Stomach began to hurt like crazy senior year of college.
Two years later I had 2 abscesses followed by fistulas (you know where).
Surgery, several years of pain meds (percoset was great when it was great).
Avoided red meat generally. Never had any more fistulas. Always had since that time (and continue to have) terrible gas. Became mostly vegan about a year ago (except for fish). A little improvement with the elimination of dairy. I dont take any medications. In the first few years I took Pentasa every day, 1 million blue pills a day. Did jack. Same with everything else. Only tried a little 6MP because it freaked me out. Now I take nothing because the doctors told me, oh, ok so we found out Pentasa doesn't really do anything. Until they find a pill that actually fixes it without causing leukemia or infuses you with biological agents, I am staying away from the meds. Being vegan has been very interesting, because I have explored so many new choices of vegetables, supplements, fruits, things I never really ate before. My symptoms certainly haven't gotten worse. I REALLY wish the gas would go away though. I feel like I have millions of the wrong bacteria in me attacking my food and digesting it way up high in my intestines before digestion is supposed to happen and that it just releases tons and tons of gas that gets released later. Its awful and embarrassing. Strangely, switching to a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables has NOT increased the gas. Bread, though, is hell. Everytime I eat bread. Same with some soy milks. Chocolate appears to be a problem. Everything else, its just generally the same. An uncomfortable, but not incredibly painful, very large amount of gas that has been going on now for 7 years.
Two years later I had 2 abscesses followed by fistulas (you know where).
Surgery, several years of pain meds (percoset was great when it was great).
Avoided red meat generally. Never had any more fistulas. Always had since that time (and continue to have) terrible gas. Became mostly vegan about a year ago (except for fish). A little improvement with the elimination of dairy. I dont take any medications. In the first few years I took Pentasa every day, 1 million blue pills a day. Did jack. Same with everything else. Only tried a little 6MP because it freaked me out. Now I take nothing because the doctors told me, oh, ok so we found out Pentasa doesn't really do anything. Until they find a pill that actually fixes it without causing leukemia or infuses you with biological agents, I am staying away from the meds. Being vegan has been very interesting, because I have explored so many new choices of vegetables, supplements, fruits, things I never really ate before. My symptoms certainly haven't gotten worse. I REALLY wish the gas would go away though. I feel like I have millions of the wrong bacteria in me attacking my food and digesting it way up high in my intestines before digestion is supposed to happen and that it just releases tons and tons of gas that gets released later. Its awful and embarrassing. Strangely, switching to a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables has NOT increased the gas. Bread, though, is hell. Everytime I eat bread. Same with some soy milks. Chocolate appears to be a problem. Everything else, its just generally the same. An uncomfortable, but not incredibly painful, very large amount of gas that has been going on now for 7 years.
