Here's my story:
A year ago I noticed bright red blood in my stool. I went to get a physical(blood tests for stds and other came back fine). Physician said he wouldn't worry about
a little blood because I'm young, but if I wanted to know what it was I could go see the GI. I went to the Gi and told him it felt like my colon wasn't emptying all the way. I'd have to go to the bathroom often, which didn't have any real pain (and didn't bother me). I just wanted to make sure I was okay. He said, "well I think it is probably minor, but lets check." I scheduled a colonoscopy a week later, and he said that I looked good, but just has a couple small internal hemmorhoids.
I continued to pass bright red blood the next day and with most bowel movements still to this day. I continued to eat whatever I wanted, and about
6-7 months after the colonoscopy, I started having the original symptoms of having to go to the bathroom and not emptying when I did. It didn't really bother me because I didn't go a ton of times a day, I just felt incomplete each time. Nevertheless, my life didn't change at all. Then about
a month ago (which has been a year since my initial colonoscopy), I started having gas pains and frequent trips to the bathroom. And it started to affect my life more. I still ate what I wanted , but I would feel "rectal warmth" along with not being able to have anything empty when I had bowel movements.
I immediately at this point went to my primary care physician. He x rayed my stomach and said that I had a ton of waste on the right side of my colon. He showed me the xray. He said that I have a lazy colon and I need to take miralax for 4-5 days and I should feel much better. Well, I called him over a week later and told him that I had not improved. At this point, I was making trips every hour between classes to the bathroom. Usually right after eating. At about
the 7-8 month mark after the first colonoscopy, mucus started to mix with my blood and my non existent bowel movements smelled acidic or something.
So anyways, after calling my primary doc, he said that something was really wrong and that I should go to the ER. I went to the ER a little over a week ago. They did urinalysis, prostrate exam, genital exam, CAT SCAN, blood tests, and then diagnosed me with UC-referring me back to the GI doctor. The GI doctor said lets do a sigmoidoscopy.
A few days later, I was at the surgery center and the gi doc was about
to do my sigmoidoscopy. He had my paperwork from the ER in his hand. He asked me if they said anything about
kidney inflammation? I said no, but I do have infrequent urination , but no pain or anything. He said, "well, they wrote down that you had MINOR kidney inflammation."
The doctor knocked me out, and when I woke up he told my mom that he did a colonoscopy instead and that I did have Ulcerative Colitis spanning 8 inches of my rectum. He said, "It's very angry in there." He took some tissue samples to biopsy and told me to check back with him in a few days. (A couple days later the gi doctor left me a voicemail and said the tissue samples came back fine).
He prescribed me: Prednisone 40mg a day for 2 wks, 30mg a day for 2 wks, 20mg/day for 2 wks, and 10mg a day for 2wks. Plus ASACOL HD 800mg every 8 hours and Mesalamine Enemas (which I got switched fo Canasa suppositories).
I don't know that I have the worst case in the world, but this is definitely something that I don't want to keep fighting only to end up compromising my immune system and jeopardizing my health further. It has only been like 9 days or something on the meds. I'm not throwing up yet, and my symptoms are painful bowel movements often during the day which makes me obsess over my condition and not feel well enough to go to work or school.
Post Edited (FutureMD) : 9/30/2010 8:08:01 AM (GMT-6)