I haven't been around here much as I've been coasting along in general,
things could have been better but could have been worse. I spent 3 years
working at Biogen (manufacturer of a long awaited CD medication) in their
IT
dept. It was a pretty stressful job but interesting in many ways.
Well things have gotten worse for me and I'm in the middle of a bad flare.
Going to see my GP today and have appt with specialist but not until July
2nd at this point.
A quick recap, I've had UC for about 8 years now. For a number of years I
did really well and symptoms were at a minimum. I've been on asacol and
cipro pretty much the entire time. About 2-3 years ago I stopped taking
the
asacol for about 4 weeks and was fine, then stopped the cipro. After about
2
weeks I started to flare so I got back on the meds. I know it was a stupid
thing to do but sometimes you get tired of taking so many pills.
Anyway it took me a couple months to get things under control. But since
then I've never gotten back to the same level of remission I originally
had.
I suspect more damage had been done to my intestines. Also I had a couple
incidents while driving to work and needed to get to a bathroom in a
hurry.
Due to these incidents I became fearful about driving to work, even though
I
only had a 1/2 hr commute. I started drinking strong coffee in the morning
to force a bowel movement before going to work. This would help insure
that
no "accidents" occurred. This is a bit of a counterproductive measure as I
firmly believe coffee does a lot of harm to my intestines. I take a number
of vitamins and feel they counteract some of the bad effects of the
coffee.
Anyway I was able to make it to work OK for 3 years, although sometimes
later than I would have liked.
I've been taking my meds religiously now for the past 2-3 years but
something is obviously not working.
I kicked the coffee last week due to the severity of my symptoms (pain and
bleeding). I also increased my asacol as a tem****ary measure until I see
my
doc and specialist. I mostly feel OK except when bowel material enters my
lower quadrant. Then a good deal of pain and discomfort until I go.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has had long-term UC and what meds they
have taken. I'm also wondering if there is a way to get meds tested to
insure they are potent. And/or is it possible to develop resistance or
immunity to them?
Any advice, knowledge or experience will be greatly appreciated.
thank you
Jeff
