Two years since the first transplant and doing great

It has been two years since that first fecal transplant. I am still doing great with no symptoms and haven't been on any of the drugs to turn off my immune system for about 2 1/2 years now.

The GI told me that I would have to take those drugs for the rest of my life... well, that was before removing sugar, lactose and grains from my diet and doing approximately 6 fecal transplants in a one-year spam.

I am still avoiding sugar, lactose and grains but may have just a small amount only on rare occasions. I ate my first chocolate chip the other day and my gut didn't even notice, which meant I have made great progress!

I have learned SO much about why my gut went crazy and gave me explosive diarrhea shortly after a round of antibiotics (zpack), then undergoing routine surgery to trim up some torn cartilage.

Antibiotics to the gut are like bulldozing a garden and then hoping the good plants (tomato, green beans, peppers, lettuce, etc.) grow back instead of the weeks. Everyone knows that where grass has been dug up in your yard, weeds will grow back with a vengeance if you don't plant grass seed and get what you want to grow, established again. That is what fecal transplants do for our gut.

I am looking forward to the day where others can be given the opportunity to have fecal transplants to heal their gut instead of drugs to turn off their immune system, which may leave them open to cancers and other illnesses. God made our immune system to help our body heal. It goes after bacteria that gets out of line - this is what doctors call 'autoimmune disease - which they are saying is bad, and it is, however, it should be a red-flag that there is some bacteria out of line. Turning off the immune response is not the solution.

If you are still considering doing home fecal transplants to heal your gut, I would say go for it!

I am living proof that it works, when combined with diet (no sugar, lactose and grains) while the gut heals.

Here is a funny video that will make you laugh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsVgi8hoFFc

Teri

Gut Reaction - Very informative videos

I am still doing great and still eating SCD and in recovery from ulcerative colitis, caused by an antibiotic for a sinus infection several years ago.

I just make my first batch of kombucha and I am excited to see how it turns out. Kombucha a fermented tea that is full of microbes that is good for your gut.

Here is another helpful link on how antibiotics can affect our health down the road:
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/08/taking-antibiotics-early-life-leaves-mice-prone-obesity

I watched this awesome video, shown in Australia called Gut Reaction, Part 1. You can watch it using this link below:

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4067184.htm

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w94D45txSxo

Gut Reaction Part 2 is linked below:

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4070977.htm

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtLDmoDUmgg

I hope I have inspired at least a few of you to change your diet and start eating SCD so you too can recover from these horrible gut issues.

Teri.

Ulcerative Colitis - healing and moving forward

I haven't posted in a while... I had a slight setback in December after eating too many nuts, but a few FMTs and it got me right back to normal.

Since we had met our out-of-pocket maximum for our insurance last year, I had asked my doctor for a prescription for a three-month supply of VSL#3-DS.

VSL#3 high-potency probiotic medical food contains 8 different strains of live lactic acid bacteria that were specially selected to produce an optimal synergistic composition of bacteria. The 8 strains are:

    Bifidobacterium breve
    Bifidobacterium longum
    Bifidobacterium infantis
    Lactobacillus acidophilus
    Lactobacillus plantarum
    Lactobacillus paracasei
    Lactobacillus bulgaricus
    Streptococcus thermophilus

I don't want to keep having setbacks. I want to do all I can to completely heal the lining of my colon so I can go forward in life, leaving these symptoms behind forever.

I used VSL#3-DS every day for about a month, then about twice a week. Now I am down to once a week or so and doing amazingly great. It feels so good to have energy again and casually stroll to the bathroom once or twice a day instead of having to know where every bathroom was, everywhere I went.

I am still drinking homemade kefir, eating homemade yogurt and homemade sauerkraut regularly. In January I started taking an over the counter L-Glutamine, which may help heal the lining of the gut. This is in addition to the other supplements I take every day - fish oil, vitamins B, C and D and a few others.

I have also been drinking a lot of gelatin, with a bit of 100% natural grape juice added for flavor. This is beef gelatin that I buy in powder form with no sugar added - just the powdered gelatin.

I am still eating SCD although I have added greenish-yellow bananas, which contain resistant starch to feed the good bacteria. I started slowly but can now eat 2 green bananas a day with no problems.

I hope anyone who read this will find home for recovering from Ulcerative Colitis, using food and FMT, instead of expensive drugs to repress their immune system or surgery. Doctors are not yet promoting FMT as a way to replace the bacteria that was killed off when they gave you an antibiotic. Maybe someday... until then, you and I have the Internet to help us learn how to do a FMT at home and how to make homemade kefir, sauerkraut and yogurt as well as how to eat healthy and heal from UC,

Teri

DIY Fecal Transplants to cure yourself

It is hard not to get angry at doctors - even specialists - who look right at you and say "It has nothing to do with what you eat." and "No one knows what causes UC."

Really, it has a lot to do with what we eat - or don't eat. What we eat either starves our microbiome or feeds it - the good bacteria or the bad bacterial.

Over the last year and a half I have learned SO much about how we need our microbes in our environment and how antibiotics are killing off our microbes. Sometimes antibiotics are necessary but we should be told to be consuming probiotic and prebiotic foods especially while on antibiotics.

Fermented vegetables, homemade yogurt, kefir, etc, all help feed our microbiome.

For those of you who suffering with UC, Crohns, or IBS and want to find a solution to end your suffering, a home fecal transplant may be the answer.

This video by Michael Hurst from www.fecaltransplant.org will show you the steps to doing a home FMT:
http://youtu.be/WEMnRC22oOs

I recommend this site as well as http://thepowerofpoop.com to read how others have been cured by doing a home FMT by restoring the bacteria in their microbiome that antibiotics had killed off, creating dreadful colitis symptoms.

Just think how nice it will be to leave your house again and not have to know where every bathroom is!

Teri