WTF is IBD?

I got diagnosed for IBD last february, my bowels where very bloody and I was always tired, though I did lot of sports and have an easy office job. I always had the feeling that it's just a stressfull time and that suddenly I would get so much energy I can beat the world. I noticed there is really a lot of misinformation. The hospital said I have both crohn and cu, or they couldn't really tell. Anyway it only affected my bowels (large colon). I asked the nurse how long it would take to cure, she said it's different but usually around 6 weeks. They put me on pentasa and slowly everything got a lot better. After I used it for over 3 months, she sent me to another nurse who told me I always have to take medicine, because this disease is chronic. Also I have to go to hospital every once in a while just to have a very unconfortable talk and sometimes to check my blood. I read when u use pentasa for long time it can hurt your kidneys. After this last visit (3 weeks ago) I stopped taking medicine and everything upto now is just fine. Only some minor stomachaches, sometimes a little bit blood. Generally it's much better then before, when I took medicine, plus now i have more energy.

I read some websites, generally they said i got IBD because of too much carbs in the western diet. From february I also started a diet described in 'Life without bread', meaning you best eat around 72 gram of carbs a day. I don't follow the diet completely, because I don't feel too much energy when eating only 72 grams. But I greatly reduced them in my diet and it seemed to work. I was suspicious why the hospital didn't mention this, it was such a great improvement. Now I started to take fish oil and probiotic soft curd cheese, because I read from some websites they are beneficial when you have IBD.

I'm quite angry at the hospital now. I heard from website that by taking some of the medicine for longer time it can actually worsen your condition. I don't think i've cured myself from ibd yet, but if I can life a good and healthy life without harmful medicine and stupid hospital visits, I'm happy. I'm also confused by how the hospital just neglect science, they don't know what's causing the disease, all directions face to the food and the hospital is like 'nope, its not the food, it's just a condition and u are patient now and forever :hallo3:'. WTF

I just think I have unhealthy bowels, because I ate the wrong foods. Way too much sugar. I think all people may get this disease if they eat too much sugar. I think if I just keep eat real healthy this IBD will trouble me no longer.

I also noticed I feel stress in a different way now. I really feel stress in my gut. Maybe when other people are stressed they get headache, but I really have this stressed feeling in my gut. This kind of detaches me from what i'm doing usually. Which is logical to me, but not to my surrounding. More or less I think this caused I lost my job, but it's all good, i'm sure i'll find a new one. It's really a stupid sickness.

IBD- Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

It is a catch all diagnosis for any inflammatory disease affecting the bowel. The most common types of IBD are Crohn's & Ulcerative Colitis. There are a few more but these are the common ones. Did the doctors say which Inflammatory Bowel Disease you have? It matters because depending on the type and location you need different treatments.

There is NO cure for Crohn's Disease. The only cure for Ulcerative Colitis is through removing the colon. With Crohn's, the best you can hope for is remission. This is when you have little/no symptoms and absolutely no inflammation present. Remisson can last a few days/months/years/decades. Some people never experiance remission.

Stress is a common trigger for future flare ups so you are not alone. Many people have flare ups when they are stressed.

Take care!

I don't know what websites you're reading, but I think you're very confused and maybe in denial. IBD is a lifelong disease. Maybe you were intolerant to Pentasa and another drug would be better. Bleeding is NOT normal. And no one knows for sure what causes IBD, so saying it's all diet is not correct. There appears to be a genetic component, with an environmental trigger (possibly diet?). The hospital is not neglecting science. Science proves these medications can help. There are clinical studies to prove that.

I'm sorry to hear you've been getting a lot of misinformation, that must be really frustrating There are a lot of terrible websites out there so my suggestion would be to stick with reputable websites and communities like this one where we do our best to make sure all information is factual by policing each other and utilizing reputable sources.

As mentioned by others, Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, which are forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are very serious and chronic diseases. Taking your meds for a short time then stopping will likely end up very poorly. You need to stick with your medications. Yes, there can be side effects but if they properly monitor you, they should pick up on anything potentially serious before it leads to permanent complications. And that only happens in a small subset of patients.

Stick around here and ask questions. We're happy to help.

Keepingfaith said:

IBD- Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

It is a catch all diagnosis for any inflammatory disease affecting the bowel. The most common types of IBD are Crohn's & Ulcerative Colitis. There are a few more but these are the common ones. Did the doctors say which Inflammatory Bowel Disease you have? It matters because depending on the type and location you need different treatments.

Click to expand...

They said I have the symptoms of both crohn and uc. This also greatly confused me, I read on some websites this is not even possible. But my assistant doctor said it's common. This assistant was also very weird about it. She said she had to give a name to it, because otherwise they couldn't file it. So she called it uc, but I had to keep in mind the syptoms of crohn are also there. I think the left side of my large colon is fully red (more like uc), then there are some healthy parts followed by some red parts again (more like crohn). I also feel the hospital is a bit mysterious about it, they didn't show me all the pictures of my colonoscopy, I only saw 1 picture. I don't get to see the doctor, only some assistant.

chrisnsteph1022 said:

I don't know what websites you're reading, but I think you're very confused and maybe in denial. IBD is a lifelong disease. Maybe you were intolerant to Pentasa and another drug would be better. Bleeding is NOT normal. And no one knows for sure what causes IBD, so saying it's all diet is not correct. There appears to be a genetic component, with an environmental trigger (possibly diet?). The hospital is not neglecting science. Science proves these medications can help. There are clinical studies to prove that.

Click to expand...

It's very hard for me not to be confused, especially because i hear many different stories and they tell me the complete opposite.

You also can't tell what causes this disease. I don't deny that meds can work, but the hospital is giving very little information and only refers to meds, which i think is very bad.