Sports and Colitis

Introduction:

I’m 18 years old just finished my last year of high school. I was diagnosed last year and had a colonoscopy done last month, wasn’t fun

Some more about me:

I’m from CT and have played hockey since i was a small child and can’t live without it. After winning a championship, I felt like I could do anything and get away with it. My last year of high school I started to have blood in my stool and left it alone. The stress from not knowing what was happening to me and school added to my stress at hockey. I started to be in pain playing my normal position as a goalie. I could no longer go down to stop a puck without being in too much pain to keep focus on the puck. I went through the season playing with the pain. I then went to the doctor to figure out what was going on with the blood in my stool and was told I have colitis. I was scared to death when I first heard because I had no idea what it was and what it would do to me.

Symptoms I’m dealing with:

The symptoms i have currently are bad cramps when I lay on my side or stomach in bed and when I need to go to the bathroom. On a good day I go to the bathroom about 2 to 3 times. On bad days It could be anywhere between 7 and 10. The morning are the worst I can’t leave the bathroom for an hour sometimes and hour and a half. On a full stomach or empty almost every night I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but still feel like I have to. The stool for the most part soft sometimes with blood sometimes without.

Sports and Colitis

I grew up with a family who ate all natural and organic food. When I was about 7 I started going over friends houses and eating junk and drinking soda. I gained a ton of weight. weighing around 200 pounds. I started to lose the weight in middle school feeling and looking healthy. My second year of high school I started eating whatever I wanted again and drinking a lot of beer. Nothing seemed out of place, I was just gaining some weight. My second to last year of high school when i won the championship in hockey I was eating a ton of ice cream, candy, PopTarts and drinking milk. I figured it could only give me energy for hockey. The summer i started to see blood in my stool and didn’t let it bother me. When i found out what was the problem I was weirded out and didn’t want to talk about it with anyone.

UC made me stress over little things and feel like I had some strange problem that no one has. The illness makes me feel like staying home is my best bet. I feel like if i go out I will get bad cramps and end up being in so much pain I will have to run to the bathroom and people will see me as strange/gross. I’ve missed out on my favorite Country music concerts and many parties. I am also now not playing hockey because I have ankle issues keeping me away. My family thinks I should take one thing at a time, but it’s hard when hockey is your life. I’m not a fan of the doctor checking out my butt. Even though people see hockey players as the toughest athletes, they don’t like people messing around with their butts.

My family is very good about the whole thing. My Mom and Dad try to do anything to help and feel my pain when they can’t do anything about it. I am most concerned about never going back to normal. The illness has taken my confidence and has made the normal digestive feel so far. I also love to drink. I used to drink beer all the time, now i can’t touch it or I’ll be running to the bathroom in pain. I had a beer the other day as well as chocolate and am now feeling stomach pain. People say vodka doesn’t bother them so I’m going to try tonight and see what it does to me. I also am going to start the SCD and wanted to know how this has helped people?

Medications:

I am on Predisone now and also taking Lialda. The Predisone is bad. I get angry and get stressed over little things. Lialda has helped, but it goes both ways sometimes not helping at all. I was taking pre workouts and protein powder for a long time before and at the start of UC. I feel they made me more prone to this illness and I would tell anyone taking them to stop. The stomach upsets and other health problems with come with continues use.

written by Matt P