My IBD journey

I was diagnosed with UC 10 years ago. I was in college and I was really sick not knowing what was wrong with me. I was going to the bathroom 20-30 times a day. My doctor ran all the usual tests to make sure I didn’t have a stomach bug but when that came back clear she sent me to my GI and he set me up for a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. He saw severe ulcers throughout my colon and some in my stomach. I was put on high doses of prednisone and little did I know that that would send me into a diabetic coma because I didn’t know I was diabetic either. For my first year of having UC all of the oral medications seemed to not work so I was switched to an IV biologic called Remicade and I’ve been on it for 9 years. Right now I’m doing pretty good on the Remicade. I have flares from time to time and my symptoms are active but not too bad. I’m going to a larger hospital to see a specialist GI now who may switch me to another drug but time will tell with what she wants to do. Living with UC has taught me to slow down and take it day by day because you never know what is going to happen tomorrow with this disease.

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