Here is an awesome First Story from Jennifer:
Hi There,
My name is Jennifer. I am from a place called Wexford in Ireland. I have been diagnosed with UC since November 2007. But I had been suffering from it a year before being diagnosed.
I was studying Fine Art in College and I was in my third year when the symptoms slowly started. Of course being an art student on a crazy diet of quick,cheap processed foods and cheap alcohol I put it down to just being run down so I started eating healthy but to no avail.
I moved back home for the Summer and went to the doctor regularly but I was told over and over that it was Piles. So I stopped wasting my money and time on that as i knew myself it was something more. So I started to ‘diagnose’ myself which led me to think I was Lactose Intolerant. I cut out dairy and couldn’t believe the change in myself. I stopped running to the toilet about ten times a day and felt great!
That lasted about three months before the symptoms came back and back they came with a vengence. I couldn’t even leave my flat to go to college (I was now in my final year). I was up all night sitting on the toilet and finally get to sleep about 4am and when my alarm went off at 7am it was back to the toilet for me. By 12pm I was able to go to college and sit on the toilet there for a while before falling asleep in my studio or on top of a keypad in computer class and heading home at 5pm to try and at least eat something. Then it was a repeat again of the night before. My food intake at this point had become none existant, if i wasn’t sitting on the toilet i was sleeping on the bathroom floor. I eventually managed to go back to the doctors and begged for a new doctor than the usual college one that passed me off and decided i had IBS.FINALLY the new doctor took me seriously and booked me into two close hospitals for a colonoscope and whichever one got back to me the quickest I go there. I realised it was serious especially after she told me i was now anaemic and I had lost two stone.
One of the hospitals got back to me quickly and i was booked in for a scope where i was diagnosed straight away and kept in hospital for two weeks pumped on steroids intravenously. I t all came as a shock but I was happy that I finally knew what was wrong with me. Fontunatley for me as I was studying Art I used it as a means of understanding my illness by doing video installions on the suffering i was dealing with. Which got me high marks and numorous awards. Which led me to think the more the artist suffers the more respect the artist gets.
I started to lead a different life with diet and social habits. My diet consisted of many things except the following Milk,coffee,coke,cabbage,peas,popcorn,juices from concentrate,baked beans and spaghetti hoops and white bread.
Just last week I went in for my second colonoscope to see what was happening in my colon and the verdict was that I now have mild Colitis instead of severe. Which is amazing considering I was close enough to getting my colon removed. Unfortunately due to the bowel prep I had to endure before the scope it seemed to have triggered a flareup.There is irony there somewhere. So now Im only eating one bowel of porridge (oatmeal?) with manuka honey and hopefully it will settle down again.
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