Crohn's Disease & Ulcerative Colitis Support Group

Welcome! I was diagnosed ly with pancolitis UC which is the entire colon. I was in the hospital for a month and really sick for months after leaving the hospital. I have never went back to "normal" since. I am doing much better which is positive.
Expect - depends on severity of the disease. You want to have a GI doctor. Treatment usually starts with like Pentasa,prednisone,antibotics,and autoimmune suppressant treatment. Do your homework before going on any medication so you are educated and understand the impact it can have on you and your life. Be open and frank with your doctor. Your primary care physician will also be a huge player. If you had conservative communication regarding bowel activity - throw that out the window. Doctors can only help you if you keep open and direct with your issues. Keep a daily log of what you eat and how you react, bowel movements, pain levels, etc. This will be a lot of help visiting your doctor and you reviewing progress. Remission I can't say. I am "in remission" and have 6 bowel movements a day and haven't returned to work. But my case is a minority not a majority for UC. Again welcome to the group and hope you find support and help amoung us :)

I have CD, and I find that if I take lactaid right before eating any type of dairy I can usually digest it with out a problem. But, I can't over do it. Moderation is the key for me. Ball Park has an all turkey white meat hot dog. I can eat them once in awhile without a problem. Instead of beef burgers I make my self turkey burgers. I can no longer digest pork in the form of sausage or bacon. But, I can eat a lean pork chop. Steak is a problem for me if I am even having a bit of a flare. Just can't digest the beef. I find juicing carrots and having one serving a day helps to calm down my insides. We are all different when it comes to this lousy disease as far as our trigger foods. I can eat something I like one day with no problem and then eat it again another time and find I have a problem with it. Just introdouce foods that you think are a problem very slowly. Don't eat more than on trigger food at a time.
You will see what works for you as time goes by. Try not to get frustrated as I know it is so easy to do so. There are days I just want to scream. I am doing better with the Humira, but still have my problems with this lousy disease.
Hugs,
Dolores

Hey Compan. Sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. This is going to be a life changing issue that may never go away. But you are doing the right thing by joining a support group. For the past 25 years I have struggled with colitis. By taking the right combination of drugs and supplements and making dietary changes, I have gone in and out of remission several times. The longest one lasted 6 years! The best thing to do is flip your diet upside down. Eat things you normally don't eat and avoid things you normally do eat. You will see a change within a couple days. When you find a good combination.... stick with it. In general it is a good idea to take probiotics, folic acid, vitamin D, and avoid milk products.

Even with colitis life does go on. I've climbed 16 mountains that are over 14,000 feet, skied all over the world, backpacked in Alaska, toured the Galopagos Islands, and hiked for two weeks in New Zealand.

Keep trying new things. You can find the right combination.

Hey Compan, I have to agree with the other posters here. Normalcy is something that you may never achieve again. There are some things that I have not eaten at all since I was diagnosed over two years ago. There are some things I kept trying to eat, but I learned my lesson.

Alot of people suggest the elimination diet to see what bothers you and what doesn't. In truth, if I am in a flare, just about everything makes me feel ill. There are some things that make me feel worse than others though: pizza, heavily fried foods, pickles, seeds, ruffage--no raw veggies in any capacity...there are more I'm sure, but I am forgetful right now...lol.

As far as remission. I know now that I have never been in remission. The evil pred will give me the illusion of remission, but as soon as I am off of it, I become sick fairly quickly.

My advice to you is to make sure you have a GI that you like and can trust and do alot of research on your own. The only way to empower yourself is to educate yourself about your disease.

Most of the info that I learned was researched on my own or found on this site. My first GI doc was not very good and did not share alot of information with me. My second GI is much, much better though--thank goodness!

Good Luck!

Thank you all for your time and support.

My colitis according to my doctor is mild to moderate with some parts of my colon mildy inflamed, moderately inflamed, and some parts not inflamed. I am on day two of prednisone and i must say it is the best I have felt in two months. I seem to have most of my problems in the morning now. I used to wake up either at 2am of 4am on the dot to go to the bathroom, but last night was my first full night of sleep in a while. I have not felt different, bloated, or anything so far and my stomach feels normal. As much as I want to think I can control this disease with a cycle of prednisone, I realize that may be unrealistic.

One thing though that Colitis HAS helped me with is keeping a positive attitude (believe it or not haha). I used to beat myself up all the time over stupid things. I had pancreatitis my junior year in high school and became pessimistic since, like bad things will always happen to me. When I was diagnosed with colitis i couldnt help but laugh. I still have a positive attitude for the most part but why I came here is because I feel everyone here is positive. With my family, they think I am bottling up emotions and I should be suffering over this openly. They tell me I am stressed and limit myself to much. I cant help but disagree with them as I do everything I am capable of and very proud of myself for how I am handling my new disease. But I cant tell them that because they are always right.

Sorry, ending rant haha. Thanks again for everyone's support. I always remember who helps me and I will do my best to return help when it is needed : )

Wow, most of those foods are on my avoidance list... >< But each person is different, you have to try it and evaluate for yourself whether they trigger your symptoms.

As for cravings... I firmly believe that our bodies give us cravings to tell us we're missing something. Therefore if you really really want it... at least have a little ;D Good excuse, huh? lol!

hello and i hope u get on remssion soon. I was diagnosed like a year ago and im in remission now its good.. Well let me tell you that we are all different and you will know for urself what is good and not good for you since we are all different. I dont eat any of the stuff that u posted macaroni salad sausage etc.. let me tell you what i do for me that works but it might not be the same for you, you just have to find out for your self ... it sucked the first year because i have been testing all foods but ok here i go this is what diet i do that helps. I do Lactoce free so nothing that comes from milk including cheese and yourt ... I do Low fat so no greasy sausages or anything greasy.. and i just started aswell doing glutten free wiich is a protein found in bread wheat and pasta.. like i said we are all different just be a little inspector do a jornal of food and write down what makes u feel bad i hope this helps and good luck=)

Hello & welcome! I also can no longer eat any of those foods on your list (without paying a price), with the exception of a steak now and then (trim the fat please). Like some of the others said, everyone's experience is different. It takes time, effort and hard work but you'll be able to find what works for you. Good luck!

I was diagnosed with uc 2 years ago. I am in remission now, but it took time and patience, ANy healing is slow and at times I jumped the gun and ate foods not good and paid. No more high, fat, low sugar, low spice, dairy no.There are lactaid free ice creams out there.But they still have sugar. After much research, I cam across the specific carbohydrate diet and food combining like greattastenopain.com. They aren't always easy to follow, as I am from the junk food era. But they have helped me. I always take a good probiotic non dairy form local health food store and veg digestive enzymes.. I cheat some times but small portions, not during a flare up. I can never go back to the bad diet I used to be on. Everyone is different. Hope this help.

I am in your boat, new to this and not liking it. EVERYTHING makes me sick. I can't drink water sometimes. My body is retarded and I just want it cut out of me (I'm having a BAD day). Anyway....

Those foods you mentioned I had to cut out entirely. I haven't been able to eat dairy for years (I've been symptomatic for five years) and it just sucks, as we all know.

As far as meat, I found that chicken is better than beef, turkey and pork. I have found that Turkey has a hormone that isn't good for us and Chicken has half the fat as beef. I make hamburgers from ground chicken on my good days.

As far as dairy, I avoid it, but I have alternatives. Soy milk has a trigger in it (not sure what) but I can still drink it with no problems, almond milk or coconut milk (even though I can't find it) seem to be good replacements.

Right now I'm in your same boat, so if you find something share it with me =) Then again I still don't know if I have CD or UC (I'll know Monday after my colonocopy), but my doctors (all 1800 of them) say CD. Yuck