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.
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