Wow. I wish I had found this group months ago. Let's see, I was diagnosed with UC back in 2000, originally well controlled with mesalamine. Only a few major flares until fairly recently, but when things got bad, it happened fast. My GI doc always told me I'd know if/when it was time for a colectomy, and boy was he right. I had a total proctocolectomy in September and just had my takedown this past Tuesday. I'm a nurse, which is both a good and bad thing when you're sick. It's so important to be an informed healthcare consumer, but it's also easy to scare the crap (pun intended) out of yourself. Working in the ER I saw too many IBD patients whose entire lives revolved around their disease and I was terrified of becoming one of "those people". Well, here I am, and I look forward to moving though this stage of my disease and returning to some semblance of normalcy...which I assume will begin once this butt burn dies down.
Thanks for having me.