The Signs of My Ulcerative Colitis

This is something that I don’t talk about very much, but it is very important.  In a nutshell, I probably waited 5 or 6 years and suffered with Ulcerative Colitis before I really did anything.  The biggest mistake of my life in-fact.  But its true.

I can remember finally telling my wife that the reason I was taking so long in the bathroom was because I was having problems with my plumbing.  I remember the conversation clearly, we were driving away from my mom’s house(probably around September 30thish, 2008) and I told her I was bleeding while taking a dump.  She must have thought it was a joke.  Why hadn’t I told her this before?

We met about two years prior and had been married only 5 months.  The second or third day we knew eachother she probably thought something must have been up.  I woke up at my dad’s house and went downstairs to the bathroom(my favorite bathroom that was the farthest one away from my room… There were two other bathroom half the distance to my room that I grew up in, but I ALWAYS choose to go to this one.  It was a vacation spot for me actually.  The walls were painted navy blue, there was som cool little nick nacks that my stepmom came up with next to the sink, nice tiles, the shower I used too.  Often actually, instead of the one next to my room.

Back to the story, the third day after I met my now wife, I went to the bathroom after waking up and was in there taking a crap for probably 30 minutes.  That’s not weird is it?  Didn’t even hit my mind until after we were married and I told her about the bleeding and she said “so that the reason you always take so long in the bathroom?!”   I can’t remember my answer, but obviously the answer is YES.

I have had a few long term relationships prior to meeting my wife and I am guessing they were probably thinking the same thing over the course of the hundreds but more likely thousands of craps from those days.  Maybe couples/friends/everyone doesn’t talk about bathroom habits of others enough… Any thoughts there?  Any good stories anyone? please post if you take 30 minute craps and nobody has ever said until you were married.

I think the strangest lesson so far has been the human body has a great way to get used to things without making healthy changes, even when its killing them.

Definitely I should have gotten things taken care of earlier.  First of all, I have a family member(very close family member) who has the other one Chrons.  I knew this for years and years.  This family member has a bag on the side.  If you believe in the whole hereditary thing or not is not the point.  I knew at an early age that the human body can get so out of wack, that a surgery taking something out can even be a good option and lead to a perfectly normal life.  But I never until a few days before my colonoscopy saw the connection.

Back maybe 5-6 years ago, I started waking up in the morning and using the restroom and not really understanding BUT noticing that a hard “normal” crap was not an average everyday occurrence.  No no no no, never really thought anything more than that.  But get this, if you asked my close friends if I ever made a big deal when I had a normal “BIG” one.  They unfortunately would probably say that Adam out of all others probably would be the one who talked more about Number 2 than anyone else.

Let’s jump forward several years to maybe 3 years ago.  Has anyone besides me ever thought they just had ulcers which was causing them to bleed when they took a crap?once again, please post something if this is you, because that was what I was thinking for probably a year and a half to two years.  Of course my stomach was never the problem.  My favorite meal for quite some time now has been a big porterhouse steak from the Santa Cruz Market in Santa Barbara, California, and a big baked potato with sour cream, and salsa and cheese.  The steak cooked med/rare on the BBQ too.(just getting a wet mouth thinking of it) A little side note too, the Santa Cruz Market is a heavily Mexican patrioned  grocery store down there in SB.  They don’t call the steak cut porterhouse, I forget the name in Spanish.  My point is this, its a full on porterhouse cut, and thick as hell, and most of the time it was about $4.29/lb.  And this was only 3-4 years ago.  What I am trying to say here is I was eating everything, stomach was fine, I just started thinking I had ulcers and that was the reason for the blood. NOPE

So, lets say the last year prior to being diagnosed and most of the time living in the Prague, Czech Republic i started thinking that it was simply “Hemorrhoids are painful, swollen veins in the lower portion of the rectum or anus.” (Google copy and paste)    That’s right, the blood now was not only mixed in with the crap, but also it was very fresh on the toilet paper.  I am not even sure if I ever looked up what a hemorrhoid was on the internet, but I had ideas from hearing about them from time to time.  I just assumed that it was something down there, actually I think I thought it was a blister on your butt hole.  What a joke I was.  The long story short is I just kept with that idea, and thought eventually it would go away.  Well, sometimes it would nearly go away.(the side comment here is denial)  Considering what you know about me, it was probably more like “OK Adam, you went a few days without any fresh blood, just blood mixed in with the crap, MUST BE GETTING BETTER”

I plade that game for a long time.  Much longer than any other game I have ever played besides soccer.  I was a soccer play from ever since I can rember up until Senior year of High School, when I got 3 concussions in one season(upon reviewing this before posting I remembered that only 2 were soccer related, the other was slipping down in Cabo on a tile and hitting the head).  Right about the same time Steve Young was getting his concusions here in the San Fran, and news was saying how that was bad yadayadaydada and so I stopped.

Not coming to terms with your symptoms is incredible.  Looking in hindsight it is truly amazing.  If anyone has a story even remotely similar, please paste it here.  (I am hoping I am not the only lunatic out here)

While its getting late “GO SHARKS!”

But more importantly, if this story rings true to you and you haven’t told your wife yet, tell her first, then go directly to phonebook, and call nearest Gastroenterologist!  They are people who work in the field of medicine/health.  They can be found at most hospitals, and medical clinics.  It’s like calling up the local plumber pretty much.  And most of them are extremely cool people like my gastro doctor here in Palo Alto California.

Adam

I started site  shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).

For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms.  Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful.  But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.

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