Hi Kathy,
I am sorry to hear that your mom was dx'd with UC. Its tough at any age. How extensive is your mom's UC - is it all the way around? What about the Asacol, was it not strong enough? There is a new med on the market I just read about. I will look it up and get back w/you. It has been used in EU and finally was approved for use in the US. I hope your mom finds relief with her sx, You are very supportive of your mom, which is good. I know of someone who is on Remacide and she seems to be doing OK. I guess this is something you will have to talk about with her GI doc. There all also dietary options to follow. I hope all goes well.
God bless-
Kay :wave:

Hi, I'm 21, was diagnosed with UC 2 years ago and have basically gone through all the stages of the disease, from diagnosis to it getting so bad that I had to spend over a month in the hospital to finally having a subtotal colectomy and pelvic pouch procedure. I hope my experience can help answer some questions for people currently going through what I have in the past.

Throughout the course of my disease I had to try a ton of drugs including salofalk and asacol pills and suppositories, prednisone (which I was on for almost a whole year!) in pills and by IV and remicade. While some meds initially worked for me, they all eventually seemed to have no effect. But if there's one thing that I can emphasize the most is don't take someone else's experience with a certain medication as the same way it will affect you. Everyone is different and what works for some people doesn't work for others. I know a few other people with UC for whom remicade or asacol has been working great. Same thing with the side effects. I didn't really experience any with the remicade, but this might be different for you.

For anyone with active UC I would also warn against using loppermide or imodium or any other drug like it. It was one of the biggest things my GI warned me not to do. These drugs have the same effects on your colon as narcotics and although they may provide temporary relief of having to go to the bathroom so many times a day, when they wear off, your symptoms are amplified, making you feel much worse and preventing any potential healing that's going on.

I guess the biggest piece of advice I can give to anyone who is going through UC as badly as I have is don't be afraid of surgery. By no means am I saying surgery is for everyone, but if you're someone like me who has tried everything else and nothing has worked, it's really a life saver. I know the thought of having to have an ileostomy for a few months might seem scary, but it's worth it in the long run because it gives you your life back. I just had the second surgery two months ago and feel 1000 times better. No more cramps, no more blood, no more urgency, no more letting your life be run by UC. Now I can eat whatever I want, I weigh more than 100 lbs (!) and can get back to a normal college life. Don't be afraid of it and they've done these surgeries so often, healing and recovery time has been drastically cut down. 2 wks after the surgery I was feeling well enough to get back to the basics of my life. My surgeon told me there's a 95% success rate, and the other 5% were people who still got rid of their UC but needed a permanent ileostomy. and when you think about it, maybe an ileostomy's not all that bad compared to a lifetime of cramps, diarrhea, meds, highly restricted diets and hospital stays.