Gratitude

Hello all-I have been having a hard time for a few weeks (nothing like the past, and nothing like some of our other members), but I feel like I *might* be turning the corner, and I just wanted to let out some of my gratitude.

I am so grateful:

-to have found this community. Having people around who really understand the struggles of living with chronic disease, and specifically UC, is a blessing

-that you all are so open and helpful. I know we don't all always see eye to eye, but I have gotten more great suggestions about supplements, probiotics and just helpful coping methods from this board than I have from any of my doctors. Thank you all for that.

-that I am no longer teaching. The idea of having to grab a co-teacher to watch my class so I can rush to the bathroom is terrible. I don't think I would have lasted in my old profession with this disease and that would have made me feel like a failure.

-that I have a great partner and family-not everyone does, and I am so grateful for mine

-that we no longer live in our little one bathroom apt-aye yi yi-I can't imagine trying to cope with that!!!

Now let's see if i can remember all of this when things are really bad...

Anyone else have things to add of your own?

-That my boyfriend is generally very helpful with cooking/eating out places I can tolerate. He's generally amazing when it comes to my illness.

-That I know two other people off the internet with UC, one of whom is one of my best friends and the other is a doctor. They're great as a support system, and the doctor (my mom's friend) is always providing me with sample and writing prescriptions when I can't be arsed to see my GI.

-That I finally know why I've been getting sick. It took two years to diagnose me properly so I had two years of flares where the only treatment was to take probiotics and eat low residue foods. Two years of being told I have gastroenteritis. I even had a triage nurse tell me, in so many words, that I had Munchausen's and was just there for attention. Now I can finally treat the problem properly.

-That I'm pretty much in remission now.

-That I can come on here and go "Hey, is this normal?!" or "Hey, what are some other options?!"