My Experience with DIY Fecal Transplant

Step 1: Get yourself a SINGLE use blender.

There's an article going around talking about stool donation. It gets a lot of laughs. None from me.

I remember the first time I heard about fecal transplant. It was in a noontime seminar about up and coming treatment options for patients. This was back in 2007, during my intern year. I thought I couldn't possibly be hearing things right. As it became clear that, yes, people would be opting to take someone else's feces and let their gastroenterologist spray their intestines with the stuff, I couldn't help but think, "What in the world would make someone do that?!"

Now I know. 

Fast forward to 2014. I'm lying on my side on the floor of my shower with an enema perfectly positioned as it drips a slurry of my friend's stool and saline. I brought a bunch of magazines with me to get my mind off of what was actually happening. I thought I'd be more grossed out, but if anything I felt relieved and excited about the future.

How did I end up here?

Now we step back to 2012. I came home to the perfect life. My college sweetheart and I were married for almost a decade. We welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family, joining her handsome big brother. We closed on a new-to-us house. I was squared away to return to a job with coworkers I adore. The ecstasy of it all lasted just a few days. It started with cramping. Then I saw colon tissue in the toilet. I was doubled over, thinking I'd leave my children motherless. On August 6th, 2012, the room began to spin when I was diagnosed with a disease known as ulcerative colitis (UC).

Never fear, my gastroenterologist said. I could take a pill multiple times a day for the rest of my life and be fine. Just fine.

The pills didn't work.

Then the injections didn't work.

The following two years were one disappointment immediately followed by another letdown, punctuated by profound physical as well as emotional suffering. Play that on repeat.

I tried to keep it together. Pushed myself to go to work. Tried to hide my symptoms. Wedding ring was either dangling around my finger from starvation, or tight when the steroids kicked in. Baby would cry for food as I chewed on my pillow in agony. I'd snap at my son for age-appropriate behavior because I was tired of being tired.

It felt like everything in my life had been stripped away from me.

Clearly I was desperate to try something, anything to get myself better. But how does an educated woman (a doctor, no less) specifically end up deciding she's going to give at-home fecal transplant a try?

Research.

Gut dysbiosis (bad bacteria) is everywhere in the literature when it comes to explaining the origins of UC. And fecal transplant would serve to outnumber and replace the bad bacteria, but I had only ever heard of it being used for another condition called C. diff colitis.

One day I was reading an article about how happy, healthy colons have a high population of bacteria that produce an anti-inflammatory messenger called interleukin-10. As one with an inflammatory bowel disease I thought, if only I could recolonize my colon with those good bugs. I brought this up with my current gastroenterologist and she said people like Dr. Borody in Australia perform fecal transplants for UC patients using rationale such as this. I was intrigued to say the least and wondered out loud if I needed to look into plane tickets -- There's a good joke in here somewhere about the land down under and my rectum. -- But my gastroenterologist explained that it's not rocket science and that, while she couldn't officially sign off on anything, if it were her she'd look into options at home.

Yes, some plant gardens, others lay floor tiles, my DIY project was to be fecal transplant. Instead of being grossed out, my husband was totally on board and he found everything there is to know about at-home fecal transplant from a website called Power of Poop. The process is surprisingly simple, really. The hardest part is...

Finding a Donor

A lot more goes into the criteria than you might think. Sure, you want someone who is healthy, eats well, and doesn't have risk factors that could lead to the transmission of, say, hepatitis. But aside from that, researchers are just starting to discover the potential of transplanted stool and the possibilities are remarkable. Did you know that a stool from a thin donor can make a fat recipient thin? And vice versa. Given that much of our neurotransmitters are made in the colon (it is thought of as the "second brain"), it's believed that changes in mood (for better or worse) can be transmitted as well.

With all that in mind, I came up with the following criteria for a stool donor:

• Same gender (I felt this would increase our odds of matching up.)
• Incredibly healthy 
• Clean life
• Thin 
• Pleasant demeanor
• Stomach o' steel. Proven by a history of having enteritis and bouncing back, or never getting food poisoning. 
• No family history of inflammatory bowel disease
• Accessible
• Willing

Out of 500+ friends on Facebook, only 4 met my criteria. 2 became pregnant and I didn't want to bother them, nor did I want those hormones. 1 was just starting a new practice out-of-state. So that left the chosen one.

How do you go about asking your friend for their poop? Well, if this person knows anything about the hell you've endured, they'll actually volunteer. Such was the case for me.

Did it work?

Mostly, yes. First understand that the conditions were not ideal. I was just getting over a flare so the "landing site" for the transplant to take hold was spotty. Due to some logistical constraints (my donor was moving out of state), we were only able to do this one time. The poster child for FMT did this for WEEKS.

My results were the following: My disease went from running the entire length of my descending colon to just affecting the most distal parts. Afterward, instead of having a gnawing sensation in my gut whenever something stressful happened, I simply felt unease. No physical association with it.

I've gotten to a better spot now with my UC, thank God. So if you're wondering if I'd do it again, the answer is something my 2007 self would never believe: Yes, many times over.

Why did I share my story?

Listen, I understand that this is always going to sound gross. But if I can take away some of the stigma and demystify the process, I'm happy to poo it. I mean, do it. -- OK, I lied when I said it doesn't make me laugh. -- Go ahead and chuckle, too, while you now understand fecal transplant can mean the difference between life and a lack thereof.