Help with Healing from a Crohn's Flare

[Gossy]

First, I need to say, I am bordering on the edge of throwing my hands up and giving up. I really need any help and suggestions you all can give.

On May 15th, after days of stomach pains and fever, I went to the ER. I wound up being admitted for a bad Crohn's flare and infected abscess. I was in the hospital for 9 days. I had a Hickman catheter put in and was given my nutrition through it - a mix of chemicals that I swear gave me oral thrush. I had the worst coating in my mouth and throat, it was awful, the nutrition stuff was full of sugars . . . I was also on (and still am) multiple antibiotics (my naturopathic doctor who I totally trust insists I need to stay on them while I'm still having pain, and since I don't want to wind up back in the ER . . .). My naturo doc has given me some heavy duty top of the line probiotics as an antibiotic pre-cursor, and I do think that helps. I'm also on a few other supplements, and steroids, to address deficiencies (like Vitamin D) and to hopefully stop this flare. If anyone cares I'm on Cortef 40 mg daily for the steroid. The worst side effect of it is insomnia, so, I'm not complaining about that one.

I have been given all kinds of advice, the one that makes me laugh most from the hospital doctors who blamed my raw eating and said never to eat raw stuff again - I'd be better off with processed foods.

SERIOUSLY.

I know deep down in my heart raw is the life I need to lead, and want to get there, but they wouldn't allow me those foods in the hospital (the few days I got to eat) and I'm noticing now that after I eat, say, a salad (a very simple mostly lettuce deal) there are undigested bits in my stool - so my body is obviously having processing issues. They let me go even though I still had restricted (but not blocked) intestinal sections, and I can feel (literally) food traveling through me, little pain spasms, so I know I'm still inflamed.

Has anyone here healed from a Crohn's flare with raw? What did you eat primarily? What should I make sure to eat tons of? Like, I know pineapple is anti-inflammatory so I've been trying to have some in every smoothie in the morning. I'm thinking I need to scale back and just do plain fruit smoothies for breakfast and lunch and green juices for snacks and dinner. I have one juice combo I adore (kale, spinach, apple, celery, cucumber, pineapple) but need more variety. Would carrot juice be of benefit? Any other veggies? I'm trying to keep it simple - the same meals each day - but I'm really struggling with this because I hoped I'd be done with pain by now, and I'm still feeling it . . . I'd love to hear from some of you experts about using raw to heal this. I want to get off these drugs and live pain free!

[DebB]

I am so sorry to hear all that you've been through! My goodness - - big hugs to you! I can understand your frustration and that you're ready to toss in the towel.

Are you familiar with Paul Nison? He healed himself from Chron's when his doctors told him there was no cure - you know the drill! Here's an older interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf1lU5xqEDQ) he did, it's the first one that came up on my search. You can contact him, I do believe he does telephone consultations. Here's a link to his website (http://www.rawlifehealthshow.com/).

I hope you can find some helpful information there. Please keep us posted - I hope you feel better soon! *Ü*

[sport]

Could I also suggest this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Healing-Colitis-Crohns-3rd/dp/0971752648/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309164551&sr=1-1


http://www.colitis-crohns.com/about.html

[MelanieBear]

It affects me deeply to read of your struggle; it resonates very much with where I found myself three years ago in the midst of an Ulcerative Colitis flare that nearly killed me.

What I am going to say won't be popular, but I care more about your health than about the dogma of raw foods as a panacea. There is some truth in what your physicians are telling you (not the part about the processed foods being ok, though!) and raw foods can be really harmful for someone in your condition, or in the one in which I found myself three years ago. It's not only the purity of the food we eat that matters. What matters is what we are able to digest. Your system cannot break down raw foods right now, and the fiber is literally too rough for your tissues which are so fragile that just the contact with fibrous material will cause pain, irritation, and even more inflammation. What your bowel needs now is to rest and to get as much nourishment as possible with as little "roughage" until it can heal. Then, when your digestion is strong enough, it will be ok to add raw foods back according to how you're doing.

Juicing would be a great way to keep some raw energy in your diet right now since there's no fiber to irritate your bowel, but even the smoothies might be too much. What I ended up doing (and wish I had done sooner....my insistence upon "staying raw" did not lead me into detox or a healing crisis, but into illness so severe that I had to resort to medications just as you have) was to eat a low residue diet with a focus on natural foods and whole foods as much as I could. I let go of the dogma and let how I actually felt in my body guide my choices. Now I tend to be high raw in the summer, but I don't focus on external rules. I follow my body and what she shows me. Your instinct about the undigested lettuce is a good one. Your digestion needs strengthening before it can handle that kind of stuff again. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda have lots of great insights about how to build the digestive fire.

I hope this has been helpful as you consider how to move forward. I know many others will share different perspectives.

Good luck,
Melanie


http://capitalcityherbalist.com

[Tenuviel]

I would eat fruits like bananas, mangoes, if you eat apples peel the skin, and to get minerals juice or blend and strain the greens. I have ulcerative colitis, and I still get occasional flares if I eat heavy greens, even blended, several days in a row. You need to find out what triggers you, everyone is different. for you it may be greens, citrus and tomatoes, or just greens and nuts. You can still eat raw food, just avoid the ones that bother you. once you are healed up, you might want to try an elimination, then rotation diet.

[michigan roman]

ive long term g.i. tract issuies myself . and ive found almond mylk smoothies with bananas - carob powder - shot of non raw pure maple syrup to make my gut feel better than anything else

another thing i like is raw spinach leaf

[Gossy]

I would eat fruits like bananas, mangoes, if you eat apples peel the skin, and to get minerals juice or blend and strain the greens. I have ulcerative colitis, and I still get occasional flares if I eat heavy greens, even blended, several days in a row.

I haven't been having much banana but have been craving mango and peach, so I think I'll add some banana to that for smoothies! Sounds soothing on the tummy ;)

And I've been trying to juice all my greens for now to reduce issues, but most days I want a big honking salad too . . . I'm trying to stick to romaine for salads as I feel that green is less difficult to digest than say, Kale.

Thank you for the advice!

[Gossy]

I am so sorry to hear all that you've been through! My goodness - - big hugs to you! I can understand your frustration and that you're ready to toss in the towel.

Are you familiar with Paul Nison? He healed himself from Chron's when his doctors told him there was no cure - you know the drill! Here's an older interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf1lU5xqEDQ) he did, it's the first one that came up on my search. You can contact him, I do believe he does telephone consultations. Here's a link to his website (http://www.rawlifehealthshow.com/).

I hope you can find some helpful information there. Please keep us posted - I hope you feel better soon! *Ü*

Hi Deb -

I did check out his website but it seems the most useful stuff is pay-to-watch and I'm already shelling out gobs of moola for medical stuff right now . . . so . . . I just can't afford it. I did check out some of the free videos and am trying to make use of what I can access from there - so thanks!

[Gossy]

ive long term g.i. tract issuies myself . and ive found almond mylk smoothies with bananas - carob powder - shot of non raw pure maple syrup to make my gut feel better than anything else

That's a yummy sounding smoothie idea, though I'm allergic to almonds so I'd have to figure out a different milk . . seems like bananas are getting the vote for extra consumption so I'm definitely adding those back into my diet!

Actually, now that I think of it, I always used to eat banana for leg cramps - and it helped! Can't hurt for intestine cramps then too, right? ;)

[Gossy]

Just wanted to post a quick update that I'm feeling somewhat better, but now stress about returning to work is kicking up the pain. I thought I'd spent enough time home resting but my doctor actually said yesterday she didn't think I should go back . . . however my boss called the day before and sounded like they *really* need me. So I agreed to it, and now regret it. I feel like I could use another week-two . . . ugh. I just hope I don't wind up back in the hospital.

Besides that I have been very careful about sticking to raw, and utilizing smoothies and juices to the max, and I've been having less flare pain spikes. I think I might be on the right track . . . I'm going to increase my juice intake and add more variety to my fruits and greens in them. And lots of cucumber and celery juices in them. My doctor said at this point it isn't quite time for *another* drug to try to stop things . . . I'm hoping that before my next check up in a few weeks, with my increased juicing, my tests can improve and she'll say "Definitely don't need more drugs!"

Will keep posting updates here for anyone who may be in the same boat at some point and find this thread . . .

Today I'm starting off sore, but not acute pain. Had my herbal tea morning mix (lots of anti-inflammatory leaves/stuff, mixed especially for inflammatory disease) and a smoothie with strawberry, banana, pear, and blueberry. It's amazingly creamy and tastes amazing to me.

Today is going to be a purple day. I'm about to go back a juice with grapes, blackberries, and apple. Lunch will be more juice and tomato, carrot, celery, and some variety of greens (maybe spinach), and cucumber (seedless) slices marinated in some oil and spices. Dinner is going to be more juices, and maybe some zucchini noodles with chunky marinara sauce.

I'm excited about all my foods today, everything seems yummy, should be quick/easy prep today (just some chopping, mixing, blending and/or juicing), and I feel like I'm getting a good variety.

[michigan roman]

ide try hemp seed to replace almonds . i get mine at amazon.com from manitoba harvest

ever try the suppliment L-GLUTAMINE , its one of few things that for a while seemed to be helping my tract

[Arky]

ive long term g.i. tract issuies myself...

Hey, did you see a discussion I had with someone else, a few months back, michigan roman?

I don't mean to imply that it's 100% relevant to you, but I'd be interested to know if it raises any possible clues for you. If so, perhaps we could bounce a few ideas around that might be helpful to some degree, however small. Same goes for you, Rebecca.

http://rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=64495


All the best.

Arky.

[Eva]

Could I also suggest this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Healing-Colitis-Crohns-3rd/dp/0971752648/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309164551&sr=1-1


http://www.colitis-crohns.com/about.html

I second that! Great book... which should be immensely helpful to you.


It affects me deeply to read of your struggle; it resonates very much with where I found myself three years ago in the midst of an Ulcerative Colitis flare that nearly killed me.

What I am going to say won't be popular, but I care more about your health than about the dogma of raw foods as a panacea. There is some truth in what your physicians are telling you (not the part about the processed foods being ok, though!) and raw foods can be really harmful for someone in your condition, or in the one in which I found myself three years ago. It's not only the purity of the food we eat that matters. What matters is what we are able to digest. Your system cannot break down raw foods right now, and the fiber is literally too rough for your tissues which are so fragile that just the contact with fibrous material will cause pain, irritation, and even more inflammation. What your bowel needs now is to rest and to get as much nourishment as possible with as little "roughage" until it can heal. Then, when your digestion is strong enough, it will be ok to add raw foods back according to how you're doing.

Juicing would be a great way to keep some raw energy in your diet right now since there's no fiber to irritate your bowel, but even the smoothies might be too much. What I ended up doing (and wish I had done sooner....my insistence upon "staying raw" did not lead me into detox or a healing crisis, but into illness so severe that I had to resort to medications just as you have) was to eat a low residue diet with a focus on natural foods and whole foods as much as I could. I let go of the dogma and let how I actually felt in my body guide my choices. Now I tend to be high raw in the summer, but I don't focus on external rules. I follow my body and what she shows me. Your instinct about the undigested lettuce is a good one. Your digestion needs strengthening before it can handle that kind of stuff again. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda have lots of great insights about how to build the digestive fire.

I hope this has been helpful as you consider how to move forward. I know many others will share different perspectives.

Good luck,
Melanie


Hey Melanie, I'm curious if you've read the book mentioned above? It's very much in line with staying safely raw and fully healing UC or Crohns...


Just wanted to post a quick update that I'm feeling somewhat better, but now stress about returning to work is kicking up the pain. I thought I'd spent enough time home resting but my doctor actually said yesterday she didn't think I should go back . . . however my boss called the day before and sounded like they *really* need me. So I agreed to it, and now regret it. I feel like I could use another week-two . . . ugh. I just hope I don't wind up back in the hospital.

Besides that I have been very careful about sticking to raw, and utilizing smoothies and juices to the max, and I've been having less flare pain spikes. I think I might be on the right track . . . I'm going to increase my juice intake and add more variety to my fruits and greens in them. And lots of cucumber and celery juices in them. My doctor said at this point it isn't quite time for *another* drug to try to stop things . . . I'm hoping that before my next check up in a few weeks, with my increased juicing, my tests can improve and she'll say "Definitely don't need more drugs!"

Will keep posting updates here for anyone who may be in the same boat at some point and find this thread . . .

Today I'm starting off sore, but not acute pain. Had my herbal tea morning mix (lots of anti-inflammatory leaves/stuff, mixed especially for inflammatory disease) and a smoothie with strawberry, banana, pear, and blueberry. It's amazingly creamy and tastes amazing to me.

Today is going to be a purple day. I'm about to go back a juice with grapes, blackberries, and apple. Lunch will be more juice and tomato, carrot, celery, and some variety of greens (maybe spinach), and cucumber (seedless) slices marinated in some oil and spices. Dinner is going to be more juices, and maybe some zucchini noodles with chunky marinara sauce.

I'm excited about all my foods today, everything seems yummy, should be quick/easy prep today (just some chopping, mixing, blending and/or juicing), and I feel like I'm getting a good variety.

Gossy... If you have not already read the recommended book, I really really really want to re-recommend it too. I was in a similar boat in early 2008 and feel like I would have had a much longer and more painful road ahead of me had I not followed the healing protocol in the book to the T. Who knows? Maybe it even saved my life??

[siennagray]

(((Gossy))) - just wanted to give you a virtual hug.

Also to say that just because you told your boss you would come back to work doen't mean you have to stick with that response at the expense of your health. Let your boss know that your doctor doesn't approve, and if necessary/requested, get a note from your doc.

[Eva]

(((Gossy))) - just wanted to give you a virtual hug.

Also to say that just because you told your boss you would come back to work doen't mean you have to stick with that response at the expense of your health. Let your boss know that your doctor doesn't approve, and if necessary/requested, get a note from your doc.

Lame-o that I didn't think to give you a hug too!!! I have to agree -- your health is WAY more important -- and surely a doc would write you a note if needed!!

Siennagray, I like the way you think!

:heart

[CalypsoKris]

Hi!

First, I just want to say I'm sorry to hear you have been in so much pain!
It sucks. I know because chron's disease is the reason I turned to raw foods. I am currently trying to heal from months of constant awful flare ups, no energy, and almost constant bowel movements (diarrhea).
Also, apologies if the following post is tmi but this is my life right now!

I'm still learning and don't know that I really have much advice to give. I have only been eating raw for about 3 weeks. In that time I've noticed huge improvements to my bowel movements (they are "normalizing") as in I don't have literally, constant diarrhea, and the pain is mostly all gone.
This is what I've found so far:
My body likes fruit smoothies, I usually keep them pretty simple so, bananas and one other fruit mixed in is the standard. I'm not a lover of bananas but I find if I mix them with another fruit to semi disguise the taste it's pretty good.
I craaave veggies but I don't know if I'm digesting them properly, if I eat leafy greens I often see bits of them later in the toilet bowl. If I eat raw carrots/celery or any other "rough" veggie I tend to get an horrific, dull stomach ache that will continue until I have gone to the bathroom. I know this isn't really "raw" food but I've found steaming veggies seems to help me a lot, they are a hell of a lot less painful in my tummy and come out the other end in a more normal fashion.
I seem to manage cucumbers and tomatoes all right, if I think my tummy can handle it I will have a cucumber, tomato and mango salad.

Also, I seem to need to drink TONS of water. My mouth will be dry if I forget to drink... I don't really know if this is normal or bad but it's something i've noticed in the past week or so.

Right now, my main concern is getting enough food. I just can't seem to fit in my tummy all the food I feel I should be eating to maintain higher energy levels!

I have the book by Dave Klein - Self Healing Colitis and Chron's and it definitely has some wonderful guidelines. I am also speaking to a friend of a friend who healed himself from really bad Chron's. But he keeps suggesting I eat baked fish for protein... I tried it and I got a two day stomach ache that was so bad it made me never ever want to eat it again.

I don't know if any of this is helpful at all. Also, if anyone has any suggestions about how to add foods to my diet or any idea how long it might be before I can just sit down and gnaw on a big 'ol salad it would be much appreciated.

I'm not about to give up... but the figuring it out process is difficult sometimes!

[karenisraw]

Hi,

Here is a website for a raw vegan doctor in Minneapolis where I live. You can download a lecture series on "Should you cook your food". It talks in depth about illness and your body and raw foods and also cooked foods and what cooked foods can do to your body. He is great. I believe he would probably do telephone consultations too. He travels to his clients to. He has a wonderful website. He also owns a raw vegan restaraunt. Good luck. Paul Nison did a lecture there a few years ago. He had Chron's.

http://www.ecopolitan.com/healtheducation/truth-about-your-food



K:heart: