New member introduction

Hi All,

Long time listener, first time caller here. I've been browsing this forum for a while and finally decided to make an account and start posting so I thought I'd introduce myself.

I'm a 28 year old male who moved to NYC a year ago from San Francisco. I was diagnosed with UC about 2.5 years ago and haven't achieved remission, yet. I can pretty confidently trace what led to my UC to a few events - in January 2012 I was in the Philippines on vacation and had a meal after visiting some dirty abandoned fort type of place and taking a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. about 3 hours later I wasn't feeling so well but my buddy and I had lined up a date that night with a couple of pretty girls we had met the night before so I had to rally and go out drinking. about 3 hours after that I started feeling way worse to the point of retiring for the night and what followed was a 6-8 hour period of an intense sickness where I was -extremely- tired, a pounding headache, vomiting and had lost all color. I was more or less back to normal the next day and got better, but some very powerful bug had passed through me (though my buddy didn't experience anything similar, it may have been something I picked up on my own).

Fast forward about 6 weeks and I was back in SF continuing a normal life, enjoying part of a fresh California avocado and leaving the other half in the fridge. I was slow to finish it and noticed a day or two later that some small bit of mold had formed on top. I should have thrown it away but in my stupidity decided to just cut away the moldy piece and eat the rest. Over the next week or two I started having loose and bloody stool and I kept thinking it must have been another bug which I thought I'd wait out instead of seeing a doctor. A few days later I had my first 'accident' on my way to work in the morning - it was a pretty shocking experience, I'll save the details but you never forget your first time, right? Or I guess any of them for that matter lol. Suffice it to say I saw a doctor very soon after that and was diagnosed with UC.

Looking back I wish I hadn't done whatever led me to catching that bug in the Philippines, and definitely would have been better off throwing the avocado away, but I feel like I am genetically predisposed to the condition and it likely would just have been a matter of time before I got sick some other way and triggered the disease (I've heard theories before that such traumatic events will trigger the disease in those who are predisposed to it, and I believe that was the case for me). I say I am genetically predisposed because I'm a Russian Jew (we have a higher than normal occurrence of the disease), my mom suffers from mild IBS, my grandpa passed away from stomach cancer and my dad survived colon cancer - so we're not great with this part of the body. The positive I see is that I'll get colonscopies more often and at an earlier age than the average guy so hopefully will be able to catch any possible cancers early.

I'm also lucky in that my UC is fairly mild compared to other cases I read about here. My worst flares consist of maybe 10-20 BMs / day, with loose stool and mild bleeding + mucus, and always with a strong sense of urgency, though I don't get cramps or pain and haven't needed to be hospitalized. At my best I have 2-3 solid BMs / day, usually in the morning, though always with a strong sense of urgency. Right now I'm close to 'my best' though the BMs sometimes come in the afternoon/evening time, with a, you guessed it - strong sense of urgency ;) After a recent colonoscopy my doctor said I have moderate proctitis which is what's causing the urgency and this is what I'm trying to fix so that I can lead a more normal life again (though I go out and enjoy NYC and travel plenty, just have to do it very carefully). Lialda works very well for me so we're trying to supplement it with Canasa in the mornings and Rowasa at night to try to fight the inflammation - it's been just shy of a week with the rectal supplements and I haven't noticed much of a change yet but I hope to continue it for a few more weeks to see if things get better.

Anyways, thanks for reading my story. I think this is an awesome community and a great place for people to get/share advice and I hope to continue learning and contributing as well.

Alex

Welcome to our family. Sorry you had to join.

Welcome to HW. I hate to say it but I doubt the bug in the Philippines or the avocado caused this :( I think it's normal to eat in a dumpy place once in a while and it's extremely normal to cut mold off of a vegetable and eat the healthy part.

From what you said, you do great on Lialda but you said earlier you hadn't achieved remission yet. I think youu should definitely try to keep going on a steady dose of Lialda and use your rectal medicine regularly. Some of us use it morning and night to get into remission. What dose of Lialda are you taking?

Thanks Chantrelle and Gary.

I agree about the traumatic events. I don't think it was the mold itself (i.e. I didn't "catch" UC from the mold) but the effect it had in upsetting my stomach just weeks after the very powerful bug set things off. I think it was the combination of these two that pushed me over the "predisposition" edge and into UC valley.

Notsosicklygirl and Sherbear - thanks for the encouraging words. I'm currently on 4.8g Lialda per day (4 pills total). I did try the steroid enema (cortenema / hydrocortisone) before but didn't notice a decrease in urgency, though my GI never let me stay on it for more than 2 weeks at a time or so for fear of using steroids too long and I don't know if things would have been different had I tried it longer. Either way hopefully the Rowasa works better since I do react well to Lialda and I can use it longer than the steroids. I'm on day 6 of a 30 day supply and hope to see some improvement over the next weeks.