Diagnosed with Colitis at 19 – Maria Maria

Bio:

19 year old College student from New York

Joint pain in knees, diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody stools, acne, hair growth, swollen face, weight gain, bloating.

MY UC:

After the Holidays everything seemed to go down hill for me. I started to have constant diarrhea, and was unable to control my bowl movements. I went to my family doctor and was told that i had a virus and it would pass. Still a week went by and i was still having to constantly using the bathroom they put me on antibiotics, and I still didn’t get better, so i was put on a second round.It was really torture going back to school for the Spring Semester and not being able to control my bowel movements.I was kept being told that it was just a virus, but then I started to notice that my diarrhea now was starting to look abnormal I would go to the bathroom and it would look like beige pieces of popcorn, i thought nothing of it. However it began to progress and i started noticing blood. I went back to my family doctor and they started that i see a gastroenterologist right away because blood in your stool is never a good sign.

After meeting with a gastroenterologist he recommended i have a colonoscopy. I was terrified being only 19 and having to get a colonoscopy, but i knew i had to go threw with it. I had my colonoscopy February 9th 2012. They found that i had an ulcer in my colon and told me it could be treated with a hydrocortisone enema for 2 weeks. After doing the enema for a week i realized that there was no improvement at all and that my symptoms were getting worse. My doctor suggested that i double up on medications, so i started doing the enema at night and a canasa suppository in the morning. However the canasa suppository in the morning did not work out so well since i was going to the bathroom about every 30 mintutes. I still was having no improvement at all. I called my Doctor again and he decided to add 4 Lialda pills. When i took the 4 lialda pills i instantly threw it up. I guess taking four horse pills at one time was to much on my stomach. I called my doctor right away and he wrote me a prescription for prednisone steroids. I was taking the prednisone along with everything else for one week and noticed no improvement at all. Matter of fact everything was getting worse, i was going to the bathroom 15, 20 times a day and every time i went the toilet was full of blood. Something just wasn’t right, on February 28 2012 i went to the hospital because i was not responding to at home treatment.

At the hospital my Doctor told me that i was going to need a second colonoscopy so he could see what was going on. I had my second colonoscopy February 29th 2012. My Doctor was amazed by what he found, the inflammation has spread a large amount which was why i was bleeding so much. He was shocked because he usually sees progression like that in 5 years not a matter of a few weeks. I was immediately put on iv steroids for a week. I was so happy that the iv steroids were working and all my symptoms were getting better.

When i came home i was put on the prednisone steroids by pills for 2 months, and every week i would take a lower dosage. As im getting lower and lower on my steroids i am now taking a canasa suppository, 2 lialdas ( working on it little by little to get up to 4) and 6mp.

I can honestly say that right now I’m in a much better place and am trying to get into remission. Even though i had to end up taking a medical leave for school this semester i know that my health comes first and everything else could wait.

Some questions i have..

• What foods have you found to make you flare up?

• What were your side affects to prednisone, and how long did it take to go away?

Where I’d Like to Be in a Year:

New York Maria

Maria 19 year old College student from New York
Diagnosed February 2012 With Colitis
Never had any health problems before, this colitis came out of no where!