Anyone else with experience of ulcerative colitis?

[Electriclaundryland]

Ds,6, has just been diagnosed. I was wondering if there is anyone else out there in a similar situation. Am currently trying to get up to speed on things that will help him long term. He's on steroids at the moment but hopefully short term.

I was diagnosed with UC when I was 12, which later turned out to be Crohn's, but still very similar.

Of course all cases are different, but for me it hasn't had too much of a negative impact on my life. I'm ill from time to time and that's pretty shit (or not so pretty, depending on how you want to look at it!) but generally speaking I'm fine.

I would recommend that you and DS start keeping a food diary. They say that there can be trigger foods that cause flare ups and this could help to work out what his is. There is also an app called 'GI monitor' that I have found useful in the past. It tracks what food you're eating, what your toilet visits have been like in the day, what medication you're taking, etc. it also generates reports that you can then forward on to your consultant.

I hope that helps. Hugs for your DS!

Thank you for replying! Will check that app out. At the moment I'm being bombarded with stuff from my herbalist Sil like probiotics and am a bit confused as to which path to take. Luckily ds seems to be responding well at the moment to his conventional treatment.

I have heard a lot of people say probiotics are very helpful. I haven't tried that route myself (other than drinking some of the strawberry flavoured bottled yoghurts because they taste good!) but there's no harm in trying a bit of both I guess!

He you don't mind me asking, are you on a long term anti inflammatory like mesalazine?

I am. I have been on them constantly for about 6 or 7 years now. When I was in my teens I used to get a lot of headaches and they thought that the mesalazine could be causing them, so they took me off. Since going back on them headaches haven't been any more of a problem than when I wasn't on them. I also take immunosuppressants.

There's an infusion drug called infliximab that I have been put on in the past that works like a dream too.

Interesting, thanks.