A Life with Ulcerative Colitis - Part 4

 Happy days are here again

After 10 months, I was finally free of medicines. More importantly, I was free of any UC symptoms. Things were looking brighter. I slowly started my walks; while I was not comfortable walking in the mornings, my walks in the evening were wonderful. I would put on my shoes, get my headphones and start listening to a discourse by Velukudi. A 30 minute walk to the beach, 30 minutes sitting on the water line looking at the waves and a 30 minute back home was pure bliss. Slowly the total time extended to 2 hours with me walking between 8-10 km. After a month or so, I started running again. Yes, running after almost after one year. This was a huge plus for me - my mind started getting better and fitness improved. 

After 2 months, I completed my first self timed 5 km run in  more than one year. This was a huge achievement for me. It was like I found my mojo back. Slowly over the next 2 months I started running daily. My interest towards life got better. I went out to eat a few times. I even started singing in my shower 🤣😁 (btw, I think I am next only to SPB / KJ Yesudas when I sing in my shower) 

Everything was going fine, but little did I realize life had a surprise in store for me.

One fine morning, my mother had a fall. The dr after seeing the X-rays, told us that she had a fracture in her vertebrae and has to be in complete bed rest for next 3 months. The next 3  months, I brushed up my cooking skills, more importantly understood my kitchen cleaning abilities  🤣. The only thing that I was happy for during this 6 months was that my health was normal. After 3.5 months of kitchen duty, my mother limped back to the kitchen, literally but within next 2-3 weeks she was once again the Queen of the Kitchen relieving me of cooking duties. I have to say one thing here - my mother’s patience and ability to tolerate things - she had to eat my cooking  for over 3 months 🤣🤦‍♂️☹️.

During these 4-6 months, I stopped my evening walks. I was always beside her to take care of her. One thing became sure during this period - MOTHERS ARE LIVING GODS. I realized how much care, affection and sleepless days and nights she had put in take care of my when I was a baby, or a young kid, or sometimes being an ill adult. It took another 3-4 months before I was comfortable to leave her alone to restart my walking. 

By the time I restarted it was almost 10 months since I was completely free of medicines. I started with vigour again. But the illness came back again. This time with higher intensity. The flare up was bad. So bad, that for the next 2-3 months, I left home only to visit my dr, or go for some diagnostic tests.

What did my latest flare up do to my new found happiness and confidence? Did it dent these? How did I cope with these. More later.

A Life with Ulcerative Colitis - Part 3

As I walked out after consulting with my dr, I thought that life would be easy, now that I had medicines for 6 months. I thought keeping myself stress free, along with the medications will cure my symptoms and get me into remission quickly. Also, having seen my late father with arthritis I thought this autoimmune disease was manageable. Little did I realize it was easier said than done

The first few weeks with my new medication did not bring in any change. I still had blood in my stools, had to visit the toilet multiple times in a day. My mornings were bit stressful, as I was always had the feeeling that my bowels were not completely emptied and therefore could not leave the comfort of my house. Prior to being diagnosed with UC (Ulcerative Colitis), i was a regular runner, having run several 10 km races. I used to run 4-6 days a week. Now I could not go out for run because i was not sure when I will have to visit the toilet. The first casualty in the long list of things that I loved doing was running. Little did I realize that this was the first among the long list of things that i would miss doing / or lose in the years to come.

It took me nearly 3 months to stabilize a bit. By the end of 3 months, the bleeding had stopped. My biggest worry of that point in time had come to an end. Cutting a long story short, it took another 6 months for me get control over my bowel movement and for it to regularize a bit. As a corollary of my condition, my dr warned me that I can never be constipated and had to drink 4-5 litres of water every day. I used to drink 2 litres a day, and my dr wanted me to at least double it. He wanted me to start my day drinking 1 litre of water on empty stomach. Wow, the first few weeks of starting on this new regimen of water consumption, i would have spent more time in the toilet than on my couch, especially in the mornings as I could not hold my bladder.. 😁😁🤣

After about 9-10 months, most of my symptoms had gone and dr said I can stop medication for now. I was extremely happy. But he warned me that the situation can become bad any time. This disease is like burning embers, it can become a fire anytime were his words. I was not concerned about any of this at that point in time. After 10 months, it was like a new found freedom. I started my running again. I wanted to better my previous personal best for a 10 km race. I started eating out a few times. The next few months, I was a like a prisoner released from jail. Happy. Not bothered by illness. A free bird.

I even managed to run a 5 km self paced race after 10 months. That gave me the confidence that better things were in store for me. 

But did it last long? Guess, I was not ready for a diffent kind of surprise that life as about to throw at me. More on that later. 

A Life with Ulcerative Colitis - Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote about the initial days of my illness and the diagnosis. Well things were not all that easy as I mentioned.

When I noticed the first symptoms, blood in stool, I was a bit scared. Then, when I had to rush to the toilet several times a day, I was getting concerned. Blood and mucus in the stool, is something that I was not used to seeing. Initially when my Dr told me it could be due to an infection, I was kind of satisfied that it’s something that will go away shortly.  But when days started to become weeks, but still no signs of symptoms of going away, i was getting jittery.

After 3 weeks, when my gastroenterologist asked me for family history and if any one had suffered from any form of IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease), I said no but an uncle colorectal cancer. When I saw the look on his face change, and he immediately suggesting me to get a colonoscopy done, that’s when I thought something was serious. I asked him, if it was anything to be worried, he said no but just get the test done immediately.

As I had mentioned yesterday, the preparation of the test was something unimaginable. Even in my bad mood, I will not think of this for my worst enemy. On the day of the test, the surgeon said he will give me a mild general anesthetic I was thankful that my brother had accompanied me. Thambi udayaan padaikku anjaan. By now, my mother was afraid to send me alone to dr and had my brother accompany me on all dr visits 🤣🤦‍♂️

Finally, after knowing that i did not have cancer and with a big weight off my chest, we (remember, my brother was accompanying me) visited my gastroenterologist once again. The dr went through the test reports in detail. He was happy that it was not cancerous but said that it was a bit of concern that it was Ulcerative Colitis.

He said that this disease is an autoimmune disease and there is no cure. He explained in detail about it. Since my father had arthritis, i knew what autoimmune disease was. He said that the symptoms will keep appearing once in a while and I will have to be on medication for prolonged period of time. He sad stress alleviates the symptoms and asked me if I was having stress at my work. I just laughed it and said I was happily retired for almost 3 years. He said may be that itself was stressful. He then asked me if I was doing pranayama and gayathri japam daily. When i said no, he said if you were doing these, you will not have got this condition and advised me to do meditation for 30 minutes daily after writing a prescription for 6 months 😁😁😁 He said he meditated for 1 hour daily that keeps him stress free. 

He told me there will be periods when symptoms will be very bad (flare up) and when things will be normal (remission). So, be prepared. I still remember my brother’s comment, i thought we were coming to a dr instead looks like we met a lifestyle guru.

As we were walking out, I thought I was prepared to face this condition. But was I?

More later…

A Life with Ulcerative Colitis - Part 1

Part 1

About six years ago, in mid April 2015, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. The day the test results came and I met my gastroenterologist was a BIG turning point in my life. I didn’t know so then.

First, a bit of medical terminology from Webmd

What Is Ulcerative Colitis?

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease. It causes irritation, inflammation, and ulcers in the lining of your large intestine (also called your colon).

There’s no cure, and people usually have symptoms off and on for life. But the right treatments can help you keep a handle on the disease.

Ulcerative Colitis Causes and Risk Factors

Ulcerative colitis happens when your immune system makes a mistake. Normally, it attacks invaders in your body, like the common cold. But when you have UC, your immune system thinks food, good gut bacteria, and the cells that line your colon are the intruders. White blood cells that usually protect you attack the lining of your colon instead. They cause the inflammation and ulcers.

The main symptom of ulcerative colitis is bloody diarrhea. There might be some pus in your stools, too.

How did it start for me?

Well one fine day, I found blood in my stools. I got a bit flustered and went to my Dr. He prescribed some antibiotics and asked me to come back after a week. Bleeding continued after a week, and he advised me to see a gastroenterologist. Physical examination followed by more medicines for 2 more weeks. Still no cure. He referred to another dr to get a colonoscopy done to examine my large intestine . The colonoscopy was a 20 minute diagnostic procedure, but the preparation was the height. I was given a powder to be mixed with 2 litres of water and drunk in 2 hours. I was told that it would cleanse my entire digestive tract. Little did I know, that it will be like PKS (movie) Abbas getting a stomach wash - nenjula irukara manja soru mothamum vanthurthu 🤣🤣🤣. I was like, will there anything be left to diagnose, especially if my large intestine is going to come out. Next day, post colonoscopy, the dr said give this sample for biopsy to test for cancer. I was shocked. The results they said would come after a week… 

The next week was a killer. I couldn’t sleep at nights dreading the results. Thankfully, after a week, I got my results saying no cancerous cells. I took these reports to my gastroenterologist and had a long discussion with him. He said I had Ulcerative Colitis, an autoimmune disease and enquired about family history. I said my dad had arthritis, another autoimmune disease and an uncle had passed away due to colorectal cancer. He said he will start me on medications immediately. Initially, he said, he will give me medicines for 6 months, but I need to see him every 2 months. First few months were ok, but then fun started later on.

More on this later…