UC and Me

Introduction:

I’m Kat
I’m a 21 year old who was diagnosed with colitis in 2001 and now I’m happily living with a j-pouch!
I actually just recently started a blog now just about my life with the j-pouch. And how I’m trying to get healthy and active again, it’s been a long time coming.
you can check the blog out at
www.uc-and-me.blogspot.com

My Ulcerative Colitis Story:

I was first diagnosed back in 2001. It was by about the 6th grade I was getting severe pains on the left side of my abdomen, blood in stool, dramatic weight loss. Everything happened pretty quickly from there. I was on a lot of different medications that just weren’t working. I was depressed a lot because of what was happening and my colon was pretty far gone by this point. I had my first surgery in August of 2002 and my entire colon was removed and I had a temporary ileostomy put in. In December of 2002 I had my take-down surgery and then finally in March of 2003 I had the reattachment surgery and my ostomy was removed and the j-pouch created. They had to leave a small portion of my colon in order to reattach so that get’s flared up form time to time. But I’ve been pretty happy since then. Life with a J-pouch has it’s occasional downsides but for the most part It’s definitely better than UC.. Mostly I just want to know how other people have adjusted to their j-pouches. I’m one of the unlucky few who get chronic pouchitis, and even after having it for years still run into some problems. It would be nice to know how others deal with that. But I haven’t had any real problems for a few months now and am finally deciding to take my health back. So we will see how that journey goes!

Submitted by Kat in the Colitis Venting Area