate this evening I started having issues. There's now a lot of blood, but sometimes there isn't any. I am not sure what to do for a living now. Whatever it is, I have to be able to use the washroom every 1/2 hour at least. Sometimes more often, sometimes less often. I joined a site called Ihaveuc which is quite informative and helpful. I joined it a while ago. I may have already posted this. I see the surgeon on the 15th of March about removing my colon. I am going to try everything I can to not have it removed.

24 February 2012

I somewhat seem better outside of violent bouts of needing to poop all day and night. In between though I can eat and drink anything. I am trying to eat mainly healthy though. I can go for a couple of hours without pooping. I have

A Bit Worse

I bought the wrong kind of supplements I think. They are still Spirunilla and Astaxaxanthan (spelling is probably wrong) but different brands. Now I'm on the toilet all the time again and there is some more blood, but not too much. I'm up at least 7 or 8 times a night. I go all day as well. I'm trying to choke down the Aloe juice, but yuck. It is so gross.

Ate a Meal

I had an omlet (almost the entire thing) at IHOP today. I had one and a half pancakes and some fries (not too many) and some hot chocolate. I thought I'd puke afterwards and it has been ten hours since eating lunch and I still feel so full I feel like puking. I haven't puked, I just feel that full. It was really hard on my bowls. So far, not too hard though. I had to lie down for a while because I was exhausted and my bones were aching. I drank a bit of water, but I can barely drink anything because I am so full. My stomach hurts from fullness. I had a spinach, cheese and mushroom omlette with onions. It is all I ate all day, so it is weird that I should be so full I'm thinking. Or maybe I am so full because I usually don't eat very much.

Getting Better

I seem to be getting better. It is so gradual that I can barely tell, but I think I am. Last night I almost had a poop. Paste came out, so that's pretty close. Better than total liquid anyway. The supplements seem to be working. I am not better yet, but way better than I used to be. I think the Aloe Vera juice is working. That is fabulous. It is gross to drink though, very very gross. I almost can't stand it. I only drink it mixed with banana and blueberries with a chocolate protein mix. None of that covers up the stench. Gross.

I was pretty good today until I tried to eat something around noon. My muscles are sooooo sore from the personal training session. I could barely walk down stairs yesterday and today my legs are still sore. When Jacqueline tries to crawl on my lap I yelp if she touches my muscles. So, I must be more out of shape than I thought. I tried to drink the Aloe today. I mixed it in with a blueberry/banana/coconut juice/Attain shake. It was STILL gagging disgusting. I could smell it through the other scents. I can't imagine making myself drink that putrid stuff every day, but I had better if it has a hope of making me feel better. This diet would be great for me even if I wasn't ill. I have to go out to dinner with a friend tonight at 7. I can't imagine what I am going to order to eat that will be acceptable to my body. Perhaps I should just order a juicy cheeseburger and let the illness come. We'll see. I could order a normal meal and then box it and give it to David to have for lunch, but the problem is that it isn't a work day tomorrow as today is Friday. After the dinner I am going to my friend's house as I haven't been there yet. I have never seen it and she's been living there for about three years. I never did see her first house which was a duplex. I kept meaning to, but Jacqueline was so small and I barely ever saw her so I didn't want to leave her to see someone's house. Anyway, the issue is, is that if I eat something substantial for dinner and then go to her house, I will have to explode crap at her house and that would be quite disgusting for her family. I am not sure if I want to do that. I really have to see her house though, so maybe I will just try really hard not to eat anything. I'll just have a hot chocolate or something. I don't actually like pop anymore. It tastes way too sugary now that I am not used to it anymore. I wish I could get my children to see how bad it is. They don't really drink that much pop anyway, but I wish they would drink less.

Personal Training Session

I won a personal training session. I I couldn't tried to do it today. I couldn't do it after a bit. I felt sick. My stomach hurt too much, but I could do some of it. The trainer wanted me to sign up for a year of personal training at $105.00 per month. I thought I was ok, and then I thought I would pass out and I had barely done anything. I felt so out of shape. I am not though. I did some stuff that the guy said a lot of people can't do, so I am sort of in shape despite the weight loss and lack of proper eating. I was ill after lunch today. Liquid came out as usual, but no blood at all. I didn't go to the washroom all day besides when I woke up. First I went was noon after lunch. I had some potatoes with skins and a blueberry/banana/milk and Attain shake. I only had half a scoup of Attain. My stomach is still hurting from lunch. At breakfast I had an Attain bar.

Toilet Visits and Diet

I was on the toilet repeatedly during the night. I had a blueberry/bananna/applejuice/strawberry shake this morning for breakfast. I also had Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup. I've only been on the toilet about five times this morning so far and it's 10:14 a.m. My stomach doesn't hurt too bad so far. I need to buy that aloe juice still but I am busy making a cake for s omeone that I promised it for way back at the beginning of December. I am in a panic trying to get it done.

I am shakey from crapping so much. I think banana's help. My general practitioner doctor told me to have a banana a day if I can stand it. I just had a few chips too. The chips are bad. At least my appetite isn't so bad. I think I am somewhat better. The supplements are helping I think. I am scared to try that aloe yet though. I'm going to though. So far, the supplements are helping. There is very little blood, but still blood.

Almost off prednisone.

My stomach is almost not swollen this morning. I promised myself last night on the toilet I would try not to eat anything today to give myself a rest. I think I may be exhausted from pooping over 20 times a day. About six of those times was durng the night making it difficult to sleep. My bones are aching quite a bit. There's still blood with the supplements, but far less than there used to be. I am on 1/2 a tablet of prednesone (5 mg) so I am almost totally off of it. If I were to keep taking it it would be four months of prednisone and that is too dangerous to me considering their side-affects.

I have to bake a carrot cake with elaborate decorations for someone today. I think I can do it. It is not due to be delivered until tomorrow, so as long as I get started today and get the cake baked and the fondant on, I should finish it on time with no issues. I am so tired though - but I think I can do it.

My stomach still hurts though. I am not sure about going to the gym, but I am going to try it. I need to take care of keeping my blood flowing and my heart pumping. The doctor said it is good to work out, but I am not working out like I used to as I am scared about how much calories I am taking in when considering how much I am burning off. I streatch a lot and do light weights. I also walk and sometimes jog.

Going to try aloe

I ate today. I had my supplements that I am trying. I have to buy some aloe to drink and see if that will help. I am a bit scared to because it says it helps your colon's immune system and why does the doctor give me immune suppressing drugs to help me and others think I should take aloe to help the immune system? I thought that was what I was trying to suppress? Since some people said that it helped them, I am going to give it a try. I would have thought it can't get much worse before, but now I know that it can!

I was really wiped out today. I am so exhausted. I actually went to bed for a little while after church. My bones are aching. My stomach swelled up a little while after I ate some food. It looked for a bit like I was three months pregnant. It then went down again, but it's still somewhat swollen. I wish I could get better. I have to figure out what to eat to give me nutrition and not hurt me. The supplements were kind of expensive. It should work out though since I barely ever eat anything. I save money that way!

Can't Sleep

I can't sleep and I have no one to complain to except this blog. It is more difficult to concentrate because my stomach hurts so much and my body is aching a lot. I am very tired though. I'm so tired all the time lately. I wish I could rest from my body and that everything was fine.

Blue Lips

I felt extrememly ill today. I ate nothing all day, and then at 1:30 I went to a Chinese Restaurant to bring my children. I ordered food as it is somewhat rude to go to a restaurant and not eat. I had fried rice, four pork dumplings and some cooked beans and water. I ate two fortune cookies at the end of the meal. I was so ill on the way home that my lips turned blue!? Perhaps it was totally unrelated, but they were blue. I was not cold. It was weird. The blood is much less. There is almost none. My stomach hurts though - really badly. I slow down for any bumps because drivng in the car and hitting a bump hurts a lot. I have to race to the washroom at weird times with little warning. At least I can feel what is going on with my body. Prednisone helped, but I think it was there only to stop the bleeding. I am also very exhausted. My body feels ill. I am scared to move because if I jerk myself too much I hurt my bowls really badly and then I need to go to the washroom. I am going to google to find out why my lips might be blue. My heart also pumps weirdly. It is pumping too fast a lot. I just googled it and one sight said that if I experience dizziness with blue lips I should call 911. That's not going to happen. I don't need 911, if I need to go to the doctor's I can drive myself. Also, I don't feel I need to go to the doctor's. Plus, it's a random website I just googled. I think my lips turned blue because I must have anemia from losing so much blood in the last three months.

I ended up eating something after 3 p.m. yesterday. I had a bananna/blueberry/Attain shake. I also had a cup of herbal peppermint tea. This morning I had a bowl of cream of wheat with milk and brown sugar. I feel like puking. I've also gone to the washroom about five times last night. I went to the washroom about six times this morning so far and it's 9:54 a.m. My stomach is bubbling. I have to go to the health food store because someone told me a few other supplements that I should try so I am going to try them. Chlorella and somethng that starts with an A. I'll say the name later if I remember what it is. Chlorella works on mice or something like that apparently and human studies showed that it worked on humans. Here's a link to the study someone showed me: http://mobile.nutraingredients-usa.com//Research/Astaxanthin-shows-benefits-against-colitis-for-mice-at-least . It looks promising. Astaxathin is the other thing that starts with an A. It is supposed to be pretty good as well. Perhaps that is better if you are already healthy and to maintain health; I don't know, but I'll try it. I have nothing to lose. I have to also go to the store to get some things from the grocery store, so I can stop by and get the new supplements at the same time.

No food yet today

I haven't eaten today yet. It's 2:37 p.m. My stomach has been hurting all day. I didn't really feel hungry anyway, so it is not like it's torchure or anything. Jacqueline (my youngest who is five) had a bath and is just getting out. I had a bath earlier. I went tot he gym, but didn't really work up a sweat. I walked for 20 minutes and did 30 minutes of streatching and weights. I think I will hold off eating and see if my stomach feels better tomorrow. There's no point in making myself eat if I am not hungry anyway. I ate quite a bit yesterday anyway compared to what I usually eat. I have gone to the washroom about 25 times today already. There was less blood. There was actually some liquid poop. I have over two weeks until I have to go to the doctors and talk to the surgeon. I am hoping that I can somehow get better before then so that I will not have to get my colon removed.

My stomach is pretty bad. I am taking less and less prednisone. I am at one tablet and a half of 10 mg tablets. I have bad heart burn right now too. I never heard of that being a side-effect of Ulcerative Colitis before. My stomach is distended a bit. Looks kind of like I'm a little bit pregnant. I ate a lot yesterday - a piece of rice krispie cake, an order of chips and salsa from Buffalo Wild Wings, a spirinella energy bar and a half, and a blueberry/bananna Attain shake with milk. My stomach is pretty sore today. I was on the toilet about ten times this morning and only about three or four times last night. I bought some spirinella tablets yesterday and took six of them. I also bought calcium tablets and took four of them and a vitamin D 500 uc tablet. Today I will see if I can control myself not to eat as much as yesterday to give my stomach a rest. I don't know if I will be able to as I really enjoy food, but it is really important that I do whatever I can to try to get rid of my stomach issues. Obviously the medicine is not working as I have been on prednisone for almost four months. I have tried Asacol and some other drug that starts with a B.

My five-year-old's birthday party at Chuckie Cheese's

I thought I was doing pretty good today. I didn't eat all day, so maybe that is why. At my youngest's birthday party I thought I could eat since I was feeling quite well. I thought maybe my Ulcerative Colitis was doing well. I had (two slices of rice krispie cake (my daughter's choice of birthday cake) and I didn't have a bad reaction. I got home (had a hot chocolate on the way) and my son heated up some left over pizza from Chuckie Cheese's and I thought I would barf for about two hours after smelling it. Then I had to sit on the toilet for ten minutes and it was full of blood but there was some poop in there. I went to the washroom about five times since 3:30 when I got home. Each time was pretty bad and each time was full of blood and had poop in it. I just had some melted cheese. I guess I'm asking for it. Oh, I had a pretzel when I got home too. It was a small home made pretzel. I feel completely exhausted too. I guess running around all day racing to get things done exhausted me. I try to go to the gym every day but I haven't since Friday. The doctor said exercise is good and the healthier the rest of my body is the better. I don't exercise like I used to, only about 1/2 hour on the tread mill and 1/2 hour of weights and streatching. I don't feel as sick and sometimes I don't even feel sick while I work out. My stomach still hurts, but it isn't too bad. This afternoon I thought I was going to be fine. I didn't even feel sick this afternoon or like I have to go to the washroom at all. It was great. I didn't feel like eating, but for some reason I ate anyway. I guess not eating all day worries me and I feel like I should.

Sick today. I have a bit of a cold or the flu or something. My stomach or bowls, not sure which, is feeling really ill in spurts, and then ok in spurts. I've already went to the washroom 20 times and it's only 3 in the afternoon. My eyes are leaking water from the cold and my bones are still aching. I don't know what they are aching from though, ulcers or having the cold. I am exhausted. I just want to sleep. I have to take my son to the optomitrist, just returned from bringing my daughter to get her US citizenship, we have a work appointment tonight at 6 and then our Home teachers are coming over at 8. Somehow I have to get dinner cooked in there. My daughter has ballet during the evening. She finishes ballet at 9:30 p.m. I told myself I wouldn't eat anything today to give my body a rest, but I ended up eating five or six cookies. They were whole wheat, cranberry, peacan, orange cookies I baked yesterday. I didn't eat anything else all day. I shouldn't have eaten that though.

I am scared to get my colon out. I have to try harder to eat more carefully and maybe there's a chance I can get my colon to calm down and keep it in my body. The thought of a hole in my body and crap falling out if it into a bag for three months and operations to crap through my small intenstine through my bum and close up the hole in my side makes me totally and completely sick. If it happens to other people, I don't really think about it, but if it happens to me, that's a totally different thing.

24th January 2012

I emailed my Dad. He thought it was a good idea that I just do the surgery. My mom said I should try a strict diet first. The doctor said that a strict diet would make no difference. I have heard that it does make a difference though from reading other peoples' blogs online. I feel ill today. I am not sure if it si the flu or if it is the Ulcerative Colitis. I am so tired and my joints ache. I backed off on the prednisone. I went from 40 mg per day to 20.

First Day of Blogging about Ulcerative Colitis

I just went tot he doctor's today. I've been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis since 2009. I had it since 2008. For a year I had extreme diarrheah with blood in my stool (so from 2008 - 2009). I was working during this time and it was awful. Finally, after plenty of doctors' visits and a colonoscopy, they diagnosed me. As soon as I started taking the medication (prednisone) after the first dose I was better. I took the prednisone for about two months. I was supposed to take Asacol, but it hurt my bones too much. After three months I stopped taking Asacol and took Vitality 6 vitamins from Melaleuca. The vitamins held me over for about two years until October 2011. I stopped taking the vitamins in September of 2011 to try to save some money as the vitamins are around $75 per month. I think that is what started the Ulcerative Colitis attack. In October 2011 my Ulcerative Colitis became so bad I couldn't even drink water. The sickness was very gradual. I could eat, but it upset my stomach, then it got worse and worse to the point where I couldn't eat or drink. My friend said I should really go to the hospital, so I did. I regretted it. The walk-in clinic sent me to the regular hospital to be admitted. I started crying (humiliating) not because of the pain, but because I didn't want my colon taken out. I was scared, not in pain, but I think the people who worked there figured I was in pain. I told them I wasn't, but sometimes it doesn't matter what you say to doctors and nurses. So the doctors put me on IV Solu-Medrol. I was on that for four, almost five days. The entire time there was barely any difference in my colon (I could only eat very little still, but it improved, and I could drink, but basically only water). I got out of there after five days. I really dislike being in the hospital. I was about to just get up and leave regardless of what anyone told me when they let me out.

It has been a couple of months since then. I am still not better. It is now January 23rd. I was admitted to the hospital November 11th, so I guess it is almost two months and my Ulcers are still really bad. I am still on Prednisone. I am cutting back on the Prednisone until I am not taking it anymore, but it will take a while. You have to cut back really slowly on that or it makes you really ill. At the visit to the doctor's today we discussed removing my colon. I can't get in to discuss this with the surgeon until March 15th. There is a shortage of gastroenterology surgeons in this area. It's really horrifying thinking of them removing my colon. I told the doctor (Dr. Spellmen) that I was pretty sure I'd rather die than have my colon removed, but after having a blessing at church I thought maybe I should just live. Which is why I am looking into surgery. It is so sickening to think of having someone cut my colon out. I would have to have a colostomy bag for three months and then they would attach my small intestine to my rectum. They would leave my bum muscles intact, but remove my colon totally. I am horrified as I've mentioned. The doctor said that there are professional athletes with their colons removed. He said I will probably be fine. Plus, I must stay alive for the kids. It's GREAT for losing weight though!! You want to get skinny, get Ulcerative Colitis. I'm at my goal weight of 135 lbs. Woo hooo! One bright side of the situation.

I wanted to try a strict diet first, to see if it will work. I guess I have until March 15th anyway when I see the surgeon. I will be really strict and eat only cream of wheat, water, vitamins and bland, bland things.