Quote:
Originally Posted by epitome
Sorry, Shelly, I am just getting to reading from the beginning again to make sure I have not missed anyone.
I've tried just about everything. Probiotics is new to me but if they go by any other name then I have probably tried them. My main problems are infections. Remicade worked wonders for a few years but it eventually stopped.
I started getting more frequent bowel obstructions which is why we went the colostomy route. I should have gotten this thing years ago but was always afraid of it. Oh was I ever misinformed!
I still get infections but they are not as severe. I've also had some other weird things happen to me, but overall I am the healthiest I have been for while.
One thing scares the shit of me. I have a lytic lesion on my spine that grows between CT scans. If they don't grow, you're fine...if they do grow, it may be nothing or it may be cancer. Naturally, I cannot afford to see a specialist or get the tests done. I'm always tired but my appetite is healthy and its been well over a year since it was discovered. I'm thinking its not cancer. I'll get worried if I start shedding weight.
As for all of the pain I have, the pain meds keep them in check. Everything else is tolerable so long as I do not have much pain.
I've heard that with the new bill that passed I may be able to purchase health insurance starting in 2014. I'll make sure I stick around to find out.  |
You'd probably want to talk to someone since you've already gone the colostomy route just to make sure this is kosher. Probiotics are good bacteria that helps ballance the bacteria in your intestines and help break down food to make digestion easier. This is what I can tell you:
I don't want to make this a tl;dr so in a nutshell I had a massive GI tract infection. They kept misdiagnosing me, it took them about 2 years to figure out what was wrong, so for two years I had a bacterial infection wreaking havoc on my body. I couldn't keep any food in, and it was just as much vomiting as anything else. All my tests for things like crohns, h.pylori, gluten allergy, etc, all came back negative and all signs pointed to cancer.
Luckily I found a doctor who was able to figure out the puzzle and one of the things he put me on to help my recovery was a probiotic designed for people with Ulcerative Colitis. It's not cheap, but to me when I was trying to rebuild the flora in my GI tract this stuff was my savior. It's called VSL#3-
http://www.vsl3.com/
My best friend was diagnosed with Crohns when she was around 10. She takes a cheaper probiotic to help her maintain her crohns that is much more affordable. She get's acidophilous from the health food store, the good probiotics are kept refrigerated, and you'll want to keep them refrigerated too. Her sister is also a very good friend of mine and she just tested positive for crohn's last year. Her flares are very few and very light so she's not really doing anything to manage right now.
I'm doing much better. I'm barely sick anymore, but I've had to make alot of diet changes. I rarely have to take probiotics anymore, but every now and then I'll get a bad week where I will need to. I don't know if I'll ever be normal again. Most days I'm good but sometimes I still get that burning from the inside - like my guts are trying to eat themselves. I have ulcers too so sometimes my pain level can get pretty serious, but that usually only happens when I have to take something for my migraines.
I would look into the HR company info that was provided and see what you can do. I know it's hard when you don't have two pennies to rub together, but the sooner you can get that checked the better. Tumors aren't always cancerous, but sometimes at bipsy they will find "pre-cancer" cells. You always want to catch things as early as possible to increase the effectiveness of any treatment you may need.
I feel for you, you're awesome for having such a good attitude about it. I salute you
