Ibd + Me
My Colitis story - Izzy
Hi! My name is Izzy and this is my ulcerative colitis story:
My first symptoms started around late August/early September 2020 I was 18. Before this I was rarely ill, the odd cold but nothing like this. Until one day I had blood coming out of me uncontrollably. I was on and off the toilet like nobodies business but every time it was just blood, but no pain in my stomach at all. I was at work (as a waitress) when this all happened and I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I called my mum in floods of tears asking her what I should do. She calmed me down and told me to call 111. They were very helpful and told me to contact my doctor. I had a blood test, a check whether it was haemorrhoids (it was not) and a stool test.
The next few months I was on and off the toilet about 20 times a day, blood, mucus, and diarrhoea all in one. They gave me laxatives and told me to go on a fibre diet (which I did not do because my auntie who has crohn’s told me that was the worst thing to do) so instead I just ate simple foods. It didn’t change much.
They got back to me saying that I had an inflammatory bowel disease and I will need further examinations. They sent me to a specialist who told me I had to have a sigmoidoscopy (a colonoscopy only up the left side of the colon.) I got my appointment and it was the most horrendous thing I have ever experienced… I had decided to not have sedation because I didn’t like needles and tend to faint. The doctor said that it should be fine because they didn’t think I would be that inflamed because I had no pain just the blood, so it shouldn’t be a painful procedure. So I was just on gas and air (which really didn’t do anything) I regret that decision. He could see straight away where the blood was coming from but he needed to go further through my colon to see how far it goes. He couldn’t get the camera round the first bend it was so inflamed. But after 30 minutes he did and he diagnosed me there and then.
I had come to terms with it being crohn’s disease because I know it runs in my family, but when he told me it was quite severe ulcerative colitis I had to ask ‘are you sure it’s not crohn’s??’ But he said no it’s definitely colitis, it goes further than your left side so you will need to have a full colonoscopy. Even though I knew I had it, I still didn’t quite believe it, it’s hard to get your head around when you’ve never had anything happen to you like this.
Through all of this, the doctor visits and hospital visits, I had to be on my own due to the coronavirus. But my amazing parents and boyfriend were always waiting for me to help me through it all. I’m nervous for my full colonoscopy which is actually tomorrow when I’m writing this. But I think I was lucky with how fast I was diagnosed. It may have been because I told them that it runs in my family but even so, most people don’t get diagnosed or get the medication they need for months! Even years!!
I’m now on some medication that sees to be working okay at the moment. But every day I’m learning what I can and can’t eat or what I should and shouldn’t do. Every day is different, one minute I’d feel fine and the next I would crash. Stress for me is the biggest trigger so I had to quit my job as a waitress. They looked after me while I was going through all this but I couldn’t put my body through it anymore. Instead me and my mum wanted to do something good to raise some awareness for crohn’s and colitis and other charities, so we made our little business. We took my drawing skills and my mums business skills and created wonder and clouds.
Even though I feel much better than I did a year ago now, when ever I get ill it’s 10 times worse than before and don’t even get me started about when it’s my time of the month! I get exhausted very easily and when ever I’m hungry I get pain and need to eat something, my nurse said that it was a bit weird but every patient is different. It’s on us to figure out what we need to eat or do to help with our own condition, whether it’s crohn’s or colitis.
We are all stronger for it.