23 Years Of Great Life After UC

Meet Doug:

Diagnosed 1989, Located here in upstate NY, 47 years old.
When it started I hunted, fished, snowmobiled, played a lot of paintball and my job was heavy construction.
Things have changed but not because of the UC.
Married in 94, kids in 95 and 96. New office job 2000. Kept so busy with kids and life, UC just an annoying (really annoying) distraction at times.

My Symptoms:

After a few years of remission I am having a flare up. Things have settled down with 40 mg pred and 100 mg azathioprine (due for bloodwork again), but I found my way to this website looking for side effects of the azathiprine. In the past I took Purinthol I am not sure what the difference is but the Azathiprine seems to have less side effects for me so far.

My Story:

The beginning of this story sounds bad, as I think they all do, but it gets better, and yours can too.
My UC story begins in 1989, here in upstate NY, I was 24 and life pretty much revolved around the outdoors. My job was heavy construction, I played tournament paintball, hunted, fished, skied and snowmobiled, UC was not convenient.
It started as an annoyance and grew to what I later have come to realize were severe symptoms, have you ever met someone that was really stubborn, at 24 that was me.
The one piece of luck I have had was a good doctor the “third” time, the first GP was useless, next came a specialist that was having a bad day and was not optimistic, I was 25 and didn’t go back. It took seven years of absolute misery and more pain than can be put in words (at times) before I found a new doctor, forced upon me by my wife.
The new doctor was upbeat and he was sure he was going to be able to help, and I couldn’t get much worse. At one point I dropped from 180 lb to 140 lb it was a deep hole but “we” dug out. My symptoms have not been easy to control often on pred, asacol, 6MP at varying amounts for months/years at a time, very sensitive to tapering off.
Jump ahead to now, I’ve been married 18 years have two teenagers and a full life that still includes a lot of the outdoors. The last 23 years have had some real lows, but I rarely look back and remember the UC, as bad as some of those times were. I remember everything I did, I have a wife that likes to “do” stuff and I will never regret all the kid activities, camping, hunting and driving to Florida to see grandparents that we did. I am not to worried about UC and my future, as much as it tries to take over some times I just won’t let it.

SOME WORDS OF ADVISE:

So far there is no magic answer- I have had 23 years to try stuff, what works for some may not work for you, my doctor worked best for me.
Depression is real and you should talk to someone/doctor. Music helps me and its free.—-Do stuff, find a way—-4 small meals a day—-(never all you can eat buffet)—–avoid as much food as you can that causes gas—–be prepared for the worst, it gives peace of mind—-Stress I have a particular intense kind that seems to cause flareups, think back in your own experience——

Where I’d like to be in 1 year:

I am sure I will be fine, 20 years ago we were all in the dark, so many treatments and so much information now.

written by Doug

submitted in the colitis venting area
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