U.C. to Crohn’s Disease to Anal Fistula Learn How to Heal Your Gut

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This is my collection of trials, tribulations, and success with remission of Ulcerative Colitis and/or Crohn’s Disease to Anal Fistula or leaky gut that may or may not work for you or others. Please ask your Physician or Primary Caregiver before trying anything besides what they suggest for your health.  My work is not to be reproduced without my permission. Some of the content is graphic in nature.

When Ulcerative Colitis and/or Crohn’s disease is mentioned my stomach, large intestine, just aches and burns from the reminders of the pain that I once felt there. Not bragging but, I’m thankful for being in remission for the past few years; however, it took a lifestyle change to accomplish this. I still have colonoscopies and biopsies completed every year or two to make sure nothing has changed since this disease increases my chances for colon cancer. I’ve struggled for years, a quarter of a century to be exact, with Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s disease. You may ask why do I say Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s disease. The reason I name both of the diseases is because the last five Gastroenterologist were not able to correctly diagnosis the disease. One said one thing and then would change his diagnosis. They told me the characteristics are very similar to Ulcerative Colitis however, when I ended up with an anal fistula that became a characteristic of Crohn’s disease. 

The beginning was when I was age 16, my lower abdomen hurt like it was on fire and it felt as if it was being cut open with a hot knife without sedatives. That was some of the most excruciating pain that I have ever endured. This hurt way worse than when I sprained my ankle, broke my toe, or had to have stitches put in my eyebrow from being hit in the head with a fly ball while playing baseball. I would even take a sunburn over the pain that I have endured with my Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s disease. I went to build a fire for my family as that was part of my chores while living with my parents as a teenager. While I was building a fire, I passed gas only to realize that I had passed blood and mucus which, scared me to death. I had the leaky gut syndrome. This was the point of which I had to make a doctor’s office visit to find out what was happening to my body. I wanted to know why I was passing blood from my colon. I also wanted to be relieved of the awful pain that I was experiencing.

The next day, I was at the doctor’s office for a complete checkup. The doctor decided to schedule up a sigmoidoscopy to help diagnose the problem. I had little idea of what that was about. The gastroenterologist had me lay on the exam table on my right side and he said to breathe as he performed the sigmoidoscopy. I wasn’t sedated any to take the edge of the pain from that tube that was inserted and run through my colon. That pain was horrible to say the least. I didn’t know which was worse that exam or the disease itself with the pain I was having from the exam. It hurt so much that it took my breath away and was terribly hard to breathe. I was also sent for a barium test to check what was going on in my stomach and small intestines. Fortunately, nothing was wrong in these areas of my body. The doctor diagnosed me with U.C. or Ulcerative Colitis and he wasn’t sure if it was Crohn’s Disease or not. He put me on Asacol to try to alleviate and reduce the symptom’s that I was having. This worked a little bit but, I still was having flare-ups and couldn’t hold my bowels. I had to locate the restroom everywhere I went. I was the person that everyone would ask, “Where is the restroom?” They knew that I would know because of my condition. I remember riding in the car and out of nowhere it hit me; I had to go to the restroom so bad, my stomach just burned and ached. It hurt so much and I couldn’t hold it. It was the worst-case scenario. I told my friend to look out the window of the car that I was riding in. I was in pain and had to use a trash bag for the restroom while my friend was sitting in the car. It stunk like something had died. I was so embarrassed. However, that was what I had to do in order to keep from soiling my clothes. This was a standard of life during this time of flare ups and no control of my Ulcerative Colitis. I was dating my wife at the time and I told her my stomach hurt so bad. I asked her to stop in one of the fast food restaurants for me to be able to use the restroom. She stopped the car and I tried to make it to the restroom; however, I ended up soiling my pants, socks, and shoes. I cleaned up the best I could in the restroom and embarrassingly asked her to please drive me home so, I could get cleaned up. That was some terrible experiences that I endured. I was embarrassed and felt bad for everyone else around me.

I’ve tried everything I could find in order to try to stop the flare ups and the upset stomach. As this disease progressed it lead me to getting an anal fistula which absolutely scared me to death. Imagine having a leakage that you cannot control and don’t know how it started. It was like a zit or pimple that was always draining and hurting. The skin was rotting in the wound because my Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s disease wasn’t allowing the fistula to heal. The surgeon diagnosed the fistula and set up a time to operate. As I went through the surgery he was great at informing me of what to expect and how it should go. He stated this surgery was not always successful and the fistula could return or never heal. That was horrible news to me but, I wanted to get the issue fixed. So, I went through the surgery to get the anal fistula repaired. The surgeon put a seton in there to let it drain and heal from the inside out. This worked good at first. It took about 6 months to heal after the surgery. 

It was 6 ½ months after the anal fistula surgery, everything felt great until all of a sudden, the fistula broke open again. I called the surgeon’s office and was told that fistula surgery doesn’t always fix the problem. Moreover, I was going have to schedule up another surgery. While talking with the surgeon, I realized I could end up with incontinence. I did not want that for myself nor my family. Therefore, I decided to research. You would be surprised as to what I found and how simple it was for me to gain remission. If you want to learn more check out my book to learn how to heal your gut.