Hello, all, I've been lurking and reading and thought I'd introduce myself.
In a story many will find familiar, I'm sure, I had bowel issues for years (started at 19) and was diagnosed initially with IBS. Following a colonoscopy about 15 years ago it was considered to be microscopic/collagenous colitis (though actually I think that was an error in the way the narrative got passed along, in that it was probably nonspecific but not microscopic), and it was pretty much in check with occasional short-term flares with Asacol and Lomotil.
And then early last year it wasn't in check. Not sure why--that might have been around the time that regular Asacol went away, so it could be that the difference was just enough to break control; I also went through antibiotic and then antifungal medication for a UTI and then a yeast infection, which may have alarmed the gut flora.
So finally this fall I saw a GI and got a colonoscopy, and I was quite surprised to hear two weeks ago that it's actually Crohn's. The GI upped my Asacol HD to 4800 mg a day and put me on Uceris, which started by helping some but I I got cocky with my diet and backslid into the same old flare. Now I'm back to adding the Lomotil, which helps a lot in mitigating the diarrhea and associated abdominal pain, so that's bumped my well-being up a lot; hopefully the quieter gut will give it a better chance to do some healing from the Uceris.
I'm pretty hopeful; this was fairly bearable even with undertreatment, and the colon isn't looking too bad for 30 years of disease, so I think if I can get some decent remission going I may be able to maintain with some fairly low-impact meds, if more of them than I used to take; I tolerate the Asacol well and have had no problems with Uceris. I will at some point do a CT scan to see if there's involvement beyond the colon, but I'm also preparing for a laminectomy/partial diskectomy in a month and I'm about doctored out at the moment, so the GI agreed the CT could wait for a bit. (Amusingly, the GI switched me to Celebrex to mitigate the impact of the NSAIDS I've been taking for my back pain, and the Celebrex works much better!)
So while I'm living off of rice I've been reading a lot in the forums, and I thank you all for your contributions and expertise.
In a story many will find familiar, I'm sure, I had bowel issues for years (started at 19) and was diagnosed initially with IBS. Following a colonoscopy about 15 years ago it was considered to be microscopic/collagenous colitis (though actually I think that was an error in the way the narrative got passed along, in that it was probably nonspecific but not microscopic), and it was pretty much in check with occasional short-term flares with Asacol and Lomotil.
And then early last year it wasn't in check. Not sure why--that might have been around the time that regular Asacol went away, so it could be that the difference was just enough to break control; I also went through antibiotic and then antifungal medication for a UTI and then a yeast infection, which may have alarmed the gut flora.
So finally this fall I saw a GI and got a colonoscopy, and I was quite surprised to hear two weeks ago that it's actually Crohn's. The GI upped my Asacol HD to 4800 mg a day and put me on Uceris, which started by helping some but I I got cocky with my diet and backslid into the same old flare. Now I'm back to adding the Lomotil, which helps a lot in mitigating the diarrhea and associated abdominal pain, so that's bumped my well-being up a lot; hopefully the quieter gut will give it a better chance to do some healing from the Uceris.
I'm pretty hopeful; this was fairly bearable even with undertreatment, and the colon isn't looking too bad for 30 years of disease, so I think if I can get some decent remission going I may be able to maintain with some fairly low-impact meds, if more of them than I used to take; I tolerate the Asacol well and have had no problems with Uceris. I will at some point do a CT scan to see if there's involvement beyond the colon, but I'm also preparing for a laminectomy/partial diskectomy in a month and I'm about doctored out at the moment, so the GI agreed the CT could wait for a bit. (Amusingly, the GI switched me to Celebrex to mitigate the impact of the NSAIDS I've been taking for my back pain, and the Celebrex works much better!)
So while I'm living off of rice I've been reading a lot in the forums, and I thank you all for your contributions and expertise.
