I've recently been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after many months of hemorraghing (had to get four blood transfusions!) and am now on sterroids for the next month and have to take sulfasalazine for the rest of my life to prevent flare-ups.

Does anybody have or know somebody with an inflammatory bowel disease? Cause I don't know anyone...

Oh, and if I get facial hair from the steroids, I'm giving myself a hitler moustache

My friend Laura has ulcerative colitis and though she does have to pop pills, since it initially caused her problems and was disagnosed she has had a pretty good run with her health. About seven years now. And we got over singing "the girl with colitis goes by...", eventually.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Had similar problems a few years ago, after a year siege with weight loss/other awful problems too gross to go into here.
After a job change and course of medication, I haven't really had problems since 2002. At the time of my illness I had lost 30 pounds and was under the worst job stress of my life, I think that was really what did it. NOTE: I really didn't need to lose 30 pounds, I looked like death's head.

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I'M GONNA GET THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS TO RECOGNISE ME AS THE NUMBER ONE CUNT KICKER-IN IN THE WORLD

Are you on medication indefinitely? My friend is.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Not right now. To make a long story short, during 2001 I became really sick, I was under a doctor's care and at first they thought it was Crohns' (sp?) Disease (a few people in my family had it) or perhaps celiac disease. I literally couldn't eat. Other stuff happened as well, like bleeding, etc. I was hospitalized for that once and it was pretty scary...
After a load of tests they couldn't find anything definitive, so I was diagnosed with severe IBS (sort of a catch all, I guess?). I was on medication for a while; I was also transferred to a different job at the time, which helped immensely. In my opinion I think stress was killing me.

Sorry to hijack your thread, CounterfeitVoid! At any rate try to destress yourself, I think that contributed to my intestinal agony the most...

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I'M GONNA GET THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS TO RECOGNISE ME AS THE NUMBER ONE CUNT KICKER-IN IN THE WORLD

Nothing is too gross for this place. Details please

I should probably second this.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

I've heard of people having surgery for hemarhoids, and colostamie bags and polyps on their colon and colon cancer- but not what the thread is about. Sounds bad.

And I've heard of a spastic colon.

What's the maximum number of polyps one can have embedded on their colon before it becomes a problem? Can you please provide a pic of a polyp or I may need to doubt your sincerity.

I have a weird hybrid of IBS/IBD/Crohn's that nobody can fully figure out (and i felt like i had shitty doctors, so i just stopped going). after two sigmoidoscopies, a colonoscopy, multiple ass exams, barium enemas/barium swallows, xrays, blood tests, etc.

I can understand your situation. for me the frustrating part is having to explain it to other people. like "oh no professor, i wasn't in class because i was sick", to which they always ask "with what? the flu", and then i have to say (in some pleasant non-disgusting, tmi sortof way) that i have internal bleeding caused from ulcerations, chronic constipation, and that when i have an assbleed, i generally want to stay home. OR i just say "crohn's disease", which i'm always afraid they'll lookup on google, and then find out about all the gory diarreah it describes (which i DONT have) and then i feel like they stare at me the rest of the quarter with "omgshehasdiarreahdisease" eyes.

i think stress is a BIG factor in controlling "flares" (a super pathetic term i can't convince myself to say aloud).

good luck, lady.

What university is this? the professors at my uni couldn't give a shit if anyone turned up or not, and if they did ask I would've advised them to mind their own business or made up a story about a disease that sounded way cooler to have.

well, i'm a in my last year in uni, and the higher up you go, the smaller the classes get (ie: 100 people might be in an 'intro to ancient history class', but less than 20 in a 'senior seminar: perspectives of the american progressive era' class that only american history majors need to graduate). and one of my classes is a thesis practicum with 3 people in it, so. they know.

Oh jesus, you guys need to PM me for the grossness. It is pretty bad, seriously.

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I'M GONNA GET THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS TO RECOGNISE ME AS THE NUMBER ONE CUNT KICKER-IN IN THE WORLD

PM me with grossness details! I can put up with anything. One of my friends had anal prolapse once (a female, not a bottom gay) and told me all about it.

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Have a look at this site Irritable Bowel Syndrome ~ Help For IBS Treatments & Education I think it's really interesting on latest research on ibs, etc, etc.

My stepmother has that. She was in the hospital for a week at the very beginning, when she was first diagnosed. She did the steroids and all that and she's doing really well now. I mean, she's a total drunk and she's right back to the bottle, no hairy face, she's still skinny. The whole nine yards.

I never had to take any steroids. What worked for me is taking care of my diet (you have to discover what is good and what is bad for your bowel), controlling stress, and also going to a clinic to have my bowel cleaned with water - i don't know the English name for that.

You should get yourself one of those Japanese toilets that clean your arse by squirting water, to save the doctor from sticking a hose up you.

Yes, in fact I already got one of those