2012 Year in Review

A few people have asked me recently how I've been doing with my illness. I can say that life since beginning To take Juice Plus has been fantastic. I have one one (very minor) flare up since beginning the Juice Plus and staying away from what I believe to be my personal trigger foods: leafy greens, pineapples, apples and steak. I've also noticed that I feel much better when trying to cut gluten from my diet, but that is a really difficult thing to do. My one flare up in June/July was minor, I was not out of commission but it was uncomfortable. I didn't take any drugs or see the doc for this one since it was so minor. It's still hard to say if juice plus is the cure, but it has definitely had a positive effect along with the cautious eating.

Running Aces Card Club is fantastic

They opened a new Harness Racing / Card Club about 35-40 minutes away from where we're living. It's a bit of a haul, but its a really nice card club and they have great promotions. They pay $5 per hour when you play and you can cash it out every time you're done playing. I've been there 3 times now and have won each time. I'm thinking of quitting Cargill to play professionally for a while... and now I'm done thinking about that because the benefits package Cargill offers is a bit better. I don't think my poker playing could have covered the Mayo Clinic bill I had in March.

Anyways, in other news, I'm training for Twin Cities marathon, which is October 2nd. We're in week 7 I believe and going out for 14-16 miles on Saturday morning. Hopefully the heat and more importantly the humidity stays away until after 10am when we finish up. 

In other other news, Cargill is rolling out the 2nd wave of our big Tartan project where we are introducing SAP to 4 more Business Units. We've been working some odd hours lately, but its not all that bad. working midnight to 8am feels odd, but then you get the whole day off to get things done around the apartment (or to go play poker).

In other other other news, my Colitis is in full remission right now and hopefully with the help of Juice Plus, which I'm still taking, it will stay that way for a looooooooooooong time. I've been eating much better and introducing new things back in very slowly. Starting to eat some fruits and veggies again and having no problems so far. I still have to be really cautious because you just never know with this mystery disease what might happen. 

Hope all is well with you guys! 

Update on the Juice Plus - 7 days in

I've been on the Juice Plus for exactly a week now and after 2 days, I started feeling more energy. After 3 days, I made it through my first 8 hours of sleep without having to wake up to go to the bathroom and haven't been woken up in the middle of the night since that first day. I also made it through an entire day at work without having to go Wed-Fri. I started marathon training this week, did 5 miles Monday, 6 miles Wednesday, and 8 on Saturday without having to stop. So basically, its a miracle, I'm feeling 97% of full health. I haven't felt this good since January.

Now is it the Juice Plus? I think it has to be. First of all, I can't believe its working at all, especially after only a few days of taking it! I'm even hesitant to write this post because its been such a short period of time, but I can't argue with how I'm feeling. I am going to give it a few more weeks before I go stand on the hill tops and shout about how great it is to everyone I know.

I've really restricted my diet (no veggies, only bananas for fruit, no fried foods, no pizza, no tomato type sauces, limited candy - a chubby kid needs his candy!) and alcohol intake (2-3 drinks per week) and feeling this good makes it really tempting to go out and throw down a couple beers and a couple starbursts, but I can't go there yet.

I'm so pumped right now, feeling alive and healthy! Colitis.... go away forever!

Is Juice Plus+ Legit?

I haven't updated the site in a while and I really wish I kept better track on here of how I've been feeling. Since my last post when I was put on all those different meds that made me feel like an elderly woman with a pill box, I have stopped taking all of them. It sounds like that's a good thing, but I'm still not 100%. In fact, I'm about 85% and I've been feeling the same for about a month. I stopped taking the Sulfasalazine May 16th because I was feeling a 'different' kind of stomach pains than I was feeling from the Colitis itself. After I stopped, I started feeling better, but still having the 'oh shit' feeling daily.

I talked to a friend that has Chron's which is a similar IBD, but effects the small intestine instead of the large intestine like Colitis. Anyways, this person has been taking Juice Plus, which is a supplement that is basically a bunch of vegetables and fruits dehydrated fully, crushed, and some of the fiber removed from it and all stuffed into a little pill sized capsule. I started taking the fruit, vegetable, and antioxidant capsules sunday night and they say it takes a few weeks to a few months, but eventually I will be 'amazed' by how great I feel. Normally, I wouldn't buy something like this, I would write it off as a gimmick, but there is a lot of research behind it and I can't eat fruits and veggies due to my problems, so why not give it a shot? Besides, none of the medicines they are giving me are helping and I'm still struggling with this flare-up since February.

I'm feeling tired and worn out all the time, not getting full nights of sleep because I'm waking up in the middle of the night at least once and sometimes multiple times. All of that, and I'm 31 now, getting old, need my beauty sleep! Hopefully this Juice Plus gimmick actually works. If this fails and I'm still having problems in 2-3 months, I'll have to go back to the doc to go to the next level of treatment. Yikes!

Hope you are all having healthy poops!

Mayo Clinic Trip 3/23 - 3/25

Now I know what a lab rat feels like. We left Minneapolis around 5am Wednesday morning for my 7am appointment at Mayo driving through yet another Minnesota winter storm. We didn't arrive until 7:30am, so we had to wait around for the next available time slot. Once we did get to see the Doctor, who was dressed in a suit instead of one of those big white cloaks, we finally got things underway with getting a plan together for the testing and diagnosis.

They set me up for 3 days of testing, which included making me fast for most of the time. That's right, chubby guy didn't get to eat any solid foods from 7pm Tuesday night until about noon on Thursday. Then I had to fast again in the morning for another 8 hours. I guess the good news is that I'm under 200lbs now. Yay?

So here's the lineup of tests they did:
Wednesday - Tuberculin Skin Test
Wednesday - Blood Tests to test everything from vitamin levels to hemoglobin to iron
Wednesday - Chest X-ray
Wednesday - Stool Test
Thursday - Colonoscopy (my favorite)
Friday - MRI to view cross sections of the GI tract to look for abnormal swelling

Friday at 4pm, we went back to the Doctor to review the testing and they were able to finally confirm that I indeed have Ulcerative Colitis with a side helping of C-diff, aka Clostridium Difficile, and a major Vitamin D deficiency. Where does Vitamin D come from? The sun, so we're moving to San Diego to fix that problem.

So what does all this boil down to in terms of treatment for me? Glad you asked, so we'll start with the easy one.

Vitamin D deficiency - take Vitamin D2 50,000 unit capsule once per week for 8 weeks

C-diff - take Metrinidazole 500mg capsule 3x per day for 14 days (75% chance of eliminating the infection)

Ulcerative Colitis

• Taper off the Prednisone starting at 25mg per day for 7 days then reducing by 5mg every 7 days until 0mg per day.
• Begin taking Sulfasalazine 2 capsules 2 times daily for 2 days, then 2 capsules 3 times daily for 2 days, then 4 capsules 2 times daily for EVER.
• Take 1 capsule of Folic Acid 1 time daily while on Sulfasalazine.

So in a month, the idea is for me to be on only the Sulfasalazine as a maintenance drug to keep the inflammation of the colon in check. The doc said that about 30-50% of people respond well enough on this medication to keep flare ups in check. If I continue to have 2 or more flare ups per year on this regimen they will move me up to the next most powerful drug in line, which I believe is called Imuran. I am still a few years away from that, unless things get worse.

Next colonoscopy will be in 6 years. For those who haven't done it, you should get it done for fun. The good news that came from all of this is that they did confirm that I have no signs of Cancer and that Ulcerative Colitis doesn't alter life expectancy if treated properly (like I'm doing).

If you made it all the way through this post, you must be really bored or be a concerned friend. Thanks for listening, its been a bitch of a week :)

Time to move south

So I went in to see my doctor from Park Nicollet today, since it was the first available appointment to see him since my latest flare up. As with my previous visits with the doc, my flare up is pretty much done now with the help of the Prednisone, so this was really just a follow-up with him. He wants me to stay on full dosage of Prednisone until Friday and then we gradually reduce it over the next 5 weeks until I'm off of it. However, he wants me to take the Sulfasalazine, the stuff that I was taking before the Prednisone, once I'm 2 weeks into the taper process.

I also mentioned that I will be going to the Mayo Clinic and he became really angry, just kidding. He was fine with the break up, although, I have a feeling he still wants to see me after the Mayo Clinic. I mean, we still have to be cordial since I won't be going down to Mayo for every future flare up. I don't want to burn any bridges so I told him my family and friends pretty much forced me to book the appointment at Mayo. I think he bought it.

We also talked about my particular case with Colitis. He thinks I have Ulcerative Colitis, but he said it was not for certain. It could be a version of Chrone's possibly or some other form of Colitis. He said that the Mayo Clinic will probably probe me with enough tests to know for sure. I also asked him where I ranked in terms of how serious my particular Colitis is and he said I was an 'interesting' case because I had been clear of any symptoms for 10 months while not taking any medications. Most people would have more frequent flare ups if they didn't take the daily meds that they prescribe. So we are back to a mystery case for me, although when I was leaving I mentioned that I have had a couple flare ups now and they just happen to coincide with winter. He said he used to practice down in Arizona and there were far fewer cases of colitis down there and continued to say that in general, the south has less IBD problems. Time to move to San Diego?

Five days of steroids

It seems the Prednisone is starting to work. I was only up once last night and frequency has reduced. I'm still having the same pains but it's less often. Instead of 12 per day, I'm down to about 6 bathroom visits.

I was able to make an appointment at the Mayo Clinic for march 23rd. They say I should plan to be there for 3 days so they can test the shit out of me, pun intended.

I also have an appointment with my Park Nicollet doctor next Monday. Im going to tell him that I'm seeing someone else for my condition. I hope he takes the breakup well. I feel like it's going to be awkward.