Alison’s Colitis Story:
It all started when I noticed a little bit of blood in the bowl, “Probably just hemorrhoids, no reason to freak out,” I told myself. Three months later (shame on me for waiting so long) I was in the dining hall on campus crying over my mashed potatoes to my fellow Graduate Assistants about how I couldn’t eat and didn’t want to eat because it would hurt later. I was tired of the urgency, frequency, bloody mucussy crampy poos and, quite frankly, I was starting to get bored of checking Facebook every 30 minutes on my phone as I raced to nearest stall. I finally made an appointment with a general surgeon for a colonoscopy.
After making the 3 hour drive home on a yet again empty stomach and going under the scope, my doctor came into recovery showing me a lovely picture of my insides.
“You have Ulcerative Colitis,” he said.
“I’m giving you a perscription for Asacol, take 2 400mg tablets 3 times a day.”
That’s it. I filled the perscription and started my regimen right away. A few days later, I was back to eating whatever I wanted, was passing solid brown stools and life was good. Until I ran out of the $167 15 day supply of pills.
You see, I ordered my next supply from my insurance through a mail order…needless to say, they didn’t ship on time and I went a week without the meds. During that week, I was back to my stupidly self perscribed not eating during the day schedule. Because of the nature of my job, and I’m sure others have this experience as well, it’s very difficult to figure out when/what I can eat and not have a flare up in the middle of taking stats at a basketball game. I don’t think our head coach would be too psyched if I called an emergency diarreha time out in the middle of a big game. So, I stopped eating completely during the day and waited until I got back to my apartment at night. Soon enough however, even my not eating diet proved too much for my colon to handle.
This past Tuesday, after a game, I started to have an awful flare up. It’s now Friday afternoon. I’m still laying in bed, running to the bathroom and yes, checking Facebook on my phone, every 30 mins or so. Lesson learned? DON’T STOP TAKING THE MEDICINE. EVER. Since Tuesday I have been in a lot of pain, have been going at least 20 times a day, haven’t been able to sleep due to the newfound pain in my upper stomach below my sternum; “Probably because you’re hungry stupid,” I tell myself. Back to seeing a lot of blood…joy. I did restart the Asacol with my first full dose on Tuesday. I’m waiting for it to take action because in all honesty, this isn’t fun and people don’t update their Facebook statuses enough to keep me occupied that long.
I have my last class of the semester this Monday and a final on Tuesday. I hope I’m at least not in so much pain then. I’m supposed to fly from New York to Florida to visit my dad on Thursday…that may require an extra set of shorts if things don’t turn around shortly.
Now that you know my story, I think it’s important you also know how much finding this site meant to me. Everything written in here are things I’ve wanted to share yet have been too embarrassed to. It’s helpful to have a collection of people who understand. Because I’m so new to this disease and am still learning (obviously), it’s comforting to know I have some place to turn to. Luckily my professors and bosses have been understanding, but I need to figure out how to keep this under control so I’m not missing class/work all the time and more importantly so I can not be afraid to eat during the day when I am at work/class. I have an appointment with a Gastro after the holidays back home. Hopefullly he can help.
Written by Alison
Submitted in the Colitis Venting Area
