🗓️ September 24th, 2014… after many months of my innards just not being right 💩 and several weeks in and out of doctor’s offices 🏥 and emergency rooms and laying around bed ridden, wishing I would just die so I could feel better (sad but true), I was finally admitted to the hospital on Monday September 22, 2014. On Tuesday morning, an upper endoscopy 🔭 was conducted. On Wednesday morning the 24th, a colonoscopy was conducted and I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
The diagnosis would be followed by years of 👩⚕️ medical maladies… chronic fatigue, general malaise, brain fog, 💊 prednisone, colonoscopies, lab work 🔬, blood transfusions, prednisone, infusion drugs (Remicade, Entyvio), at-home injections 💉 (Humira), Xeljanz, a clinical drug trial, medical leaves, the list could go on.
Then, five years ago in late September, my body reached a breaking point that led to a colectomy 🔪 and creation of an ileostomy on October 31, 2019. Yes, I was indeed gutted like a jack-o-lantern 🎃 on Halloween. (I.e., I don’t have a large intestine, my small intestine exits my abdomen into an ostomy bag.)
There was another surgery 🩹 (proctectomy) in May 2020 and without the colon my health finally began to improve. But I would still battle symptoms such as severe fatigue 🥱, skin afflictions under the adhesive of my ostomy bag, and other random symptoms.
Now, since my career change a year and a half ago, I’m healthier than I’ve been in a decade. 🤩 I’m the poster child for what mental and emotional stress can do to your physical health. I believe my UC was inevitable, but I think the stress put it all on a fast-forward ⏩️ crash course.
Anyhow, happy UC anniversary 🥂 to me!
P.S. - I always intended to share more stories than I have here on my blog, but at least I have a few articles to remind me of my health journey. Some have fun titles like “Diaper-clad Purgatory” and “Pieces of my Insides” but when I read those articles now, the hell I was in seems kind of unbelievable and gets me all emotional 🥲.
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