The Younger Years Part 2

(Sorry it's a long one!)

Everybody has bowel motions.  It is part of life. Growing up, I just seemed to have alot more than 'normal' people.  Mum tried all things holistic-naturopaths, different food diets, dieticians, oh and the potions!!...I recall a family holiday to Yeppoon and amongst snorkeling and boom-netting, we also visited an iridologist.  She sent us home with a HUGE bottle of aloe vera juice and chlorophyll! As a 10 year old trying to stomach this was just awful! 

It wasn’t long after this that I had my first Endoscopy and Colonoscopy.  I can vividly remember as a 10-11 year old driving with Mum to Buderim to have something unknown and slightly scary done to me.  The 'preparation' is something you never forget and never gets better, no matter how many times you have one...starting a few days before, with a low fibre diet and then the day before…drinking about 3 litres of Fleet…a liquid that can only be described as tasting like goat spit and makes you gag with each swallow! 
I recall sitting in the waiting area with my hospital gown on, the ones that tie up at the back, no undies on, feeling very vulnerable. The rest is a blur.

I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.  An inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the bowel wall and rectum.  I was started straight away on a high dose Prednisone (a type of steroid that quickly attacks inflammation) and salazopyrin (which belongs to the anti-inflammatory group of drugs).

As a child all you want is to fit in and be ‘normal’ but there was no chance of this now.  One of the side effects of Prednisone is fluid retention and weight gain.  I went from being a scrawny kid to feeling like a puffer fish.

Being such a naïve child I guess I didn’t really know what all this meant-Ulcerative Colitis (UC).

I knew I had to take tablets everyday and supplements that mum felt may help and that if I started going to the bathroom too often then I would be put back on the stuff that made my face fat.

I hit high school and loved it. I had a lot of friends and remember flitting around different groups of people at lunch.  I met my husband and some very wonderful people still in my life today there.  I graduated having been Vice-Captain and my best friend as School Captain.

I think for most of the time the UC remained fairly controlled. I had flares up I don’t really remember it having much impact on my life.  I danced, played softball, learnt the organ/piano, got my first job at the local newsagent and really enjoyed my school days. 

It was around the age of 15-16 that I was referred on from my specialist based at Buderim to the Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) team at the RBWH in Brisbane.  The specialist there had treated my Nana and another family member for their IBD.

I wasn’t responding to my medication anymore and after more colonoscopies, it showed that the inflammation was no longer just affecting the lining of the bowel,  but the thickness of the bowel wall too…I now had Crohn’s disease.

Me (with my big bro) just before UC diagnosis

And after UC diagnosis, on Prednisone

Until next time.... xo