Curiosity poll...At what age were you diagnosed with UC?

Well I quit smoking in 1977, proctitis 1980. I was 32 at the time.
After about 20 rigid sig scopes, which are not fun I started smoking again. Was good until 1986
when i tried quitting for only 2 weeks. Well it came back and I still have it, still smoke.
As for my son he was 21, and he lost his colon in about 9 months, go figure.
He has been a happy poucher for the past 7 or so years.
Old Mike

24 for me dx'd probably started having problems when I was 23 and thinking back that is when I really reduced my smoking from 1-2 packs a day to about a pack a week (went from working in restaurants & partyting every night to an office job and different lifestyle) and now I have the occaisonal cig (don't know why not addicted). I had read somewhere about a connection between quitting smoking and the onset of UC.

I do have a family history my mother had UC has had an ostomy for over 20 years now.

At 24, July of 2004, soon after graduating from college and looking for a job I was house sitting for my brother and one day I decided to not eat a healthy thing and instead went for the oreos and all sorts of junk. Then I got into flamming hot cheatos and finished most of the bag, got pretty bad D, it was hot going out too ;) I thought, wow this is much worse than any case of D I've had, and I haven't recovered since. I extended my school insurance health plan and the doctor gave me immodium, I tried the BRAT diet, and he finally sent me to emergency to get it checked out. Since I was currently homeless, I stayed with my sister in the OC, CA and didn't have to deal with LA hospitals with all the gun shot wounds and what not, so I got admitted pretty quickly. The colonoscopy showed I had pancolitis and I started Asacol and it worked great for me immediately and then very gradually, along with a diet change that helped. I had no "real" insurance and I made such little money that year that I qualified for "medical services for the indigent", which paid for everything, but I knew I needed a job with real insurance and I managed to get blessed by my current job just 3 months later when I was feeling better.
Thinking back, I had bloody D off and on probably 8 months before I was dx'd, along with joint pain. I was scared it was colon cancer or something serious, but didn't want to know while i'm trying to finish my degree. Even if I did go to a doc about it earlier, the sad thing is they would probably prescribe antibiotics, immodium, and then say it is probably hemorrhoids.

So that is my story and, yes, I am sticking to it.

I was 22, and was told just 4 days before Christmas. Merry Christmas to me.

I was Dx'd in 2006 when I was 47, but had some problems in my early 40's that lasted for about a year then went away until late 2005.