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I am new to the forum but not new to MC. Well I have made a few post, but still a noob.
Really I just want to cry, but I try to keep my sense of humor, it is hard sometimes.
Anyway I have been in the middle of a real bad bout this last month or so. I had been in remission for 2 and a half years and then I'll be go to hell, it reared it's ugly head for no reason, not that I can pin point anyway.
It just makes me feel better, well not so alone to see how many others know exactly what this is like.
I don't like to whine about my problem, I have told a few co-workers over the years, so they know if I have to run off to the bathroom in mid-sentence, they will understand. I have also warned those I care about that if they see me heading to the rest-room it would be in their best interest not to go in there for a bit...
You just cry or vent or whatever makes ya feel better.
We accept all!!!!!!
To add some humor to your day, I've been called an old bag a few times ,but your Gas Bag, is an original.
My first suggestion to you is "drop" the Psyllium husk........
If I'd try that I'd be poopin like a goose!!!!!!
Try anything mentally to get yourself calmed down. I know, I know, easier said than done.
Then start to evaluate what you've been eating.....
I can't recall if you've done any diet modifications or not???????? Like gluten, dairy, soy??????
Sometimes MC can wax & wane over a period of time.
I take 1 Entocort a day and to be honest I really think that I could drop it completely, since going gluten, dairy & soy free. There are very few food items at present when I know it is an irritant.
You just keep posting, cutie, and we'll jump in for support....
Dee~~~~
"What the heart gives away is never gone ... It is kept in the hearts of others."
Yep, we all feel that way from time to time, when MC tries to get the best of us. This disease does tend to keep us humble, that's for sure.
Never hesitate to unload some "gas" here, or whatever you feel the need to unload - that's one of the reasons why this board was created. It's our home away from home, where we can "let our hair down", and say whatever is on our minds, without worrying about someone not understanding.
It is hard to keep our sense of humor, sometimes, when we feel truly miserable, but sometimes we have to laugh, just to keep from crying, and laughing is a lot more fun than crying, that's for sure.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
We're so glad that you are here, and we've all been there, but sometimes, as time wears on, we forget what it was like, even though some of us were very sick for decades. I hope that soon, you'll be able to forget about ever having this stuff. I know what a let down it must be to have been in remission for so long, and then, whamo, here it comes again!
Wow, you sure must have some understanding co-workers!
As Dee said, rant away! Been there, done that, so we totally understand.
Hi I am going gluten free again to see if I can't get this under control. And I love your comment about the Psyllium husk, but that is the only thing that helps me to firm things up. Otherwise my stool is like a garden hose on full blast, make that fire hose. I live in farm country, ever see a liquid manure spreader..that would be me.
I tried to think of a name that summed me up, that instantly came to mind.
I tried something the Doc gave me, my regular Doc, something they give people who go to Mexico to get a handle on Montezuma's Revenge, and it didn't work and nothing over the counter does a thing for me either. My GI didn't give me anything, because by the time I was diagnosed it was getting under control pretty well, by my diet or just good luck.
Yeah I am actually pretty up-beat, but then again you do feel so beaten down at times,
but atleast it is not life and death. I actually feel much better mentally and atleast today it has just been D this morning, baby-steps.
As for co-workers, it is really astonishing how many other people have bowel problems as well. I tell them if they want to know anything about pooping or what their problem might be, I am an expert!
We have all been where you are now and believe me the tears have been shed over the years. We are truely a family here and somebody is always there to help, pick you up when you are down or just plain listen. The information compiled here is our most valuable resource - no place like it in cyber space.
I too would have to let the psyllium husk go - it would make me a goose like Dee said. Going gluten-free has saved a lot of us and there are quite a number of us with a number of intolerances so diet can be difficult but not impossible.
Maggie
Maggie Scarpone
___________________
Resident Birder - I live to bird and enjoy life!
Gas,
If you have lots of fat in your stools, it is a very strong, unusual smell, not just your ordinary garden variety poop. The smell alone is enough to make you puke or any visitors to the John immediately after you've had one of those stools.
If it's really smelly, and it's indeed the fat going straight through, then remember that fat is absorbed in the SMALL bowel where celiac disease occurs.
Did your GI check you for celiac disease to any extent -- gene testing, blood tests, endoscopy from the top down, etc.?
If you are losing lots of fat, that means you are losing many or most of your very important fat soluble vitamins. Are you old enough to be having bone density studies. It's not uncommon in this group to have major bone loss, so you need to get busy and have that checked if you've not already.
While I'm discussing vitamins, it would be important to also have your B-12, folate levels checked along with a full Vit D level workup. Don't settle for anything less than a 400 result on your B-12 level. Serious and sometimes permanent neurological problems can occur below that, regardless of what the reference numbers say on your lab sheet as being normal. I used Biochem B-12/folate which is taken sublingually, and when rechecked, my levels went to midrange on the normal scale very quickly. I have to take other things as well, even though I've been in remission on diet for years.
For us upper middle age and older gals, sometimes there's just not enough resolution of the malabsorption, even with perfectly normal looking stools -- sigh! Alllllways sumpin!! At least the B-12, etc. makes ya feel a whooole lot better if you are low on it. I've recently started on a complex of B-vits, but have to add the other b-12/folate once in a while to keep my stores up as the complex amounts are on the low side. I like most of them being low until I find have a reason to increase the amounts of those, being the minimalist that I am.
Anyway, do anything you can to feel better while you are getting better, thus the vitamin suggestion.
Oh, and are you regularly having your thyroid levels monitored? Sometimes one needs a little more of those hormones than they used to think, so if you can find a good endochrinologist if your results or close to being abnormal, you might find that s/he would be more likely to believe you need a little help with thyroid hormones. I personally take Armour Thyroid with a little T4 added based on my blood reports, but that is controversial. Apparently, the reason that people tend to feel better on this form of T3/T4 is related to the ease with which it passes the blood brain barrier. I really don't know if I would've felt any different just taking the synthetic form as i never really was on that, but I have known people after thyroidectomies (I had to have one before I was even diagnosed hypothyroid), that they don't feel right on the synthetic, and I think the docs who do this treatment think they feel better on the Armour. This may never apply to you if your thyroid doesn't have to deal with all the chemicals from what you are eating that destroyed mine about the time my M.C. was at an all time high. I was in immune overdrive by then. Don't let this stuff destroy your other organs, please!
I had the endoscopy from the top down, but had been off of gluten for a month or so at the time.
I am hypo-thyroid and on meds of course, I have blood tests alot and everything is good vitamin wise and I have a bone density every 2 years and I am good there.
Actually this time, the smell is not bad, not like when I initially had my first attack.
I am not really in panic mode yet, I am just going to go with the flow..haha, for a few more weeks and see if I don't get better, last week I did see a bit of improvement, but then I was hit with the flu over the weekend..going at both ends kind of flu..oh joy of joys.
Thank you for all the good advice. I appreciate it all and will keep everything in mind. I can't tell you how great it is to hear from other suffers and what you are all doing and trying.
I am at work and shouldn't be on here...so my responses are so brief.
I learned the Psyllium husk trick from Celiacs, so it works for some of us and not others.
Gas Bag wrote:I learned the Psyllium husk trick from Celiacs, so it works for some of us and not others.
Hmmmmmm. Luce may be on to something. The fact that psyllium works so well for you, while it's generally contraindicated for patients with MC, suggests that you might possibly be a celiac. (The colon is not inflamed with celiac disease, so fiber is not as much of a problem).
Psyllium is composed of soluble fiber, though, and soluble fiber slows the absorption of dietary sugars. If you have the leaky gut syndrome, along with your MC, (as many of us do), it's possible that psyllium's ability to sequester sugars, might possibly provide sufficient benefits to outweigh the fiber, (abrasiveness), disadvantage, (since reducing sugar absorption would help to close the tight junctions). Digestive system chemistry can be somewhat complex at times.
I'm not suggesting that this is what is what's happening, I'm just pointing out that it could be a possibility.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Gas Bag wrote:I learned the Psyllium husk trick from Celiacs, so it works for some of us and not others.
Hmmmmmm. Luce may be on to something. The fact that psyllium works so well for you, while it's generally contraindicated for patients with MC, suggests that you might possibly be a celiac. (The colon is not inflamed with celiac disease, so fiber is not as much of a problem).
Psyllium is composed of soluble fiber, though, and soluble fiber slows the absorption of dietary sugars. If you have the leaky gut syndrome, along with your MC, (as many of us do), it's possible that psyllium's ability to sequester sugars, might possibly provide sufficient benefits to outweigh the fiber, (abrasiveness), disadvantage, (since reducing sugar absorption would help to close the tight junctions). Digestive system chemistry can be somewhat complex at times.
I'm not suggesting that this is what is what's happening, I'm just pointing out that it could be a possibility. I'll have to read up on leaky gut syndrome..oh goody something.
Tex
Thanks for the information. You guys are better than the damn Docs, all I got was "here is what is wrong" and "what's not wrong"..Ok bye bye now.
That makes sense to me Tex. I'll read up on leaky gut syndrome..oh goody something else wrong.
I will eventually get more testing done for Celiac's if this doesn't calm down soon.
I sometimes think our bodies go through cycles of some sort. I have other allergies that come and go. I have an allergy to anything metal that touches my skin, metal snaps on levis, any jewelery that is not gold, eye-glass frames.
And yet there are periods of time when I can have metal touch my skin and not break out.
Oh good gravy Marie. I just goggled leaky gut syndrome. I have quit taking ibuprofen recently and I drink way too much coffee and vodka. I have cut way back on the caffine and cut out booze all together. That should be a step in the right direction.
I'm pretty sure that my leaky gut syndrome came from eating way too much sugar for way too many years, because while I was healing, maple sugar was the only sugar that I could tolerate in any significant amount. All the others made me sick, even honey made me sick.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
By the way, when I got a bad case of 'rhoids a few months before my first colonoscopy, while I was in full flare (constant that last year of the disease), my doc put me on one of those bulk things, and I don't remember it making the diarrhea any worse -- couldn't have been worse. It did move the baboon parts out of the way to let out the diarrhea that was damned up behind it. I thought it was ordinary constipation that was blocking things, though I'd not had any formed stools in a long time, but it was just the tail end of my gut, all swelled up -- 'rhoids!
I had a bacterial overgrowth following an antiobiotic for a suspicious looking suture line, right after my thyroidectomy. The fever put me back in the ER by the end of the week with an arrhythmia corrected by Tylenol after the fever was discovered. I hadn't even know it was that high -- duh! It just seems like one thing leads to another.
The doc really didn't want to use this particular antibiotic, but since I'd had all sorts of weird and allergic type reactions to antibiotics recently before that, he decided that one was the lesser of two evils. When I was followed up and monitored on the observation unit, one of the aids was nice enough to go all the way down to the first floor kitchen to get me some live culture yogurt. In spite of my dairy sensitivity (I hadn't started the diet at that point) I got over the acute part of that episode almost immediately following ingesting this big ole carton of this stuff -- must've been a good one! Funny thing was that I don't usually find that stuff all that appetizing!
After we got our heads together later, we decided that I must've had some sort of reaction to the neat stuff they use now to make a really small scar. If the possibility of infection hadn't been so great, we wouldn've never even tried that antibiotic, and the doctor really didn't want to do that, but we just decided we had to. He was afraid I'd get c-diff, but I tested for it while still in the hospital, with negative results.
However, one may still have c-diff that is just not picked up on those tests -- might be eventually, however, so one can never really rule it out. I will always kick myself for not sending for some live culture yogurt when I first got home after that surgery -- duh!! I'm sure I wouldn't have had to go back to the hospital with that fever and arrhythmia, and be hospitalized again.
Besides the fact that I was past the age for the routine colonoscopy, I was also sent for the colonoscopy
to find a possible cause of it. The little doc I went to had done a year of residency in surgery and then switched to family practice. She wanted to lance the thing right in the office, but I wanted to wait a while, and all her recommendations worked, so didn't have to have it lanced. In spite of being afraid of what they'd find on the colonoscopy, I went ahead and saw the GI and eventually got the M.C. diagnosis back along with IBS. Since I didn't do the traditional tests for celiac, but had anti-ttg in my stool and lots of fecal fat (I could tell without the test results), also the vitamin deficiencies, AND I'm very sensitive to gluten and have other related symptoms, it became a no brainer that I was also celiac. I did have the HDL-DQ-2 gene which most celiacs have.
Oh yeah I laugh rather than cry about things. If it ain't life and death, it ain't life and death.
I have perked up today alot, even though I feel like I have been drug through a key hole backwards, due to a bout of flu over the weekend on top of everything else.
But I have taken heart and now think this relaspe could be do to recently trying to take a statin drug.
Hypothyroid 06/01
LC 12/06
Dwell on the positive.
Happiness is a result of a decision to be happy.
