My wife was diagnosed with UC from 1990 until 2001 and had her colon removed in 1997, replaced with the j-pouch. From 1997 to 2001, we thought she was "cured" of UC and had problems with "pouchitis" from time to time. Unfortunately from the summer of 2000 until Feb. 2001, this pouchitis was really the period of formation of terrible fistulas which resulted in abscesses. You can imagine our shock when a new doctor (colorectal surgeon) told us she had Crohn's, when every other doctor from 1990 to 2001 diagnosed her incorrectly with UC.

My personal opinion is that she had Crohn's all along which had manifested itself in the colon and caused severe bleeding, diarhea and urgency -- up until the colon was removed. Then the Crohn's took a couple of years to show again, showing as fistulas and abscesses in Feb. 2001.

She began with Remicade in Feb. 2001, which seemed to help keep the fistulas from returning; her doctor also inserted "setons" under anesthesia (setons are small porous strings that are placed in the fistula holes and allow draining, thereby helping keep abcesses from forming). She was having so many problems with internal swelling and inflamation and pain in her tailbone area (causing nerve pain down her right leg) that we met with her surgeon back in February (her parents joined us, driving 4 hours each way to be there, for a serious "what can we do" meeting). The only thing her colorectal surgeon could offer was a permanent ileostomy. He had no other options for relieving the pain, swelling, inflamation, pain, etc.

The colorectal surgeon even rolled his eyes when we told her we were going to take her to a juicing clinic, saying "my offer for the permanent ilestomy still stands..."

I can now say to everyone with Crohn's on this list that my wife is now pain free, walking 6 miles a day, no internal swelling, no diarhea.

I hesitate to say she is cured, but I can say that her quality of life has gone from zero to close to normal. Prior to the juicing clinic, she was spending 22 to 23 hours a day in bed because to stand up was too painful; and this was for over the past year. As I said, the internal swelling (which is totally gone now) was pressing on the nerves in the tailbone area; she really couldn't even drive herself in the car, except by leaning all the way over to the passenger door and holding on to it because the pain on her left side was so bad.

You can be skeptical about "juicing", but the regimen at the clinic eliminates 2 key things that feed the Crohn's bacteria: processed Sugar and yeast. Little by little, the Crohn's bacteria (MAP or Mycobacterium Avium Paratuberculosis - check out http://www.shafran.net or do a search on Google) dies off of starvation from not having processed Sugar or yeast to feed it.

Most of the patients at the clinic are there for various types of cancer - interestingly most of the patients at the clinic, cancer or other disease, have a "sweet tooth." All of the cancer patients had a sweet tooth. My wife also has (hopefully now changed to "had") a sweet tooth. My mother also had a sweeth tooth and died of Multiple Myeloma (bone cancer) 12 years ago.

A sideline benefit for me is that I lost 20 lbs. on the juicing regimen and my cholesterol went from 259 down to 182 (yeah, I finally have my doctor off my back to take Lipitor).

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. I can say that if the choice was between a permanent ilestomy (which does nothing to combat the source of Crohn's) or trying the juicing clinic avenue, I would give the juicing clinic a try.

It is more than just juicing: nutrution, exercise, distilled water, and other areas of lifestyle change.

Bill

My email: bill (at) laserprint (dot) net