Long story shortened... I had a gall bladder attack in January 09, and at the time it was pretty bad, and being the 41 year old "man" that I am, I thought okay I'll just drive myself to the emergency room. Stayed overnight for observation, and the next morning the gall bladder surgeon comes in fresh from med school, and exclaims with great gusto, candor and enthusiasm how I would be his first surgery. I got a little scared, and resorted to my homeopathic knowledge when I left the hospital.
About 4 months later when I was still feeling better after the apple juice and olive oil with beer and lime treatment, I started having diarrhea after consuming milk based products, and sometimes blood would enter into the mix. I decided at the end of April to go to the hospital again, at which point the doctor released me saying that I had ileitis after looking at a CT. For about 3 weeks I was still having problems, and the runs, so went back for another round to the ER. This time I was told that I had food poisoning, and prescribed something with atropine which made me stay up about 48 hours a shot. The third time symptoms were not disappearing, I went to a different hospital via ambulance with blood coming out of me. I was admitted because they told me they wanted to do a bit of spelunking in my colon. They had me on an unnecessary regimen of antibiotics (flagyl, and levaquin). The day before the colonoscopy at about midnight the antibiotics were really starting to cause intense pain in my upper right hand quadrant, and I could not sleep at all. At 4 in the morning I was in such extreme pain I had to call a nurse, and she told me my only options are morphine and (pill) protonix. She also told me to stop being a f*cking crybaby and just take the medicine, and when I asked her to call my doctor she told me she couldn't. I was about a centimeter from calling 911 because the pain was so bad, and then I threw up something that looked like green cool whip. I realized my gall bladder issues are back. I discussed this with my doctor before the colonoscopy, and he didn't say anything. I was dying just to get something wet in my mouth, but being NPO disallowed that so I had to swallow spit until 6 at night when they finally got me in for the colonoscopy. They didn't allow me to even eat after the colonoscopy, and I had all I could do to drink enough water. The outcome was being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I was put on a regimen of low fiber foods, pentasa, and eventually when they could not find the source of the secondary infection, they released me. For 2 months I followed a low fiber diet, and found black strap molasses was a lot less expensive than the pentasa, and just as effective at 1 TBSP per morning 1 hour before any meal.
I figured 2 months later in august that I would buy a watermelon because they are considered low fiber, and very good for you. Wow! The almost within 24 hour effect of that just put me out, gave me a nice fever, and started problems all over again, so this time I went to a different hospital after a week of trying to recoup because of low grade fevers, and found that had I waited another day I would have died of sepsis from my gall bladder which showed up on the CT about 3 times normal size with cysts. It was here that they also ordered film from my colonoscopy, and decided to diagnose Crohn's instead of UC. I was prepped next day for surgery, and they had to open me up instead of going in laprescopically. They had to remove my gall bladder in 4 sections. After about a week in the hospital after that, I only had diarrhea twice, and had j pouches dangling from me for the surgical drainage. When I was released from the hospital I went to Denny's, and had the spicy barbecue chicken fingers, and ranch dressing. I was waiting for a result from that, and none came. I put milk in my coffee (I started coffee again) to no effect. Next day I went to Burger King and had a BK Big Fish, not a problem except a little sludge after wards. Had 2 glasses of my favorite Pinot Noir that evening, with no effect. 1 month later I made jerk chicken with scotch bonnets to the tune of no problem. I was hospitalized once in October because my liver size increased by 1 cm. I was released 2 days later, eating anything I like, and a doctor gave me some Asacol because they still think I have Crohn's, and a forest fire may be burning. I know I can push my diet now without issue. I stopped taking the asacol, because the only symptoms I feel coming on are the occasional colon ache, and usually that's after hot wings. I don't think I have Crohn's, but the doctor thinks I do. It seems weird.