10 Years With Ulcerative Colitis

Hey UC’ers,

What is Up…!!!!???

Today, October 2nd, TEN short (sometimes long) years ago, I was getting a ride down to the Stanford Colonoscopy Center, not sure what the heck was going on with my bloody poop attacks.

Ten years ago today, I also had an few tubes plugged into my arm, to shoot in some medication to put me asleep for the very first ever anal violation (full colonoscopy) of my life.

And of course, it was ten years ago today that in the waiting room, the gastroenterologist (Dr. Harvey Young) told me and my family who was there next to me that yes, as he suspected, I had Ulcerative Colitis.

Yup, it is true, October 2, 2008 was the day some things changed.

As many of you with this crazy gift called UC know far too well, there were all sorts of ups and downs the first year, medications galore, more anal violations, sigmoidoscopies, blood tests all around and far too often(for my liking as I HATE needles going in me), and life seemed like there was absofriginlootely no way it would ever be “normal” again.

I admit, yes, those thoughts were dancing all over me, inside me, in the toilet bowl that was way too redish back in those days.

But that was ten years ago.

A whole bunch has changed, And

the reality is that a whole bunch has remained the same. 

What’s Changed:

• OK, I got some serious grey hair coming in.
• I’ve traveled to about 15 more countries than ten years ago
• I moved back to Europe from California
• Learned to speak a Slavic language
• I started a totally new diet (about 9 years ago)
  • I followed this diet for about 6-7 years religously
  • I stopped following this diet about 2ish years ago
  • Now I don’t really follow any diet, and I eat pretty much whatever I want
    • I was in Thailand and Hong Kong earlier this year chowing on rice nearly every friggin day…(did have rice for 6-7 years previously….as an example)
• I’ve begun to get seriously more active physically
  • I’m willing to bet that right now today, I am in the very best shape of my life
    • OK….I can’t bench press 255 pounds like I once would at the age of 25, but….I did just complete yet another long range bike trip…check out the video…and for the whole summer, I tacked on another 2,000 kilometers that’s about 1,242 MILES on my  bike which included about 40 extra pounds of gear I was lugging around….Not bad eh…!!?:))

So what the heck am I trying to say?

As the founder and dude who started this website back in the year 2009…I didn’t think I would be feeling in this kind of physical shape after 10 years with ulcerative colitis.

Nope…

I thought I would be doing OK, but not peaking out and feeling really good.  Didn’t think I would be getting good sleep at night on a regular basis.  Didn’t think I would be going months and months without those nasty joint pains I remember all too well.

And sure didn’t think i would be going for long periods of time with nice hard poops or very slightly not super hard…but good ones….(I’m talking about the ones where you don’t use much toilet paper…cause its just not needed…you know them, or at least you can remember them.  They are good…especially when you are in a nasty bathroom in Volovets, Ukraine…and you’ve just banged out another ripping day cruising through back country trails off road in the Carpathian Mountains, and all you want is to just drop a nice #2…

Another thing, I don’t take any medications for my UC, and I definitely don’t plan to in the near or maybe infinite future.  I had a colonoscopy last December, by Dr. Harvey Young, the same doc who diagnosed me, and he was shocked with how things were looking down there…that was cool.

How about You

• Are you newly diagnosed?
  • Does life seem absolutely wacked out right now?
    • Total curve ball getting this UC thing, right?
    • All was going so good too i bet
• Or has it been a few months, perhaps a few years with UC?
  • And things still don’t seem to be heading in the right direction?
  • or are things starting to come around, and you are finding ways to manage your UC?
• How about the doctor you see?
  • I hope you like your doctor, and trust her/him
  • You have seen a gastroenterologist i hope
  • If you don’t trust your doctor, have you considered changing docs?
• Have you ever met another person with a “life long disease”?
  • Way cool if you have…there are many folks out there in this boat…maybe not just UC…but come on…there are many “auto-immune” disease on this planet right..?
  • From my perspective, if you can have the opportunity to meet another UC’er….that’s pretty cool.  I’ve met some now in several countries and it is always an awesome experience.  (We’ve got a pretty awesome/exclusive secret tribe eh..)
• And what about your outlook on life?
  • Do you feel constantly defeated?
  • Are you hopeful for being able to accomplish some/all of your dreams somewhere down the road?
  • Are you depressed(hey…I’ve been there…i’m pretty sure anybody on this planet has depressed times at some points in their lives.  It’s part of living.  At least it has been for me. (Life is TOUGH)  For many))
• And let us NOT FORGET about a MAJOR thing here…. — RELATIONSHIPS with others
  • How are those going?
  • Do you have people you trust in your life?
  • People you can talk openly about, especially about how you are feeling with your disease at any point in time…
  • Do you have at least one person who really takes the time to try and understand how you feel?  Understand your struggles with the daily difficulties that UC can often present?
    • it’s really important to have someone, or maybe a few people you can rap about these struggles with
    • perhaps it is a neighbor, teacher, family member, etc….
  • AND what do I think is SUPER KEY…MAYBE MORE important than anything I have mentioned so far….

The Stress Factors of Life

Stress is nasty.  It is semi abstract/hard to think about/describe, but I personally believe it plays a much much larger role in our disease than it receives credit for.  Doctors and researchers do know that stress activates the immune response system.  And this, I think is safe to say NOT what people with UC want to be doing.  Come on…nobody wants to be doing this unless a lion is chasing you through the jungle and you need that extra dose of hormones/cortisol/adrenaline etc…

So…no silver bullet here.  no easy solution.  But minimizing/eliminating stress can play a HUGE role in your success with overcoming the disease of ulcerative colitis.

I would start with looking at your personal relationships.  Perhaps there are some people in your life that really have a tendency to bring stress to you.  (And I’m guessing none of that is even intentional.)  But, let us all be real, some people are stressful to be around.  Realize it.  It might help you out.  It might help you get that hard poop too.

I wish each of you the very best, no matter how you are treating/managing your UC, and no matter which country, village, city, or neighborhood you are from.  We are all in this together, we always have been, and that is not going to change.

Have a great day, below are some pictures and videos of me the past two months.

For the record, I biked two bike trips.  One was July-August, the other was all in September.  First was from Slovakia to Hungary to Romania to Ukraine.  Second was from Czech Republic to Poland to Ukraine to Hungary to Slovakia.  Was fun.  First trip with my buddy who is from the country of Georgia.  Second trip I did alone.  (I had not been on a bike trip like this since the summer of 2007 which was before my diagnosis.)

You all rock in my book,

Adam

(personal request, if anybody wants to do a skype interview, and talk about your UC and how you are managing it, please email me and we can setup a time.  I’d like to publish some videos of us talking(webcam style) so others can see how we do it!)