So here is the cliff notes version of my history.
Perfect Gi system for 30 years plus. A few months left of residency developed a nasty bronchitis that did not clear up. After 2 weeks of it took a Zpack. Between the Zpack, working 36 hours shifts + in the ICU, being a new dad, developed acute diarrhea out of the blue (frequent, no blood, not much pain.) After 1 week of symptoms, negative cultures, got scoped, patchy colitis. Normal terminal ileum. Grossly looked like CD, histologically more like UC. Officially called IC. Was living and training in the NYC area. Had several opinions from the biggest names in the IBD world.
Went on 5ASA- made everything MUCH worse. Then did 2 weeks of flagyl, which helped, followed by VSL 3- helped a lot. Got scoped a year later feeling better just to take a look- grossly normal. Slides showed some "post inflammatory changes" but nothing major, nothing acute. GI said, stop everything and see what happens.
The next 5 years I would describe best as off and on IBS like symptoms. Some bloating, gas, soft stool, but nothing really bad at all. No meds. 5 years later got scoped again- Normal. For the past 5 years, overall fine. again, some IBS like symptoms, but no meds, no diet problems, overall doing fine.
Last fall, caught strep from kids. had to take antibiotics, took VSL3 with it, but no matter- several weeks later developed urgency, very loose stool, some wt loss. Was time for a 5 year follow up scope anyway... Rt sided colitis- interestingly, the slides were again more consistent with UC, but of course with a normal left side, by definition they call it crohn's.
Tried 5ASA again- big mistake. made things much worse. Again. Tried VSL3- helped but not as much as 10 years ago. Tried Rifaximin- neither here nor there. Did a course of Uceris- Significant improvement. before finishing it, had long talk with my GI. As a doc, and in a large inner city hospital a lot, I did NOT want any biologic or immune modulator- would be a set up to catch a nasty infection. Instead I was able to enroll in a clinical trial for fecal transplant- which we thought would be good b/c of my issues clearly being tied to dysbiosis.
Fecal transplant went well. I can't give too many details because the trial is still ongoing. But suffice it to say, I really don't have too many complaints.
But then again, I've never had it bad to begin with (knock on colon) so it's hard to draw too many conclusions.
M.D.
Perfect Gi system for 30 years plus. A few months left of residency developed a nasty bronchitis that did not clear up. After 2 weeks of it took a Zpack. Between the Zpack, working 36 hours shifts + in the ICU, being a new dad, developed acute diarrhea out of the blue (frequent, no blood, not much pain.) After 1 week of symptoms, negative cultures, got scoped, patchy colitis. Normal terminal ileum. Grossly looked like CD, histologically more like UC. Officially called IC. Was living and training in the NYC area. Had several opinions from the biggest names in the IBD world.
Went on 5ASA- made everything MUCH worse. Then did 2 weeks of flagyl, which helped, followed by VSL 3- helped a lot. Got scoped a year later feeling better just to take a look- grossly normal. Slides showed some "post inflammatory changes" but nothing major, nothing acute. GI said, stop everything and see what happens.
The next 5 years I would describe best as off and on IBS like symptoms. Some bloating, gas, soft stool, but nothing really bad at all. No meds. 5 years later got scoped again- Normal. For the past 5 years, overall fine. again, some IBS like symptoms, but no meds, no diet problems, overall doing fine.
Last fall, caught strep from kids. had to take antibiotics, took VSL3 with it, but no matter- several weeks later developed urgency, very loose stool, some wt loss. Was time for a 5 year follow up scope anyway... Rt sided colitis- interestingly, the slides were again more consistent with UC, but of course with a normal left side, by definition they call it crohn's.
Tried 5ASA again- big mistake. made things much worse. Again. Tried VSL3- helped but not as much as 10 years ago. Tried Rifaximin- neither here nor there. Did a course of Uceris- Significant improvement. before finishing it, had long talk with my GI. As a doc, and in a large inner city hospital a lot, I did NOT want any biologic or immune modulator- would be a set up to catch a nasty infection. Instead I was able to enroll in a clinical trial for fecal transplant- which we thought would be good b/c of my issues clearly being tied to dysbiosis.
Fecal transplant went well. I can't give too many details because the trial is still ongoing. But suffice it to say, I really don't have too many complaints.
But then again, I've never had it bad to begin with (knock on colon) so it's hard to draw too many conclusions.
M.D.
