this guy knows how to mentally beat this disease
I Have UC
background: Diagnosed since May of 2008. Currently, I am a full time college student with funding by DVR. I live here in Hawaii and for yours since childhood, I have a variety of illnesses since childhood in now in retrospect, we can deduce it stems from UC. I am continuing with my education and using my experiences and challenges with UC to be my driving force to succeed and win this battle of UC.
medications: I am currently taking Asacol daily and receive Prednisone shots and pills once or twice a month depending on the flareup activity.
Easiest and Hardest Things to Deal With regarding Ulcerative Colitis:
Even worse than the blood in the stool, the excessive tiredness, the chronic mood swings which are challenges of their own is the fact that my immune system doesn’t recover quick enough. It hit me in the campus health room when the nurse asked how could I receive a staph infection from a minor paper cut I received over Halloween unless my immune system was severely compromised. I had to reveal to her I had UC and then it made perfect sense to her and she was able to supply me with some information regarding UC and other resources.
Then I thought about it the recent minor scratches that didn’t heal but ended purple and swollen or the bruises that took months to recover. That was my reality check after being diagnosed for two years.
As for the easiest, it has heavily influenced my art and writing in school. Taking the route of Frida Kahlo, many underlining themes in my illness: the use of the color red, elephants, volcanoes, and split bodies, reflect my own bout with UC. Always got to make the most of what we live with and do our best.
My name is a Jonz, a 40 year old college student in Sociology in the Hawaiian Islands. I have been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis by Dr. Grant Chen here in Honolulu, Hawaii who was from China but moved here to Hawaii to practice medicine. Ulcerative Colitis was actually something he learned in Shanghai so he was able to easily see the symptoms and know how to monitor it easier than my veteran general practitioner. What I am about to say that is quite unique about this situation is that UC is not only a major condition in my life, but a blessing in disguise which I will explain further. With UC, I entered a new chapter in my life and am ready to share that chapter.
