My disease is Ulcerative Colitis and it is going to be mine forever!
I want to raise awareness and share my story because my disease is not going anywhere, and it certainly is not going to beat me. Please don't let the title of 'My disease' scare you off because I want these posts to be knowledgable, helpful and informative. Having a chronic disease has become part of daily life to me, I want to write these posts to share my experiences and not feel isolated throughout.
Helloooo to any readers who have stuck around despite my long absence from the world of blogging, I hope life is going beautifully for you and that good things are happening. Sitting down to write this post feels a bit weird, I kind of feel like I've got a new perspective, a new outlook so I thought I'd briefly tell you about my new chance at life...
Since January 2017 I have suffered from Ulcerative Colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease which for two years controlled my life. Life consisted of countless toilet trips a day (up to 20+ at my worst), no control over my bowel movements, constant bleeding in my stools, exhaustion every single day, ridiculous amount of drugs and medications, stomach cramps and bloating, cutting out so many foods, infections after infections and basically looking back my health was ultimately shit.
No matter how hard I tried to fight it, Ulcerative Colitis was my life and no medications were going to give me my life back.
On Saturday 16th February my new chance at life was given to me.
I underwent major surgery and had a sub-total colectomy leaving me with a lil stoma I like to call Sally! Now this probably sounds completely alien to you as I know at first it all did to me so I'll try and explain in simpler terms.
I was cut open down my belly and the majority of my large intestine was removed apart from my rectum meaning I still have a tiny bit of intestine left in my bum. After removing my large intestine, they took part of my small intestine and made it poke out in a little hole known as a stoma. I would've loved to have seen the process, bit weird, I know, but I find it so fascinating how my body has changed and would've loved to see it all happening.
To sum it up I now poo out of my stoma (the bit of small intestine poking out of my belly) into a bag and no longer can poo or fart out of my bum!
As this all happened so recently, I thought I'd just provide a brief overview as I don't really want to re-live why I ended up having the operation, the build up and my time in hospital as it's all very fresh and traumatic but eventually I want to write detailed posts about those things and provide more of an insight into my experience. Although I have a very positive outlook on my stoma, I still need time to process everything and deal with it all myself, it's a big life change!
I do look at this whole process as my new chance at life because when I re-live the past two years I realise I wasn't really living, I was simply waiting for the day my health came back and it never did. The diseased part of my body which was attacking me every single day has almost fully been removed and therefore my body can start fighting fit rather than fighting itself. I can now have goals and know that I'll be healthy enough to reach them like getting to University this year and finally living my dreams and that is all I could ever wish for! That diseased large intestine was the controller of who I was, it impacted every aspect of my life for two years and turned life into a battle. I'm only 3 weeks post-op as I write this and I know I've got a long road of recovery ahead but right now, I have the mindset that this surgery will be life changing and will be the best decision I'll ever make.
Basic things are still hard to do as it's going to take time for my body to heal, sometimes I forget I've been sliced open and just want to go go go! Regardless of the aches and pains, the way I feel now is so much better than how I felt consumed by my illness and that's why I know things will only go up from here!
So I'm Lucy Jane and now I have an ileostomy, this is the start of my new journey which I hope to be the start of my new life, come along for the ride!
Lucy Jane
