Hopeful – I’m 23 and was Just Diagnosed with Colitis

Hi, I’m a 23 year old female who was diagnosed with “mild” Ulcerative Colitis yesterday.

For 5 years i’ve been suffering from a medical condition no one could figure out. I had severe stomach cramping, nausea, weakness, and just bad bowel movements. First, they did a cat scan on my abdomen along with an ultrasound, and more blood tests than I can count. They found that I had gallstones, a high billirubin level, and my eyes were always yellow. Naturally, they thought the gallstones were the cause of my pain and high billirubin so finally I had my gall bladder removed. I didn’t notice as much of a difference in how I was feeling as I was expecting after talking to people who also had their gall bladder removed. So I tried adjusting my diet and sucking it up.

As time passed I became more and more of a recluse.

I couldn’t hold a job, commit to ANYTHING ahead of time, and developed pretty bad anxiety when I did have to leave the house in fear of getting sick away from home. Finally, my Doctor said I should see a gastroenterologist who then diagnosed me with Crigler Najjar Type II ( a very rare genetic condition that explained the high billirubin ) and put me on phenobarbital to control it no big deal. So now i’m a little less yellow, but still have the worse symptoms…extreme weakness and bad cramps that keet me housebound. So about 3 weeks ago I had a upper endoscopy and colonoscopy, which showed 2-3 mild red spots and diagnosed me with UC!! I’ve just started taking Asacol and in 2 days starting a steroid.

I’m feeling a little relief already even though I think it’s mostly in my mind because i’m so happy to have found a somewhat light at the end of the tunnel.

After losing 5 years in my prime this feels like a new lease on life for me.

I’ll definitely never take advantage of my health ever again!

Submitted by “Mirraj” in the Colitis Venting Area