Introduce yourselves!

I know that some of the veteran HW'ers are probably tired of seeing this but I thought I would create another thread for our new members.    I'm sad to see so many new faces but glad you found us!  So let us know more about you - you don't have to share anything you don't feel comfortable doing nor do you even have to participate if you don't want to.  I thought it would be nice to "know" you more and who knows, maybe someone shares similiar experiences, hobbies or career.

I will start so you can get to know one of your moderators:

I'm a 38 year old white female from Michigan and I have been married for 18 years but have been with my hubby for 20.  I have 2 kids, a 16 year old son and a 12 year old daughter.  It was after the birth of my son that I was diagnosed with Uc.  At first I thought all I was dealing with was hemmeroids since I did have one after I gave birth to him.  The bleeding, pain and D never stopped so I went to see a proctologist.  He took one peek in there and said I should go see a GI pronto.  The rest is history...

I don't work because my Uc has prevented me from keeping a job since I was always flaring.  But before I was diagnosed I was a payroll accountant and loved my job very much.  So I was sad to have to quit.  Right now I stay at home and care for my 88 year old gma - you might hear reference of her here every now and then!  But she suffered thru bladder cancer and now is dealing with a nephrostomy tube and kidney stents along with early Alzheimers. 

In my spare time, I like to read (suspense, mystery and horror novels), play computer games (click and point adventures), garden when the weather is nicer.  I also go "up north" alot in the summer to spend time at the cottage and hang out on my pontoon to fish.  My hubby owns a Harley so also in the summer, we do a lot of cruising to various places with friends who also have Harleys.

So that's me in a nutshell.  Do you care to share?

Let's see....

I am 31 and live in North Carolina. I'm a stay at home mom to the greatest 2 1/2 year old ever. He is currently yapping my ear off as I type so sorry if this makes no sense! Before I had my son I worked in interior design. I love decorating and am sure I'll end up doing that again once my son is older.

I have been married almost 7 years. Hubby and I went to rival ACC schools so we love basketball and football season. I was actually a college cheerleader!

I love shopping, reading and working out. I really enjoy hanging w/ my family or escaping with my girlfriends for dinner and a glass of wine! I live for the week we spend in Charleston every summer. I could spend every minute at the beach but unfortunately my dermatologist doesn't agree:)

I was officially diagnosed w/ UC about 6 weeks after my son was born. I definitely had been having symptoms for about 2-3 years before that. I was told my a zillion doctors that I had IBS and to decrease my stress. I found this website about the same time and am so lucky to have you guys!!!

Ooh I love all about me time!

Tomorrow is my 30th birthday and I am soo excited! I live not far outside Chicago with my husband of almost 5 years and our adorable puppy (OK, dog, but he'll always be my puppy).

I was dx'd 10 years ago but have had problems with my digestive tract since birth. I don't remeber a time when i wasn't dealing with pain, nausea, and GI's. I graduated from college last year after repeatedly having to drop out due to UC. (Yeah me!) My dream now is to get well enough to use my degree. I want nothing more than to be a middle school teacher. I can teach English (I know, i tend not to capitalize, use proper grammer, blah blah..I don't edit here), social studies, and art. I don't care which i end up teaching I love them all. I haven't been able work except for an odd day or two of subbing but hope remicade will change that.

Hobbies...hmmm..cooking, reading anything i can get my hands on, watching lots of tv with my hubby, playing wii (i'm addicted!) and spending time with my dog and friends.

No kids yet but with me starting remicade my husband has decided we should start having kids soon. The more scared he gets about my UC the more he wants to have kids. It doesn't hurt that we spend as much time as possible with our 1 year old neice and 5 year old nephew.

Oh and for any soccer fans my cousin was drafted in the first round to the New England Revolution in the MLS. So of course I am a HUGE soccer fan. Didn't use to be but its really amazing to watch family realize their dreams. Ok so now that I am off topic I will stop rambling.

I come from Cork in Ireland, some of us have to you know. There are times when I believe I have been unfairly treated by an the workings of a dasterdly underhand demographic committee. While such devious intentions can never be entirely ruled out I put my location down these days to just sheer bad luck!

I'm about 32 right now and have been lucky enough to always remain 15 years behind being old. I'm quietly confident this will continue into the future. One of the advantages of being 32 in the year 2007 is that you were a kid in the 1980s when all those great US shows like McGyer, Airwolf, the A-Team, Matlock were around so should you ever feel like discussing these with me feel free. Another advantage of being 32 in the year 2007 is that you appreciate things like CSI Miami, CSI Vegas and CSI New York for what they are - the best shows that ever have or will be shown on TV.

I have been lecturing in the area of Actuarial Science in Cork Uni for the last 3 years. To the students I haven't confused I offer my sincere apologies, to those I have let me just add that the effect fades with time.

My favourite academic subjects were History and English and as to the therefore obvious question as to why I am now lecturing in Mathematics I'm afraid I have no equally obvious answer. It kinda just crept up on me really suddenly over the course of 5 - 10 years! You really gotta be careful of things like that you know.

I am an avid writer, which explains the length of most of my posts! (thank you for your patience!) though I have written nothing really yet. Most of the text resides in the residues of my mind but I have no doubt I will retire someday, hopefully soon, and complete the task I was set on earth to do and that surely is to write although don't quote me on that! A homeptah doctor has told me that my UC is the frustration my body feels because I'm not doing what it wants i.e. to write! I don't believe this but having said that I'm not sure why I wrote that line.

A rather unhealthy portion of my life is taken up with Sports. I play lots of golf and tennis. I have developed a modest flair for racket sports. From an early age, given a racket and a ball, I generally connected intially, I will admit, to the detriment of my mother's backgarden. I used to run a lot. In 2003 I ran 1500 miles (yes I logged these on a speadsheet and yes I know this doesn't sound normal). I've run two Dublin City marathons (not at once now). My best time is 3 hours 50 minutes 57 seconds which would have been faster but the mechanics screwed up my 2nd pit stop plus I had a stop-and-go 10 second panalty somewhere near mile no. 19.

I'm a massive fan of Manchester United (aka the Evil Empire) even in the dark days when "the other crowd" were winning the league. Big passion for American Sports too and a really big fan of the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots and the Detroit Pistons. I've also do a bit of sports journalism here and there along my route.

I'm the most un-Irish person you'll ever meet. I don't drink, I get up each morning at 6.30am and I've no problem with the English!

I had perfect BMs up until 2004. I even enjoyed a good BM if that doesn't make me sound strange. Bit by bit I started to suffer bowel issues and now I seem to be caught in a limbo between UC and IBS though I am in remission for 6 glorious months. I've 2 main goals in life that I'd like to accomplish...a) get that bowel back to 100% efficiency b) be more like Dr. Cox from Scrubs.

You're a fan of all the teams I hate, Damo.

I'm a thirty year old male in the great city of Chicago.  I work long hours and it seemd like I have a longer commute home.  I have a little dog (min/pin-chihuaha) who I love to death.  Love to read, listen to music and, of course, follow Chicago White Sox baseball with a religious zeal. 

Was diagnosed with UC last September and it came as a complete shock to me.  I use to be very active (played hockey, baseball) but now I'm fatigued all the time but am looking forward to maybe playing sports agian.

Hi!
My name is Sam. I'm 19 years old and from Minnesota. I'm currently a freshman in college working towards being a cytotechnologist. I'm a big bio nerd, mostly the cellular and molecular based biology with some interest in infectious diseases.
I was diagnosed in September 2004 with h-pylori and diagnosed with UC in March 2005. I tried everything under the sun to manage the awful first flare I had but after a bowel rest in Dec/Jan 05/06 I was finally put into remission and there I have stayed.I love my GI but I'm at a pediatric clinic and after my next visit I have to move on to an adult GI, and I REALLY don't want to. Along with the UC I have lactose intolerance and I'm pretty sure I have IBS too. I'm the only one in my family with colon problems, though I think my mom might have some problems too.
I love hockey. I grew up with it and its a huge deal in my family. GO WILD!! I absolutely love Gilmore Girls. I swear I've seen every episode 20 times. I have a small Coach fetish. I blame my boyfriend for it! He spoils me :)

Beth! I LOVE Rock of Love! My hubby made me promise not to tell anyone we watch it...ha ha!

I'm 32 and living in Ontario, Canada with my husband. We've been married only a year and a half, but have been together for 11 years.  I have my M.Sc. degree and am a plant molecular biology technician. We have 2 cats - Riley (5 yrs) and Einstein (3 mths). We also have fish to which Einstein has taken quite a liking. I like skiing (downhill and cross country), skating and tobogganing in the winter and in summer I like to rollerblade and swim. I like to read and knit as well, but am terrible at finishing my knitting projects.

Kelly - Happy Birthday! I am also addicted to the wii. My husband got Link crossbow training for Christmas. It has a gun that the controllers fit in and you shoot targets and bad guys. If my husband didn't stop me from playing, I could play all night.

I started having UC symptoms about 2 years ago and was diagnosed 1.5 years ago. My doctor thought it was hemroids and sent me to a surgeon who did a sigmoidoscopy (he didn't think it was hemroids) and diagnosed me.

Tara

Hi. I am a 35 year old divorced black South African living in Cape Town. I am a IT professional and vegetarian. I am suffering from UC for the last 12 years.

I think that I live in the most beautiful city in the world

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Hi, I'm the senior citizen of our group at (gasp - I can't believe it!) 60. I've been married to my husband for 40 years. He retired last year, and I'm planning to retire in August. We're in Austin, Texas now but will be relocating to the hills of Tennessee after retirement. It's just the two of us and our dog. He's part border collie and scarily smart sometimes. I have a BS in nursing, and I currently am a program manager with our county health and human services department. I also do some national quality assurance and training for Prevent Child Abuse America.

I love the police shows on television too, especially NCIS, CSI and Criminal Minds. Since we all have to have a guilty pleasure, I have to admit I sometimes watch American Idol. (Blush) I also love to garden and play games on this computer that's taken over my life.

In 2001 I was just starting to get better after having a bad case of "post-infectious reactive airway disease" (that's asthma following a cold for those of us who like plain English.) I'd been on and off Prednisone for the previous 8 months. I started having more stools, then bleeding. When I saw blood, I ran like a gazelle to the doctor, because my mother had colon cancer. A month later I had a brand-spanking new diagnosis of UC> I was started on Asacol, which made me much worse. Changed to Pentasa with no results, then Colazal. To be brief, I tried a bucket full of different things before I finally achieved a remission with Remicade in early 2006.

I'm really sorry everyone here needs this forum, but really glad you found us. I've been around off and on since 2003, and it's been a huge support to me. Welcome to our new members!

Kspace - I am a HUGE Lost fan! I just wished I knew what the heck was going on! It gets sort of frustrating because by the time you stop watching an episode, you have more questions then before it started lol.

Red_34, for some reason, we started getting TV guide, and I just happened to randomly read that the series is supposed to end in 2010. This means that they have to drag it out until then. I'm tempted to just watch the whole thing on DVD once its over so I have immediate gratification of watching what happens next. I agree, I go nuts at the end of each episode. Kinda frustrating if you ask me! Definitely not satisfying.

TJF, I'm right there with you on LOST. Not to rain on your parade, but I got a little bored with HOUSE because it was the same format for each episode... some weird infectious agent or a toxic exposure causing the symptoms. I haven't seen it recently, so I may be wrong. Regardless, I shouldn't be watching too much TV!

To the moderators, sorry to go off topic! No more TV discussions on this thread from me, promise.

Brandie....My hubby and I were in Asheville last weekend!