Introduction:
I am a Professor of Management in India 46 years of age. I was first identified with Ulcerative Colitis at the age of 20. I have lived with UC for last 26 years. Initially it was very painful but once identified and treated with steroids,I have come a long way. Leading a fairly healthy family life but watchful of lapses all the time. Regular exercise has been greatly helpful and so is disciplined drinking(high fermented cane and molasses often referred as RUM)
Some more about me:
I come from a family with a history of UC and seems to be running in alternate generation depending upon genetic transfers since last few generations.
Symptoms:
I have mild remissions as I reduce the salazine dosages. Earlier I had dormant UC for almost a decade.
My Story:
I was wrecked earlier when I was announced with UC at the age of about 18. I was an intelligent child with excellent health record. This was tormenting. However, the GUT specialist was very supportive and told me that I can lead a very normal life as the steroids control the breakout. After two weeks of hospital stay I was on a normal life track .
I picked up corporate jobs after completing my MBA for 10 years and then moved to academics. I teach course in management and developed confidence of managing my UC as well.
I got married at the age of 28 and have two beautiful and healthy teenage daughters.
I chose to abide by a seasoned Doctor in Calcutta who advised me to start consuming RUM in moderate quantity. It kept me off remission for almost a decade.
On remission sulpha salazine upto 3 gm a day reduced to 2 gm later has been a norm so far.
My wife has been very supportive of me.She has stood by me in the vents of UC relapses.
I am fortunate to have the medical advise of some good Indian Doctors who have considerable experience in this disease. Many GUT clinics in North India has regular inflow of UC patients and I do find a huge database of UC experiences available to them.
I do feel that origin of UC could be genetic in nature its remission are antagonized by stress. It is auto immune disease and the triggers are very difficult to map.
I am most concerned about conversion of UC to colon cancer and get myself examined for this every two years.
So far life has been wonderful and I do hope some remissions which keep me grounded and are happily accepted stay to that limited frequency only.
Thank you
Medications:
disciplined drinking(high fermented cane and molasses often referred as RUM) and two cigarettes a week have worked well for me.
written by Sanjiv
submitted in the colitis venting area
I am a Professor of Management in India 46 years of age. I was first identified with Ulcerative Colitis at the age of 20. I have lived with UC for last 26 years.
Hi Sanjiv,
Great story! Thank you so much for sharing it on this site.
I have heard quite a lot about the cigarette smoking connection to UC. It is interesting what you say about drinking the fermented cane and molasses!
Good for you and thanks for the information.
Bev
:)
Thank you Sanjiv for sharing your story.
I would like to know if you were always a smoker? and how you came to the realization that two smokes a day worked? I am fairly new at this UC thing and am committed to finding what settles my flare…..
Hope you stay in remission for at least another 10 years…..good for you :)
Cindy
Cigerette smoke neutrilzes the excess H2S produced by UCers like us. It is why it is so helpful for so many people. Pentasa, Asacol, sulphasalazine are meant to also attempt to do the same thing. I guess in the way you can play around with dosage you can determine how many cigerettes to smoke a day. I read once guy it took 4 and he only took up smoking because he has UC…scary. I was a causal smoker and could of played its part in keeping my symptoms at bay for so long.
I have heard of so many people with long remission times 10,15,20 years even. It is possible. It’s a bit like the flu. People get it, and we get over it..and the chances of getting it again just depends on if you make yourself vulnerable to it i.e. wearing a t shirt in winter!!
With UC I am a strong believer our body has stopped producing something it naturally does which causes these problems we are faced with. Stress to the body is a great indicator to this. And when the digestive track is going through stresses it is the mucus layer that is first to stop working efficiently and than the knock on effects…leaky gut, food intolerance, asthma, colon cancer…
I advise everyone to research into building up your mucus defence. Get this up and running efficiently again and I promise you UC with not be a problem. We are all different, some who have had UC and its knock on effects will need more work to achieve the results I am currently finding. Only a week ago I was all blood and mucus and 10 BM and quickly losing weight. Tomorrow will be exactly a week since my symptoms increased from its ongoing state and since building up my mucus defence I go once with no blood mucus and the best part has been when I tried my luck and eat chocolate, bread and….no problems.
Still a long way to go, need to still address the bacteria imbalance and start producing more SCFAs and I am convinced I will not need to worry about UC for at least a very long time if I watch myself unlike before.
Will always be septical to UC like how everyone is to the flu, but if I ‘wear my t shirt’ I won’t have to worry about UC!!!