Hi all,

I thought I'd share my story of the downhill track to where I was 6 months ago, and the healing I've done since then. I was diagnosed with UC, although this never made sense to me as medically the tests were negative and the doctor just said it's because the disease is in it's infancy.

Firstly, I was always sick with tonsillitis as a young child, and had tonsils out at 12 years old.
course of horrible tetra-cyclines which burned my gut and didn't do me any favours for acne- 22 years old. I had several severe cases of food poisoning ages 20-25
started to develop allergic reactions approx age 21 including petikia from beans (which I ate a LOT of during Uni). I also had the development of hay fever and extreme itching ages 20-25.

Then I traveled to Cambodia/Vietnam for 3 weeks at age 24 and got sick- diarrhea, weakness, sweating for 1 week and following this developed pains, urgency in lower bowels after coffee/juice and bad D each day at work.

Suffered critically low B12 levels throughout this time although diet was good with plenty of meat and dairy. Took Injections of B12 as tablets weren't high enough in dose to counteract the low level.

Then the fun really began.... moved to Dubai for work and symptoms became really bad. I think the stress of moving combined with an already compromised system didn't help!!

After many visits to doctor they gave me a course of triple therapy for suspected h-pylori. It didn't change the symptoms and probably didn't help the gut at all either. Following that I had an ultrasound - found nothing.
Ended up losing 6+ kgs over one month Oct 2008 - had colonoscopy and endoscopy, biopsies etc -was put on Pentasa and Nexium. I was suffering pain, bleeding and mucous, food intolerance and basically stopped eating (although it took my mum to point this out to me!). Anxiety levels were then very high as I could barely drive the 30 minute trip to work each morning without exploding!

S, on Pentasa the symptoms initially subsided and inflammation of the rectum and colon was calmed, but then the drug didn't seem to be helping... testing was negative for UC, but severe ulcers, muscous, sometimes a small amount of blood covering the stools, the specialist said although tests for UC are negative this is definitely NOT IBS! It's got to be UC as all symptoms are all pointing to UC!!

Had 2 bouts of severe crippling gut pain where I fell to the bed early in the morning before work. Struck me down~!
5 mins later I was fine and went to work.

Changed diet to wheat free and dairy free as of Feb 2009, minimizing processed foods and high fat/additives etc where possible.

After 6 months approx on Pentasa noticed severe bruising (I was doing kick boxing classes at gym 1 x week)
Blood testing found critically low levels of platelets (I had a reaction to the Pentasa which is rare but serious)
which damaged my platelet production. I was down to 50k - should be 150 -400k (and went off the drugs immediately. It took 1 month to build up again to OK levels, but now-
the platelets and even B12 is dropping again, slowly but surely.

Now I am OFF Pentasa and am drug free. I am actually much better off it than I was on it!! I've had a few weeks of bad gut episodes, anxiety and am now taking slippery elm, acidophillus, calcium (I'm dairy free) and have started today on psyllium husk to bulk out the stools.
I am much stronger and healthier now than 6 months ago, because thinking back I could barely do a 30 minute walk, but am now doing a few hours at the gym each week with weights/yoga and walking - but am taking it easy and repairing my body slowly and surely. I know this is a long story but I feel like I have been through the wringer and don't want to have any more drugs or probes, thanks...all they do is mask the pain and cause other issues if you're unlucky like me!! I've read many books, thought about the emotional connections to illness (i have a stressful family who all have issues of their own)and recently got 'listen to your gut' which has been a great help! I am determined to heal my body and believe that the damage can be undone, slowly but surely. This of course, is impossible to see when you're not well, and I'm just taking it one day at a time!! Thanks for reading!!

By: candycane