You down with FMT... yeah you know me!

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I am finding it difficult to get as much done working on my husband's computer while mine is still out of commission.  ANYWAY...

Yesterday my dad called me to tell me that a friend of his, Dr. Stewart Taylor mailed my dad his Alma Mater newsletter with an article on FMT.  What is FMT?  Fecal Microbial Transplant.  Sounds gross, right?!  Well, the its also known as the Human Probiotic Transplant (which sounds a little better, at least in my mind!)  It's a procedure where the doctor takes the feces of a healthy person, mixes it with saline, strains it, and then sprays the "poop juice" (for lack of a better phrase) on the walls of the small and large intestine of a person with Ulcerative Colitis or C. Diff.  Dr. Thomas Borody has led the research on the procedure in Sydney, Australia, and Dr. David Rubin is about to get underway with the study of the procedure specifically for treating Ulcerative Colitis, at the University of Chicago.

I have been in touch with Dr. Rubin and his colleague Dr. Lawrence Brandt, at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, NY.  Dr. Brandt has just finished a successful study of FMT for treating C. Diff.  He has also used the treatment on a few UC patients, and he was kind enough to answer some of my questions.  He was informative, helpful, and honest about the procedure for Ulcerative Colitis.  Apparently it takes more than one treatment... much more.  But he says the results are worth it.  It was Dr. Brandt who put me in touch with Dr. Rubin.  At the time, Dr. Rubin was not taking patients for his study... maybe as this thing ramps up I can get into the study?  I definitely think its worth a try!

If I can't get into Dr. Rubin's study, Dr. Brandt has also been kind enough to extend his services if I promise to follow his very specific guidelines and find the feces donor.  Doesn't sound too tough, huh?  Well it is.  The protocol for finding a donor isn't easy.  The donor can't have had antibiotics for at least 3 months, preferably more, plus they can't have any problems with constipation or diarrhea, and they can't have any other autoimmune disease or even things like eczema.  And we thought we'd found a winner in my neighbor's baby, but he said she doesn't qualify because she is too young.  I'll get this thing figured out eventually.  I have a gut feeling its going to help me kick this thing into remission for good!

For more information on FMT check out The Probiotic Therapy Research Center and University of Chicago.