Life After Poo 6 (11 months post FMT)
Well, it looks like we’ve had a minor setback. Ashley has started complaining about the beginnings of her UC symptoms returning. It’s still mild, but it’s uncomfortable enough that she’s missed a little work. She’s had stomach pain, loose stools and a mild fever. I suspect it’s the stress she’s under, but you never really know for sure with this disease.
We’ve changed doctors recently. Rather than her returning to a GI, where the next step is a biologic that will work for 2-5 years before they tell her she has to have surgery and get a colostomy bag, we’re seeing a family practitioner at a Concierge Clinic. These are fairly new around here. The basic idea is that you pay a monthly membership fee to belong to the clinic, and in return, your doctor has a very limited number of patients and can give you longer, more personal appointments. This particular doctor is both an MD and an ND, which in my opinion, is awesome. I’ve been seeing her for a while and she is very good. I like to call her Dr. House because she just won’t quit until she finds a solution. She’s currently looking at Ashley’s blood type and diet. Apparently there is some research that shows you should eat a certain way based on your blood type. I’m not sure about that whole premise, but I’m open to trying anything! I mean, really, once you are playing in poo, everything else pales in comparison.
Beyond her explorations with her new doctor, we started up FMT again yesterday. Lee hasn’t been out of the country, so we didn’t feel the need to do any blood tests or stool tests a year later. Certainly we’ll retest if we travel outside of the U.S. Ashley had her infusion at 1:30pm yesterday and was able to retain it until 8:30am this morning. She had a solid bowel movement and had been pain free all day. She’s asked to continue the infusions for a week, which we think is a great idea. The fact that a young adult is requesting this treatment, is proof enough of how painful and life altering her UC is. As of now, Ashley is still off of all of her prescription meds. It’s been a total of 8 months of prescription-free life.
Even if it means doing FMT a few times a year for the rest of her life, it will be completely worth it to avoid the inevitable colostomy bag of the Western medicine path Updates to follow.
