Uncontrolled Ulcerative Colitis and Celiac Sprue

by hidayatullah
(Pakistan)

I have been suffering from diarrhea since my birth. I was doing well up to the age of 16 years. After the age of 16 years my first symptom was to feel weakness and drop in blood pressure. After some years occasionally a few blood drops followed my bowels. Presently I go to toilet for more than 10 to 12 times in 24 hours. I am 32 years and unmarried. My weight is 25 kg. My hip joints are not working properly. I can not touch ground and can not move my legs freely. I can only sit up to a raised level of 2 feet. My intake is very poor as I can not consume much. I am allergic to most of the foods. Doctors have diagnosed my ailment as ulcerative colitis/celiac sprue. I avoid diary, wheat and other items containing gluten. Medicines taken by me are anti diarrhea, antibiotics and steroids. Kindly advise.

IBD and Celiac sprue

You clearly have a bad combination in diseases that are poorly controlled with your current treatments. You are clearly malnourished without even knowing your BMI and this is probably due to a combination of your illnesses and your diet.

If you have ulcerative colitis that is active, the current treatment you are on is clearly not controlling your symptoms. I’m not sure what access you have to healthcare, but If you were a patient of mine; I would be looking at reassessing your bowel with both small bowel biopsy and colonoscopy to assess both diseases. If you have active colitis, you would at this point need to consider surgery or immunosuppressant therapy (although risky as you are clearly malnourished and likely to be immunosuppressed already). Nutrition is clearly something that needs addressing and looking at a high non-gluten, protein and carbohydrate intake is important here. I’m at a bit of a loss to really advise you in this matter as this needs addressing by the health services available to you. I can only wish you good luck with this.

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