The moderator from my CCFA Online Support Group sent out an email last night that contained some interesting information about a probiotic that I haven’t heard of before. It’s called VSL#3. There was a small study conducted back in 2005 that found that these probiotics induced remission in 77% of the patients in the study that suffered from mild to moderate UC with no adverse side effects. This study was done on patients who weren’t responding to conventional treatment.
Their a bit expensive but I figured that they’re worth a shot. Especially since the conventional therapies aren’t going so well for me right now. The compounding pharmacy that’s in town is supposed to carry these probiotics. I plan on calling them on Monday to see if they sell the capsules. If they don’t I’ll be ordering them from the manufacturers website. It would be awesome if they worked and I could get off of this Prednisone and onto the Budesonide.
My boyfriend mentioned earlier that I had seemed to be doing better before the doctors put me on all of these meds because I was able to function most days before they did. Granted waking up at 2am having an extremely painful bowel movement wasn’t fun but I wasn’t having constant abdominal pain for most of the day. The Lialda I was on in December really messed my colon up I’m convinced. It’s unfortunate. I wish I wasn’t having such a hard time finding meds that worked for me.
It’s starting to make me pretty angry some days too. I hate how my life can be such a struggle some days and it’s been that way for over three years now. I just want to know when I’m going to catch a damn break from it all. But will I ever catch a break? I have an autoimmune disease that has no cure. I feel like this is my life now and that this is all I have to look forward too. I don’t even have a bad case of UC. I just have a really difficult case to treat unfortunately and it fucking sucks. I just want to be better already. Is that too much to ask for?
I keep trying to tell myself that I am not my disease but there’s days that I feel like all I am is my disease. I’m struggling with abdominal pain, insomnia, fatigue and the various side effects that my meds are causing and I’m so tired of it. I really wish that there was a cure for IBDs. I really hope that there’s one in my lifetime. That would be absolutely amazing…