Its been about 2 whole months, wow time flies even when you’re dealing with colitis symptoms, and I’m back drug free once again. That’s right, off the prednisone, and hopeful that those little white pills won’t make their way near me for a long long time.
But first: Thanks to everyone who has shared your UC story. We’re nearing 100 New Stories so far in 2011. And from the over 30,000 visitors, I’m definitely not the only one who’s learning more and more about ulcerative colitis this year.
For me, It has been a pretty strange trip the last two months, from starting off 2011 in a relatively nasty UC flare, and then going onto 15 mg per day of steroids and seeing nearly instant decreasing symptoms. And then about a month into the steroids and beginning the taper noticing some old signs of weird skin stuff on my right foot. But all along, feeling pretty darn good about gaining back the weight I had lost in December, and seeing the bleeding go way way down to almost nothing at all.
But I ain’t going to tell a lie, for me its always a bit scary when you see good results from prednisone in terms of wacking your symptoms and then finally you swallow your last 2.5mg quarter pill knowing it will be your last and the taper is over. But life goes on. And so does the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or SCD plan for me. That’s the one thing that has not changed for about 16 months now. I feel like this is going to be another time where I really put the SCD diet to the test once again. I know that although I’m drug free for about two days now, my colitis is still very mildly active (not always hard stools, and every 4-5ish days I’ll notice little old red man on the toilet paper a bit). So, if over the next short while things can get even more under control with simply sticking to a specific diet, well, that will be alright by me. And I’m pretty confident things are going to go my way this time. I mean come on, I’ve been making new batches of SCD yogurt every two weeks or so. Also, I’m not putting any milk in my morning cup of decaf coffee(and often times afternoon and evening cup), only some honey which I’m now fully addicted to.
Let’s see, what else am I doing to further the remission of my UC, well I’m starting to do yoga, my mom got me a yoga mat for my birthday. And, my dad got me a bee-hive for a birthday present. It was a double new hobby wammy birthday this year.
me grilling with my brother at my B-day party recently
I’m trying not to get all stressed out with work anymore, come on, work is definitely not as important as staying sane. They don’t take paychecks when you’re trying to get out of the mental home, or do they?
Something else, I’m just beginning which is more of a hobby than anything else is beekeeping. That’s right, some of you may have watched my first video, but
my home built top bar bee-hive
soon enough 3 pounds of bees and 1 Italian Queen will be arriving. And, yes, this will be my first mail order bride. There are high hopes that this hive will start cranking out some serious honey, as we’re going thru now about 3 pounds per week of it here.(The SCD diet allows honey, and bees make honey…)
I can’t say enough about getting into a new hobby. Of course all of us are living busy lives, where at times it seems impossible to plug something new into our daily routines. If you are looking to change your life around (like I am), what better way than to start a new hobby. Maybe something that you have always wanted to do your whole life since you were little, but haven’t yet. Maybe something that you became interested in recently.
I’m not sure when my next post will be, or what the update will look like. But for right now, I’m really happy to bee
Carolyn, my mentor from the local beekeepers association
a part of this website and to be able to share my stories with everyone else who has and understands the life of a UC’er. We’re most definitely a very special international group of people, that’s for sure, and it blows my mind reading others stories when they land in my inbox. I get pissed off at myself when at times I’m bogged down with work or something else and it takes me a day or two before I can publish one of your stories(please don’t take it personal if that happened to you). The variety of stories that have been submitted are amazing. What’s really cool for me and hopefully everyone else is to notice through the comments everyone leaves how people with sometimes “unusual” personal stories can find another UC’er on the other side of the globe with the exact same colitis situation. It is a small world, and a large intestine after all.
Until next time, I’ll definitely keep posting the stories everyone submits, filming (hopefully) funny videos, getting the bee hive started, and working on some more scientific interviews with some local researchers.
Adam
Thanks for reading, and if you haven’t already, please submit an anonymous doctor review on your ulcerative colitis doctor, to help grow our database. It will only take you a minute.
I started site shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
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