Posted 1/19/2011 12:49 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Everyone,
I've been reading this forum on and off over the past few years and finally decided to pipe in and introduce myself. I first started having symptoms 5 years ago following the end of live-in relationship ending. Other then the first severe weekend (that I thought was a stomach flu), my main symptom was blood loss. It took a year to get a diagnoses as I really didn't present as a typical colitis patient (if there is such a thing... ). A colonoscopy in Feb 2007 confirmed UC and my GI says I'm a bit of a rarety in that my colitis is patchy instead of spreading more evenly threw the affected area. He figures that is why bleeding seemed to be my only symptom. I started taking Asacol right away and within a few months all was well and I was put on the maintenance dose.
For 3 years, I was in such total remission that although I was complying with my follow up appointment and meds, a big part of kept thinking.. ok.. I don't really have this disease... I'm perfectly healthy. I would even consciously use the words "I was diagnosed with UC" as opposed to "I have UC". Guess that was the denial phase of this lifetime issue!!! : )
Last January, for no rhyme or reason... UC decided to prove to me that I do indeed have this condition and reared it's ugly head! For a month, I finally knew what all of you that I had been reading about on here where talking about!!! the blood, mucous, urgency, frequency, cramping, fatigue.... I work as a preschool teacher so as you can imagine, I barely had anything left after 8 hours with the little ones... I would time my quick 10 minute walk to work carefully and was luckily able to manage my days with close washrooms and assistants in the classroom, and I somehow managed to not miss a single day of work.
This time however UC proved to be more difficult to control. We upped the 5-ASA (was now on Mezavant) .. didn't work... we did Prednisone... 40mg, which I tolerated fairly well for a long time, ... helped but did not get me back to remission, after 2 months, tried tapering, symptoms returned.. GI started talking about 6MP and Imuran. Upped the Prednisone again.... worked a bit better, but got many side-effects this time,major insomnia, weight gain, moonface, emotional roller-coaster. Did a flex-sig in May showing still a bit of inflammation in rectum, but colon was doing well, so tapered again. By this point I thought things were getting under control but really symptoms were just being masked by the steroids. Once fully off the Pred, blood, mucus and urgency returned.
Told my GI I still didn't feel like I needed to go to stronger meds... that my UC was just being like me... stubborn!!! I told him I wanted to try mesalamine enemas (due mostly from having read this forum so much... of course!) and although he says he is not a fan of them as they are not very user-friendly... he agreed to let me try them.
And so here I am, 1 year later, 3 months into the enemas, and I finally feel like I have the upper hand on this disease! I'm not ready to call it remission yet but I'm doing very well these past few weeks. I had also started green tea, as well as the spinach/sunflower combo around same time, so what tipped the scales I'm not sure... But I'm thankful to be feeling well once again, and hope that perhaps by sharing my story, it can help someone else who is new to this awful disease.
Thanks for reading, and I'll be sure to post in from time to time now that I finally registered as a member...