What Were You Doing In Your Life At the Time of UC?

I had just finished college and was getting ready to start my first professional job when I first noticed slight bleeding but no other symptoms. I was dealing with a lot of stress from a break-up. I was also drinking heavily at least once or twice a week which wasn't the norm for me. When I started my job, I absolutely hated it. I was sleep-deprived and stressed out to the max. Then I got super constipated for a few weeks, kept having blood, and then all UC hell broke loose. I was also living in an apartment that had mold issues as well as working in an office that was also moldy.

I was nursing a newborn.

Sara14 said...
I had just finished college and was getting ready to start my first professional job when I first noticed slight bleeding but no other symptoms. I was dealing with a lot of stress from a break-up. I was also drinking heavily at least once or twice a week which wasn't the norm for me. When I started my job, I absolutely hated it. I was sleep-deprived and stressed out to the max. Then I got super constipated for a few weeks, kept having blood, and then all UC hell broke loose. I was also living in an apartment that had mold issues as well as working in an office that was also moldy.

Whats the deal with Mold and UC?

I was home on my winter break from my junior year of college. Had a few painful, unproductive and bloody BMs and panicked. I remember my mother telling me it was fine and my best friend saying he sometimes "wipes too hard and sees blood" to try and alleviate my concerns. The symptoms didn't go away for a month and I did internet research concluding that I had UC. My mother insisted that I was wrong but arranged for me to have a sigmoidoscopy.

I wasn't able to administer an enema (and still am not, they freak me out) to prep for the scope and was concerned I'd need to come back in and do it all over again. Turns out I had been going so frequently that I was already mostly emptied out. This meant they were able to go all the way up to my colon...while I was conscious and watching on the screen. I'll never forget hearing (in my semi-lucid, intravenously drugged out state) the GI doctor say "there's colitis right there in the sigmoid." I remember saying "I knew it" out loud.

Actually I was trying to get healthy. I lost 76 lbs, quit smoking after 35 years and out of the blue here comes all this gas then diarrhea 20-30x a day. I was literally ready to give up.

somedude said...
everything was going so well, and UC came and fu**ed sh**t up!

Bears repeating.

I had sporadic uc symptoms that came and went away on their own starting in May 2011 at the time I was planning my wedding with my then fiance (we were both done college). I don't blame the stress from that as the cause of my uc as our wedding planning was really relaxed, we had over a year in our engagement, and we saw the various vendors whenever we were going up to the mountains for a fun day up there to hike, camp, or kayak. Symptoms popped up in May and went away, again in July, and thankfully mostly went away before the wedding in August.

I saw my primary dr in early August, he checked me for hemorrhoids and he ran blood tests, stool tests and everything came back negative for parasites. He said "If it doesn't go away then I can refer you to a GI but he'll just run more tests and likely just say you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome when he can't figure it out what it is." I had to pay about $300 out of pocket for all of those tests, and was leery to see a specialist right away who's going to run more of em. After that, it was more common for me to have symptoms then naught and January 2012 I finally got a GI consultation, more blood and stool tests, and then a colonoscopy right around Valentine's day. Welcome to uc.

I was running three high profile and important projects with nearing due dates. Actually it was 51 weeks ago today I ended up in the hospital and DX on Valentine's day. I knew I was under stress but thought it was hemorrhoid and constipation. Lucky for me, that wasn't the case. Four separate hospital stays later, sooooo many tests I can't even begin to recall, I am holding out hope Humira doesn't destroy me: )

First year of college. Had an awful sinus infection, was put on an antibiotic, then two weeks later I started having symptoms. Right around vday, too. Didn't get diagnosed until March.

A lot of diagnoses around Valentine's Day, what a great gift that keeps on giving a bleeding butt hole no?

1.) Sibby "Right around vday, too"
2.) Cbjonice "Actually it was 51 weeks ago today I ended up in the hospital and DX on Valentine's day"
3.) And myself included in the list.

Seems to be a definite connection between STRESS and onset of UC.

I told my wife when we got married I would do anything to not get her a Valentine's Day gift: )