Some benefits to having UC

1) Are you kidding? Ever heard of toxic megacolon? That's very, very toxic. I got it and was extremely ill - sky high fevers, sky high CRP, etc.

2) Not quite true. People who are overweight with IBD have become increasingly common.

3) I felt like an outcast long before I got IBD; can't say it made any difference either way to that.

4) Pfft ¬_¬

In all seriouness, these are the "positives" I got from being ill with Crohn's:

- Better able to fall asleep, even if it wasn't good quality sleep
- Being able to ignore everything else that was wrong with my life, partly because I was 'fighting' Crohn's and partly because of sheer fatigue
- The relaxation that you sometimes get from being ill (think of bunking off work/school with a bad cold and spending the day lounging on the sofa. It's not altogether unpleasant, is it?)
- Hospital visits and admissions provided drama and interest in my otherwise empty life, more than I realised at the time. I felt a surprising sense of loss when this came to an end after surgery.

Some of these dubious 'positives' won't apply to those who have a reasonably fufilling life of course.

yeah, nothing positive about it.
Everyone has crap to deal with, not so good to compare and find the silver lining about everything.
I'd rather be realistic, I have good days, bad days, not only UC to deal with.

Kvetching is fine....I think we're all optimistic as well.

q

The most fortunate thing about having UC is that it is not Crohn's. I am so relieved that the final verdict seems to be that I have UC rather than CD:

With Crohn's you get fistulas, strictures, abscesses, and wormholes throughout the digestive tract that can ooze crud. I suppose abscesses can occur with UC but I believe they are much more common in Crohn's.

Don't forget that with Crohn's you also get the added bonus of possibly having your small intestine also inflamed. The small intestine is where your body absorbs nutrients from food, so you can have the side effects that come with multiple vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Children with Crohn's are much more likely to have stunted growth than children with UC.

There is also a huge difference psychologically. I did not realize how much until my GI indicated that I might have CD instead of UC. He said it made no difference since they are both treated the same. But it is theoretically possible to have surgery and be cured from UC once and for all, whereas with Crohn's people can have surgery after surgery with no end in sight.

Be grateful that you have ulcerative colitis rather than Crohn's Disease.

Babe, actually with CD it more often affects the small intestines for the majority, and typically starts there as well, in my case it was a few areas that were all affected at the same time when I first got sick...small intestines, colon, rectum and anus with perianal crohn's skin tags. Most CDers have small intestinal involvement while crohn's colitis in comparison is less common (hahaha, I'm less common).

I'm actually leaving this post chuckling, so hey!