Ulcerative Colitis United

Introduction:

My name is Kevin I am 39 years old married and have two children. I work in the oil/gas industry and do real estate with wife.

Some more about me:

I am from Houston, TX, I love football, playing the guitar and BBQ

Symptoms:

constant Diarrhea, not much blood and, some stomach pains and cramps

Ulcerative Colitis United

Well my story started about one year ago.

I expelled gas and mucus came out.

I was like, “what the heck is this”, then bouts of Diarrhea which eventually turned into seeing some blood, not the Red Sea, but there was blood.

I thought I drank too much or had food poison or something like that. So I just dealt with it and kept it to myself. By the way, this keeping it to myself would end up lasting over year. So it began, every morning, Diarrhea until whatever I had eaten the day before had left my body usually I was fine at about 12:00pm, and as I am sure you all know how difficult this is in an office setting. For example, here is a picture for ya, every Friday I would have a meeting from 8am – 11:30am, yeap a 2 and a half hour meeting with the Diarrhea from Hell during my “GO-TIME!” After a few months of this I decided to go to the doctor, finally thinking, something is not exactly right, duh, so the wife and I we nt. My doctor ran blood tests and saw that I was anemic, and that I had heartburn, and acid reflux. So began the purple pill to help with my heartburn and cramps, so I thought. I scheduled a follow-up and went on my way.

Then a crazy thing happened, I got better.

I was having well-formed movements and very little mucus and no blood for about 3 to 4 months. OH HAPPY DAY, using the restroom like normal…I am good to go, or so I thought. And them out of nowhere, bam, same thing diarrhea, mucus, and now a bit worse stomach cramps and pains. Great, and now I am to go on a vacation cruise with the family in 1month, last month to be exact, Imodium saved me until I got back. So long story short, I am beat down with dealing with this and decided to go to a GI doctor.  Blood test and stool came back negative for bacteria and parasites, and I’m thinking, “OK what next……COLONOSCOPY?”, that’s what.

Now the terror, all I am thinking about is my family and that I have something like cancer, I am 2 weeks from my 39th birthday and my life is over, I was pretty healthy up to this point. Well, the worst of the procedure as you all know is the prep cleanser, YUCK!!! Well this is how I found out I have left-sided colitis, for the last two weeks I have been taking 3 Lialda in the morning for a month , and OMG this is not cheap, and antibiotics for two weeks. Man I hope this helps, I am so sick of the diarrhea, and scared to go places for fear I might soil myself . Well that’s the short version, I hope it helps someone, because coming out of the closet and reading other stories helped me and Adams site was a god send to me. I wish all you the best and we are not alone…..May The Force Be With You!!!

written by Kevin

submitted in the colitis venting area