Newbie ... Multiple dx. But Lialda casued my MC?

[islandgirl]

Hi! I'm new to the forum and have some questions ... here is my story.

I am a 26yo F... dx in March 2014 with Ulcerative Colitis. My symptoms were pretty classic UC at the time of dx - severe bloody diarrhea, cramping, tenesmus, elevated sed/CRP markers, thickening of colon wall on CT imaging, and biopsy results from colonoscopy were indicative of severe inflammation. I was put on Lialda and Prednisone and responded rather quickly. Within five days I had a complete resolution to all symptoms and was having "normal" formed / soft / brown stools.

As I was starting to wean off Prednisone, I was having watery diarrhea and abd pain - my GI doc thought it was weird I was having such symptoms with such minor changes in my pred dose (from 40mg to 30mg) so ordered a few blood and stool tests. Timeline - this is now end of April 2014. Inflammation markers were undetectable but my cdiff result was positive. Given that I work in an acute care facility the fact that I contracted Cdiff was annoying but understandable. I was placed on the usual po vanc/po flagyl combo which failed. I was starting to have more and more diarrhea which was turning bloody - I was hospitalized for eight days for dehydration, iv flagyl and po liquid vanc. Continued po vanc and flagyl after getting discharged and took it for approximately a month. At the completion of that course I was cdiff neg, but still having diarrhea. Timeline - this is now mid May 2014. My GI decided to do a scope then to see if I was a non-responder to pred bcuz of the continued diarrhea - the results of that scope were negative for anything acute. Some chronic inflam seen in the biopsy results but the pictures of the colon were remarkably different compared ot the scope in March - just eight weeks prior. My GI docs' words were "its like night and day." I then began a pred wean - and finally was off the first week of July. The continued diarrhea was at that time attributed to "Post infectious colitis."

Had a few weeks of "normal" bowel movements, still some abd pain, but better than before. End of June, abd pain and watery diarrhea returned - sure enough I had relapsed with Cdiff. Sent to see the top Infectious Disease doc in my area and she put me on fidaxomycin which is a new drug for the treatment of Cdiff, usually 90% effective. Took that med for a ten day course with no results and then another fourteen day course. Again. No results. At this point ID is thinking it must be UC causing the symptoms because the CDiff test is now (again) neg. Timeline - This is now August. Continued with diarrhea as my GI at that time decided to put me on Simponi to hopefully ge the UC inflammation under control. NO RESULTS. Timeline - now September. Still having watery diarrhea so decided to do rainbow lab tests to see what is the issue - inflam (likely UC) or cdiff. Of course the Cdiff came back positive. AGAIN. This time I got incredibly dehydrated and manlourished ended up inpt for nine days went home with a PICC line and IV flagyl for a total of three weeks. Finally was cdiff negative at the end of that course of flagyl but still having diarrhea thus sent to get scoped (yes, thats three colonoscopies in six months.)

Timeline - end of September. This colonoscopy came back with the biopsy results showing MICROSCOPIC COLITIS. GI was floored and thought the pathologist had made a mistake. He said my symptoms were not consistent with MC whatsoever. However he stated the treatment for MC is petpo bismol for eight weeks. Had some issues with the dosing of that initially and had some severe n/v and ended up inpt AGAIN for another three days for fluids. But. Anyways. My GI sat down with pathology and looked over