What’s up UC’ers, I’m Megan.
I’ve been living with Ulcerative Colitis since October 2003. Trying to put off surgery as long as possible.
Here’s My Story:
I was diagnosed with UC when I was 4 months pregnant with my 2nd child – October 2003! Hospitalized for 11 days (went into pre-term labor twice) and then was sent home with a PICC line for the duration of my pregnancy! Had my first colonoscopy 5 months pregnant – now that is fun!!! Made it through the pregnancy with little real food (TPN nutrition in the PICC line) and delivered a healthy baby boy at 35 1/2 weeks…..he was 8 lbs 10 oz…..he really liked the TPN and all the steroids I was on!
My UC went into remission immediately after he was born. I lived very normal until he was 10 months old – then it all came back. My GI doctor put me back on Colozal and prednisone. Was able to taper off the steroids within a few weeks and live pretty normal on just the Colozal.
That was until October 2010. Everything came back again in full force. After a colonoscopy it was decided to try 6MP. Started that new medication in January 2011…after 2 weeks on the medicine I was hospitalized with severe pain. It was determined that I had a reaction of some kind to the 6MP. I was on morphine for 6 days ti help recover. Remicade infusions were the next step! Received my first infusion during that 8 day stay.
I continued with the Remicade ramp up procedure – 2 weeks, 4 weeks and then 8 weeks! However, I couldn’t make it to the 8 weeks so I had to add a 6 weeks one in there. My GI Dr. doubled the Remicade dose and said lets try to make it to 8 this time! I wasn’t feeling great beginning at week 4 so I searched out an acupuncturist that has experience with UC! I started seeing my acupuncturist twice a week at the 4 week mark. Today I am starting my 7th week between infusions!
It hasn’t been easy getting here – but I believe that the acupuncture is helping me get by. I’m scheduled for my next infusion this week….praying I feel tons better after it and just need to use the acupuncture near the end of each 8 week cycle! If not – then back to the drawing board and surgery moves higher on the list of fixes :(
-Submitted by Megan in the Colitis Venting Area on June 20th, 2011
All of the posts from “Annonymous UC” are from ulcerative colitis people who anonymously submitted stories or Doctor Reviews, medication, supplement reviews etc… I post all these stories to the site, but they’re different from my own personal stories so hopefully this account makes more sense:) -Adam – founder of iHaveUC.com
