anyone else have encouragemnt for remission of left sided uc

wow, i need to hear somehting different! i once asked my dr about another chronic disease if any of his patients had success with the various treatmnents and he said that it's hard to know because when people get better they don't call in to report. he only hears from them when they are sick. so maybe some move onto another dr or they don't call in or come to message boards when they are well. i hope that is the case for left sided uc. i'm not the sick one here but my heart can't take it. sorry i'm just lost.

Maybe you should go for counseling yourself, or to a parent support group. It sounds like your daughter is going to do well: taking the right meds, managing stress, eating a healthful diet, and getting enough rest, plus she already exercises. If she is your only child, you may fixate on her problems and even obsess, which is not good for either of you. Take it from one who has been there! I was diagnosed with UC at the time toxic shock syndrome shook up the medical establishment & got heavy media coverage. My mother could not shake the idea that TSS was what I really had-- for more than a year. That kind of thinking is not helpful to coping with a chronic ailment. It's not that you don't mean well. / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC; currently on 3 Colazal daily for maintenance of remission)

Hi PLEASE - the doctor is right that this forum suffers from "selection bias," meaning that the population who posts on this forum is very skewed and not representative of the illness at large. those of us writing are writing because we're struggling. those people who aren't struggling are just out living, even though they have UC, so they aren't writing. you have to remember that there are tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands people with this disease, and probably only a few hundred on the forum. so most people are out and about and well, and the stories you hear here do not reflect all those many many people doing fine. rest assured that your daughter will do ok. I am relatively young, recently diagnosed, and also still sorting out my medical therapy, so my mom worries a lot too. but, finally my mom understands that the worst case scenario is loss of the colon, and that in the big picture that really isn't that awful. I mean, it would be a hard adjustment, but she knows I would adjust. this isn't terminal or fatal, rather just a lousy disease that requires lifestyle changes. but your daughter doesn't have pancolitis, she has left-sided, so that;s good, as that is a slightly less severe version of the illness. just give yourself and her some time for it to set in and remember the posts here are not the norm. but I will add that when my mom was freaking out about my diagnosis I was much more stressed and upset than when she was calm about it, so I strongly suggest you show a tough face in fron of your daughter, as it is so much harder to eb the child when the parent is upset. this will get easier.

Hello PLEASE,

Keep the positive attitude, and have confidence that this disease can be managed! I have had TERRIBLE flares, but managed to work through them. And with knowledge comes the tools to fight the flares and get over them quicker and easier. Heres my story from 10 months ago:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=737408

I was off work for almost 4 months. Today, I was at the gym, ran the treadmill, hit the weights, and felt like a million bucks. We will all have low times, sometimes very low, but we can bounce back and have good, and extremely good times too. Finding what works for us individually is the key. For me, i am currently using 4000 mg of 5-ASA a day orally, and 4000 mg of 5-ASA rectally. Its a lot, but in my opinion better then the prednisone. But if it stops working, I cannot discount pred again.

Keep the faith, and just keep learning about UC as there are so many things that have worked for so many people.

And if I haven't already, welcome to the forum! :)