INTRO

I was first diagnosed in 2006 with Ulcerative Colitis. Ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease. It is a disease of the large intestines or colon that includes characteristic ulcers or open sores.

I have had symptoms way before 2006 like bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, chronic fatigue, fistulas and anemia...but it was always misdiagnosed as urinary tract infection, stomach ulcers or just a reaction to some medicines.

It was only at the start of 2006 that the abdominal pain was too much to bear, and I finally consulted a specialist. They asked for a complete endoscopy, or looking inside my stomach and large intestines with instruments, to find out what was causing the pain. They found out that part of my large intestines had ulcers and was then diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. I was still able to go to work at that time, but often times was to weak to get out of bed and had an unbearable abdominal pain in the bottom left side of my stomach.

I weighed over 240 lbs. when I was first diagnosed but lost 120lbs in less than a year.
I had all the symptoms of Ulcerative colitis, eye inflammation (I don't know how the eye is connected to the colon), joint pains (again I don't know how), chronic fatigue, weight loss (because I was not able to process all the nutrients from the food I was eating), and the worst part was the abdominal pain which got worse after eating, which was why I was forced and eventually got used to eating just 2 spoons of food per meal. My thought then was the pain of hunger was easier to bear than the abdominal pain I felt after eating.

There were days even months, when I couldn't do anything but lie down in bed.
I eventually had to quit my job, because I was having a hard time just sitting down, let alone work for 8 hours a day.

...Then the event I was dreading happened...it was new year's day 2008, I woke up with extreme pain in my abdomen and nausea, my first thought was - - Toxic megacolon!! From the research I was doing about my sickness, I knew all the complications that can happen. Toxic megacolon is a life-threatening complication characterized by a very dilated colon, accompanied by bloating, and sometimes fever, abdominal pain, or shock.

I had myself rushed to the hospital and doctors ran tests and endoscopies on me again, some doctors were so shocked at how my stomach was so bloated, doctors from the ultrasound department commented that all they could see in the monitor was my colon. Surgeons eventually had to cut about 2 feet off my colon, and had to perform a colostomy, wherein, I now have an opening in my abdomen where my colon is now connected.

The surgeon who performed the operation said that my large intestines was almost entirely blocked with all the ulcers that formed in it, and was astonished on how I went through all the pain during those times. Pathology reports also said that I have Crohn's disease, another form of IBD.

Now I am an ostomate, or a person who has had ostomy or in my case colostomy surgery. I now need to eat and eat, in order to bulk up and build proteins in my body, so the colostomy can be reversed and I can live a normal life again.

NOW...This is where my life begins....