Day #2- Hello, my name is Lisa and I had UC. I upgraded to a JPouch! #HAWMC

Hey there, hi there. I am an IBD warrior. A UC survivor. I kicked my colon's ass. So to speak.
UC is Ulcerative Colitis and is an Inflammatory Bowel Disease. And it is horrible. Another IBD is Crohn's which tends to be more recognizable, although different. Crohn's affects the ENTIRE digestive tract, mouth to anus, while UC is strictly in the colon. They are 'invisible' diseases where you are lucky enough to have people say, "You don't look sick". If you had xray vision you'd know the truth. UC flares consist of your colon being inflamed and covered in bleeding ulcers. Have you had a canker sore(I used to get mouth fulls of them)? They are pretty painful right? Water can hurt. Now imagine the organ that absorbs your water, and your salt and your electrolytes being covered with those nasty things. Now imagine all your food scraping past them. Pain with a capital P!! There are different levels of UC. I had pancolitis which means my entire colon was affected. In turn, my entire life was affected. Everyone connects diseases like this with diarrhea which seems like no big deal. I want people to know it's 20-30 times daily, plus blood loss, plus pain, throw in some arthritis and then the inability to properly absorb water and salt and electrolytes, it becomes a huge deal. Having some diarrhea doesn't require blood transfusions, immune system suppressing drugs, steroids, hospitalizations, invasive testing, and living on narcotics to get through your day. I feel like to truly educate people about IBD we must be a little gross and graphic because they are not diseases that are as highly broadcast as others. Sure diarrhea is a big part of them, but I'm sure most IBDers would agree with me when I say it is SO much MORE than that. I think most of focus, and what I want is to educate others in the most broad manner possible about IBD. Many times when I am speaking about it, I have to backtrack and make sure people truly know what your colon(large intestine) does in order for them to understand why a diseased one is big trouble. Many don't understand autoimmune either. I can't count how many times I have said, "I have Ulcerative Colitis". What's that, they say. "It's an autoimmune disease", I reply. "Oh, like AIDS"? <SIGH>

I have included some past posts from my blog that I thought had some great insights and a pretty solid view of a portion of what I've been through. They are in order but keep in mind there were posts in between so to get the full enchilada you need to check all of them out.

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/06/we-all-have-our-anchors-that-hold-us.html

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/10/1-week-down-now-what.html

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-difference-year-makes.html

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/11/lucky-me.html

I hope you like them. I hope you learn something. I hope it helps you be a bit more understanding if you happen to know someone struggling with an IBD.
Thanks for reading. XO

Hey there, hi there. I am an IBD warrior. A UC survivor. I kicked my colon's ass. So to speak.
UC is Ulcerative Colitis and is an Inflammatory Bowel Disease. And it is horrible. Another IBD is Crohn's which tends to be more recognizable, although different. Crohn's affects the ENTIRE digestive tract, mouth to anus, while UC is strictly in the colon. They are 'invisible' diseases where you are lucky enough to have people say, "You don't look sick". If you had xray vision you'd know the truth. UC flares consist of your colon being inflamed and covered in bleeding ulcers. Have you had a canker sore(I used to get mouth fulls of them)? They are pretty painful right? Water can hurt. Now imagine the organ that absorbs your water, and your salt and your electrolytes being covered with those nasty things. Now imagine all your food scraping past them. Pain with a capital P!! There are different levels of UC. I had pancolitis which means my entire colon was affected. In turn, my entire life was affected. Everyone connects diseases like this with diarrhea which seems like no big deal. I want people to know it's 20-30 times daily, plus blood loss, plus pain, throw in some arthritis and then the inability to properly absorb water and salt and electrolytes, it becomes a huge deal. Having some diarrhea doesn't require blood transfusions, immune system suppressing drugs, steroids, hospitalizations, invasive testing, and living on narcotics to get through your day. I feel like to truly educate people about IBD we must be a little gross and graphic because they are not diseases that are as highly broadcast as others. Sure diarrhea is a big part of them, but I'm sure most IBDers would agree with me when I say it is SO much MORE than that. I think most of focus, and what I want is to educate others in the most broad manner possible about IBD. Many times when I am speaking about it, I have to backtrack and make sure people truly know what your colon(large intestine) does in order for them to understand why a diseased one is big trouble. Many don't understand autoimmune either. I can't count how many times I have said, "I have Ulcerative Colitis". What's that, they say. "It's an autoimmune disease", I reply. "Oh, like AIDS"? <SIGH>

I have included some past posts from my blog that I thought had some great insights and a pretty solid view of a portion of what I've been through. They are in order but keep in mind there were posts in between so to get the full enchilada you need to check all of them out.

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/06/we-all-have-our-anchors-that-hold-us.html

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/10/1-week-down-now-what.html

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-difference-year-makes.html

http://gutsylisa.blogspot.com/2012/11/lucky-me.html

I hope you like them. I hope you learn something. I hope it helps you be a bit more understanding if you happen to know someone struggling with an IBD.
Thanks for reading. XO