Jan,
I figured I would elaborate. And I will make sure to post as we work to figure this all out.
My husband never had any GI issues until he went to Basic Training with the Army and came down with pneumonia. He was given antibiotics for 3 months straight through the Army. Shortly after this (just a few months) he started to have the symptoms of UC. It got miserable enough that he eventually opted for the surgery to remove his entire large intestine.
My husband had his 3-part surgery in 2008-09 and everything was good until about 2 years ago when he got sick was given antibiotics again. It wiped out everything he had going that was working.
His doctors are through the VA and they really just believe that he will need to be on some sort of immune suppressant for the rest of his life, but I can't buy that because if that were the case then he wouldn't have been able to survive the first 7 years without any issues.
I've studied canine GI tracts since 2015, it's part of my profession. In my work I've learned that when the GI is balanced then nearly all the problems go away. We know that 70-80% of the immune system is in the GI tract, so it makes sense that autoimmune issues will arise from a GI that is out of balance.
I've also found in my work with canines that when they are given a blanket antibiotic to solve a GI issue, it works, but the system usually comes down with more issues 14 days post treatment because the balance was disrupted. I've moved to treating dogs naturally for these GI issues and I've had a lot of success. Basically the dogs are treated with herbs and oils that are known to fight bacteria, fungi, and viruses. In treatment it does take longer for a dog who has a bad gut to turn around as opposed to using antibiotics, such as metronidazole, however, when they make the turn for the better it has much more lasting effects. We've been able to fully reverse severe infections by using the combination of the herbs, oils, and then taking the dogs off of kibble (processed dog food) and putting them on a raw diet, effectively resetting their GI.
The difficulty with my husband is that he's considerably older than the dogs and he has been on lots of medications before I met him, and his system is very much out of whack. We've been trying the herbs and oils, and they are helping, however, it isn't enough, we need to reset his GI and the immune system it brings.
Through my research, the Gerson Therapy rapidly detoxifies the body through heavy nutrition, the problem is that releasing that many toxins into the body that rapidly (they are normally protected from the body by the body storing them in fat cells and surrounding them with mucus) places a heavy burden on the liver. The coffee enemas stimulate the liver to essentially spasm, allowing it to release many of the toxins it had filtered for disposal out of the body. This balance of detoxification and enemas to help the liver keep up is a key in that therapy.
We are not sure if it will work because we aren't sure how the small intestine that the J-Pouch is made from will work in the same manner as the colon for these enemas. The Gerson Therapy does not accept patients with less than 30" of colon, they consider success for people in this category as "contraindicated." My belief is that the concept of the therapy will work, however the coffee enemas may not be as effective as they would be if he had a colon. So this means we may need to detoxify as a slower rate.
I'm not sure how this will exactly be achieved, I think meat will actually be a key factor, my husband gets pretty sluggish if he doesn't eat red meat, it seems to be very important for his diet, and red meat is not on the therapy, so I believe the long digestion time associated with meat will be helpful in allowing his body to absorb more of the nutrition he takes in.
It is a unique situation. Of course I wish I had met him before the surgery, but maybe I was supposed to meet him so I could help him now.
I am not the best designer of nutritional recipes for humans, dogs maybe, but this facility is supposed to assist in the detoxification process, help him figure out how prepare meals and get a routine that will get him the nutrition he needs and help me understand how I can best help to keep his food organized at home. They have worked with people with J-Pouches and are comfortable adapting therapy to work with it.
He could also stand to take a few weeks to just focus on himself. I also believe part of the problem is the "non medical" adrenal fatigue, which affects his cortisol levels, testosterone, and a few other things. We have a construction business and he's gone at 6 and home around 6 or 7 each night, I don't know how he does it on so little sleep, as his pouchitis has him up after about only 4 hours of sleep.
He has a self-less soul and a heart of gold, we just gotta figure this out for him. I know we will get there.