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article on UC in today's New York Times

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Posted 2/26/2008 12:47 PM (GMT 0)
hey Friends - I am about to reveal my anonymity here, but, whatever..... below is a link to a piece I wrote about my UC that is published in today's new york times. my hope is that this piece will raise visibility about our disease. please circulate the story to as many people as you know so that together we can leverage this opportunity to bring UC a bit more into the public sphere and make people less afraid to talk about it. thanks for all your support during this first hard year, and hopefully you'll enjoy my piece. -Loren

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/health/views/26case.html>
Posted 2/26/2008 1:00 PM (GMT 0)
That's a great article - glad to see I'm not alone in my thoughts on all this.  Thanks!
Posted 2/26/2008 1:23 PM (GMT 0)
It's a great, well-written piece. Congratulations on your publication in the NY Times! And thanks for letting us know that it's you. :)

I'm sure your piece will help a lot of people understand UC better.
Posted 2/26/2008 1:32 PM (GMT 0)
Wow! Congrats!!!!
Posted 2/26/2008 1:41 PM (GMT 0)
Excellent article. I wish I could share your view of hope.... I have been a very negative person my entire life and I know that I need to change this outlook to help my disease but I just don't know how. I'm losing hope very quickly as I have been dealing with the last flare since last summer, I'm quickly sinking into depression and having a very tough time with life in general right now. Please tell me how you managed to achieve this positive outlook in the face of this awful disease....

I'm sorry to throw my whining into your thread but I do want to re-iterate that you wrote an excellent article and the more info that we can get out there about this disease the better the future will look for all of us.

Thank you...
Posted 2/26/2008 1:48 PM (GMT 0)
Very well written :) I think the more people that speak out about Uc the more scientific advancements we are going to have. I like the way you brought the life long struggles we face but yet give hope to all that suffer from Uc. Kudos to you!
Posted 2/26/2008 2:03 PM (GMT 0)
What a terrific piece! In a few well-chosen words, you summarized what we all go through in adjusting to having a chronic disease, while still struggling to see ourselves as whole, healthy persons.
Posted 2/26/2008 2:47 PM (GMT 0)
Excellent article and thanks for letting others get a glimpse of what people with UC have to deal with.  This illness can make you feel very vulnerable (especially when it's 3 in the morning and you've woken up to sit on the pot!) but I truly believe that having the right attitude will get us through this.  After all, pain in life is inevitable - suffering is optional.
Posted 2/26/2008 3:20 PM (GMT 0)
Wonderful work! So well written. I am going to forward the link on to as many people as I can! Kudos for sharing about such a "taboo" topic :)
Posted 2/26/2008 3:23 PM (GMT 0)
Excellent piece! I am forwarding to all my family :)
Posted 2/26/2008 3:46 PM (GMT 0)
Absolutely beautiful.  Brought a tear to my eye. 

Thanks for writing and sharing the article.  I, too, have forwared your article to friends and family.

Posted 2/26/2008 4:54 PM (GMT 0)
very good article! Glad you are dealing with this so well.
Posted 2/26/2008 5:27 PM (GMT 0)
Fantastic article...I will save the link and share it with friends and family.

Thanks,

NBT
Posted 2/26/2008 6:16 PM (GMT 0)
Congratulations on getting published in the Times! Will it make any difference to the general public? That I tend to doubt ... people don't realize there's a major incontinence component to IBD that makes living with it a unique & perpetual terror. It's not just bloody diarrhea, fatigue, & weight loss, symptoms associated with many other illnesses/conditions & therefore perceived as less incapacitating to the individual than heart disease, stroke, etc., which get steady publicity. Until some major celebrity admits to pooping his/her pants, IBD is likely to stay on the back burner as a public health issue. / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC ... [etc.])

Posted 2/26/2008 6:18 PM (GMT 0)
Great article, thanks for sharing
Posted 2/26/2008 6:23 PM (GMT 0)
What a wonderful piece! You have a wonderful ability to put into words exactly what we are going through, which is not easy! I have sent the link to my friends and family. Congrats!
Posted 2/26/2008 6:37 PM (GMT 0)
what a wonderful piece, thanks so much for writing it. i am having a rough day with my colitis and it helped remind me that hope is the most important thing.
Posted 2/26/2008 8:15 PM (GMT 0)
Loren...thank you for sharing! Personal experience is a good way to help others (to hopefully) start to understand living with UC and chronic illness.

Heather
Posted 2/26/2008 8:36 PM (GMT 0)
Loren,

Your focus on not having control over one's body and the general unknown about this disease I think is what so many of us can't explain to those around us who don't have UC. We can take the pills, improve our diet and change our lifestyle, but the immense frustration in not being able to totally control one's body is what the world needs to understand. Well done!

meredith
Posted 2/26/2008 8:47 PM (GMT 0)
hey all. thanks for the kind words and so glad to hear that you feel I have represented us well. I do sincerely hope you guys will email it to other people, which you can do straight from the New York Times website. I feel strongly like this is a chance for us to get a bit more visibility for the disease. OLD HAT - I understand what you're saying that a celebrity needs to poop in their pants, but I couldn't get anyone to agree to that.... :) so, we have to just use this as a baby step in the long road of education.

anyway, having approval from you guys means a lot, so thanks again.
Posted 2/26/2008 10:17 PM (GMT 0)
Its good to see some publicity on this disease. I've run into far too many people who were unaware of its effect on people and their lives. Thanks Loren!
Posted 2/26/2008 10:36 PM (GMT 0)
Your article was beautifully written, it even made me cry a little. I really felt the words you wrote and cannot agree with them more. I am sending it to all of my friends and famiy and telling them this is what I've been trying to tell them! I share your hope and your pain. This disease sucks but we will get through. My family tells me I have a great attitude about my disease but it is how you say...things will work out, just becuase they will.

Thank you for writing the article, you are expressing more thoughts than your own. And congrats on the publlication!!!
Posted 2/26/2008 10:37 PM (GMT 0)
I'd also like to thank Loren for her contribution. I find it to be a remarkable piece of work as most people on here have said.

As to the comment that it won't make a difference. Of course it does. If one single person gains from this article then it has made an infinite success. And by the looks of it many already have. As for needing a celebrity to have to "highlight" this disease, well firstly we seem to have one in Loren! and secondly I don't need a celebrity to highlight this conditon for me. Each one of us on this forum deals with UC in their own unique way. We live with this condition becasue we find a way to deal with it, ourselves. Not because we rely on the outside help of some "nominal" media name.

As for IBD being on the back-burner. No I don't think so. You know sometimes you have to just believe that the human being is of noble spirit and behind all the cynicsm of us in the West people do care. The case of UC will fall. It will be solved. Science will beat it. Not money.

We are the heros here. Everyone of us. Everytime we get out of the bed in the morning to face another hopeful day. We deal with this issue just as Loren has said. Never forget that no matter what UC throws at you.

So yes Loren I think your contribution will make an amazing difference to the general public.

D
Posted 2/26/2008 11:01 PM (GMT 0)
Great article, Loren. It made me get teary-eyed. Congrats are getting published in the Times. Are you a regular writer there or was this a freelance piece? Thanks for sharing.
Posted 2/27/2008 1:05 AM (GMT 0)
Loren,

Thank you for sharing your Times piece with us. I immediately copied the link and emailed it to all of my family and close friends. You're piece is spot on and very eloquently written. (incidentally, I didn't realize that you were engaged, congratulations!) Thanks for a great read!
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