Soooo.. here it is. I am not very good at listening to my own body.
So when I got diagnosed, I had already having symptoms for probably… 5 or 6 months ! It started with blood in my stools, it wasn’t dark so it did not seem to be serious. Went to see a doctor, who told me I had hemorroids and an anal fistula. Somehow I wasn’t all that convinced, but at the same time I was glad I did not have to undergo a colonoscopy, which seemed frightening as hell. Not to mention embarrassing.
A few weeks after that I stopped running, because I began to have these false urgencies with a lot (well it seemed like a lot) os gas, sometimes blood and mucus. Still in denial I was like : Oh, must be my hemorroids or this fistula – stupid me !
Then one day at work, the unthinkable happened… I crouched to pick up something and I p**ped in my pants. WTF ?!?! Confused, ashamed, I didn’t tell anyone, hoping it was an isolated event. Unfortunately it wasn’t, as it happend again at Walmart. The more time went, the more urgencies I had, I would not go out except to work or to pick up my daughter at school.
Around the end of December, I began to feel exertion when I went up the stairs, my heartbeat was faster, I knew I was anemic. Still, not enough for me to see my doctor (well I managed to get an appointment – in APRIL !) until one day at work, I saw black, I almost passed out. Since I work in a hospital, I asked an intern to RX an hemoglobin test, and turned out I was severely anemic, Hb at 64 ! So I took my test results, went to the ER (in another hospital, did not feel like being probed ”up there” by a collegue !). In a matter of an hour I got to see a GI specialist who ordered a coloscopy. He also did a gastroscopy (OMG !! awful !).
I had never heard of UC. A little about Crohn’s, but not UC. My husband and I were expecting for the worst, i.e. cancer, but then the GI told me I likely had UC. I still was a little groggy from the meds they give for the colonoscopy but I asked him what is it and should I follow a special diet. No, he replied, no special diet. Okay doc, thanks !
When I got home i went on the internet and found out Ulcerative Colitis was a chronic disease, I was shocked ! Since then I have learned a lot from reading about fellow UCers.
I am on Mezavant but unfortunately it hasn’t improved my condition very much, tried Salofalk enemas, but now I cannot be isolated anymore, I am on sick leave, I am missing out on my girl’s activities, so I decided to take prednisone. I am aware this cannot be for a long time, so this is why I am looking into food intolerances, and the SCD diet.
