Teachers with UC

I'm afraid I don't have any tips. I'm a lecturer but I will make the point I've never had an issue with UC symptoms during lectures and my UC will only flare during now term-time. I find this really amazing. Talked with a counsellor friend about it and he said it can be the "body hanging on syndrome"...like it knows it just needs to get throught the next few months...and then when spring break comes it lets out a big PHeeeeeewwwwww made it for another year...at that time im at my most vunerable and i'll flare....the body is an amazing peice of machinary and works in ways we cannot fathom

Has your UC ever actually caused you problems in class? If it hasn't then don't stress too much about something that hasn't happened. Trust yourself. Trust your body.

i had a teacher who would always get a bad chest infection in june when classes were over for us 7-year olds...she'd always make it till the end of the year and hang on in there...and then BOOM....the infection would hit....the bodys ability to survive, be it a UC flare, being chased by a wild animal!!! or whatever is immense...the fight or flight response can get us through many many situations....but then when the percevied threat is over we are at our weakest....i bet a lot of folks on here can relate to their flares hitting them not during a particurlay stressful event but immediately after it

again my advice is to go for it and get back into the classroom....i worried about that when in was dignosed but i wouldnt let UC force me to change my career...i wanted to lecture and my body responded...timing its flares for some other moments!!! Ha

i work in a school as a library technician & can't imagine teaching with uc! props to you guys! i'm lucky enough to have a bathroom directly across the hall from the library & am able to leave whenever the urge hits.

my advice would be to see if you can find something half time, try that for a year & see how it goes - then you can decide if you want to teach full time or not. also be open with your coworkers in classrooms nearby so that they can cover for you in case there is an emergency. most people will be very understanding.

My body used to be able to hang on, until I got stuck with an 8am 3-hour lab. I couldn't just run to the bathroom for 10 minutes mid-sentence. I am so embarrassed to admit this but I definitely crapped myself 5-6 times in front of a bunch of college students. I mean, I'm proud to say that I just kept talking and did everything I could to let on that nothing had happened. But the next 10 minutes in the bathroom trying to clean up was just ... oh god, so awful.

In terms of what I can recommend, the BEST thing you can do is Depends. I would sometimes wear a menstrual pad to try to solve the problem, but I'll tell ya, that didn't help very much at all. I was definitely in serious denial about how well I could handle the problem, but I wish I had just sucked it up and bought the diapers. It would have been less humiliating than having so many accidents.

One other thing you can do is make sure your colleagues are aware of the problem. Our lab coordinator was aware of how sick I was, as were the other grad students who were teaching the same class. I also was lucky enough to have teaching assistants, and my TA in my 8am lab was great at handling the class when I had to leave to go to the bathroom. I still couldn't leave while I was mid-lecture, but I could leave while students were doing the labwork or group work.

Best of luck!

I am not a teacher, but a trainer, and I have a volunteer class on Saturday. Somehow I've never had to leave a class. I always scope out the area though, just in case.

My regular training room at work is as far from the bathroom as you can get in my building. :-/

UCandME,

Do you have offers for the fall? or just plan to sub. again?
if you have offers what grade? any chance of a TA or special staff supervising particular children? really the main concern is can you excuse yourself from the group with/without supervision and for how long.

I managed 5 years before even needing to tell my boss that i wasn't feeling well.

If you just plan to sub. then it shouldn't be too much of an issue. When they call you in, if you are flaring you just say you are unavailable or already booked - it is not lying, they should just move on to the next person on the list and check with you again the next time.

I'm sure each person is a bit different, but usually you kind of have a build up to a flare.
Looks like you are still new to this condition from your diagnosis date. You will see that there are different stages for most of us. I usually have a few days or weeks with mucus, maybe some small amounts of blood, an extra trip or two.. before being in full flare.

We are either in Remission (where you really don't pay much attention to the colitis other than taking meds.) Life is normal when this happens. OR you are in a managable phase of flaring (sometimes you get a routine where you still see symptoms - maybe blood or more frequent visits to washroom) but it is still somewhat predictable and so you know your body will likely on not be ok for the day. OR you are in major flare (during these times if you don't NEED to work.. then you won't want to work!!!)

I am currently in the manageable stage of flaring. It is true I don't know what to expect with this disease. Hopefully will be in a remission when school starts and not have to worry about symptoms. Right now it is still unpredictable. I can have a few good days and then a bad one and mornings are not always a predictor of how the day will go.

Luckily I have a bathroom in my classroom, but I have been known to run across campus to a more private bathroom to unleash the wrath of the Colonel at times.

Chinamom

I used to work with 17-19 year olds. You know how mean they usually are. They concentrate more on you, your demeanor, your language and other things more than what actually you are teaching them.

I used to pop in one bentyl 20mg an hour before the class. My class would last usually for 4 hours though.