Gosh, where to start? I want to tell you all about the first time I got sick. There’s the time before that and the time after that. I’m living in the after.
It was summer of 2004, and I was getting ready to start my senior year of high school. I still remember the day I got sick very clearly. I had a friend over, and I had diarrhea. I just thought I had some kind of stomach virus, no big deal. I didn’t even feel that poorly. But it didn’t stop after a day or two, and things started getting worse. While at my summer job, I noticed that I could barely make it to the bathroom I had to go so bad, and there was blood in my stool now. Never a good sign. My sister worked with me, so I grabbed her and started crying. I knew something was terribly wrong. She reminded me that our mom had some kind of illness similar to the symptoms I was describing, and that I needed to talk to her.
My mom scheduled an appointment to see our pediatrician, who referred me to a gastroenterologist. Within a couple of weeks, I had my first colonoscopy. The diagnosis was ulcerative colitis (UC). Ulcerative colitis is an autoimmune disease under the inflammatory bowel disease umbrella. Unlike Crohn’s disease, it only affects the colon. I was experiencing the classic symptoms- urgency, frequency, cramping, blood in the stool. These diseases affect young people. Most people are pretty young when first diagnosed. I was seventeen. Unfortunately, there is no cure, but there are ways to manage it.
I want to make a note here of how thankful I am for my mom. She, too, has ulcerative colitis. And when I told her about my symptoms, she immediately called my doctor. I only went a few weeks between onset of symptoms and diagnosis. Some people go much longer before they’re diagnosed, because they’re embarrassed to tell anyone about what they’re going through or they can’t find a doctor to help them. That was not the case for me.
My life changed that day in July 2004. There is the before, and there is the after. Nearly fifteen years have passed, and I can’t speak to all that I’ve endured in those fifteen years in one blog post (I’m getting there). But I will tell you that currently I’m in remission and have been for about twelve years. What an amazing blessing!
Zerlinna's Blog 