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My journey

It all started in late March 2014. I was 21 young, handsome, and trying to make it big; I was 5' 10 and weighed 175-180. Physically, I was in the best shape of my life. Working out 5-6 days a week, 2-3 hours a day. I always ate pretty healthy, counting my macros, getting my veggies, high protein low fat, and never took supplements (I tried staying all natural.) I Got out of the Air Force and started school as a full time student at community college. Working part time job at a mall (selling women clothing.) I was all around squared away. Trying to straighten out my future for success.
Around March 21st I started having diarrhea. But i also drank a few beers the night before so i thought nothing of it. Holding too my standard of toughness l figured "hey man, wait it out dont be a sissy, it'll go away." Over the next couple of days my symptoms escalated from a mild case of diarrhea to a severe stomach ache 6-8 bowel movements a day. I thought I had dysentery, so I decided to just keep my hydration level up and I would be fine. And over the next week and a half my symptoms jumped to sodium deficiency, bloody diarrhea, little to no energy, 10 - 12 bowel movements daily, fevers, chills, cold sweats in my sleep, tachycardia when i would stand, making me almost pass out wherever i walk to, and an anal fissure (a freaking hemorrhoid from hell).
During this time i was calling out of work, going to class but taking a bathroom break halfway through, and the gym was a big "Hell No," I was doing calisthenic at home but i was getting weak. I remember driving to school (about a thirty minute drive,) and thinking i was not gonna make it. So I went to the hospital clinic, the doctor was an internal medicine guy so I had faith in him. He checked me out and I left with a week long prescription for Cipro and Flagyl. I don't know what these do but they didn't help me one bit. I got significantly worse during the week i took these.
After that I went to see a gastroenterology doctor. He poked me in the butt (rectal exam). This was the start of things going up my butt, and being a manly man this was one of the most uncomfortable things ever. Then he told me i need a sigmoidoscopy the very next day, meaning that i starve from that point on. I ended up taking a sip of water like and hour before the sigmoidoscopy, but my big mistake was actually telling them I did. So they didnt sedate me, and i thought a rectal exam was a couple of seconds of punishment, but that camera was no joke. I returned to a waiting room to tell my mom the horrors i endured. The doctor came in and told me I needed to be admitted, and diagnosed me with Ulcerative Colitis.
He slapped me with some prescriptions and tethered me down with IVs. I started on prednisone, mesalamine oral pills, and a mesalamine enema. Coming from a history of good health I did not understand how to be a patient. Doctors would check on me and ask how i was feeling, but im so used to sucking up the bad that my response was always "Im feeling fine;" whether my stomach was killing me or I was suffering form severe fevers. so they end up releasing me and i was glad to get home.
In less than 24 hours of being released I worsened had to be readmitted. They plugged me back into the IV bags, continued my medication and put me on a clear liquid diet. My favorite meal was broth and jello, (that was the only meal.) This lasted for 2 and a half weeks. They sent me back in to another sigmoidoscopy, this time i was happily sedated, and my colon only got worse: they also performed a CAT scan on it, when the results came the doc said my colon was 95% inflamed. The doctors decided it was time for the big guns. They told me that the only thing that would save my colon now was remicade. They did not give it to me for a week, they said my sodium was dangerously low and that people go delusional when their sodium is 120. I got my first dose of remicade on June 24. I immediately felt better. Im not sure if it was them fixing my sodium or the remicade but i was not feeling like i was gonna die every night. At this point i weighed 145.
This new found relief was short lived. The doctor told me to return for a fexible sigmoidoscopy the very next week to check if the remicade took an effect. This time I starved and did not take a sip if water. They gave me some enemas to clean the waste out of my colon; by this point in my "treatment," I was suffering from a sever anal fissure so i got into an argument with the nurse because I was denying the enemas. But me being a gentleman, yielded to the nurse and took the enemas. They didnt put me to sleep they just numbed my butt, which disappointed me cause last time they knocked me out was the best sleep I got for the previous month and a half. I watched the camera go in and my colon looked like Swiss cheese. It was so ulcerated it looked as if a rugby team ran off of a field and wiped their cleats on my colon. The doctor changed his diagnosis Crohns and not UC They scheduled me a surgery for that Saturday for a total colectomy.
I was a little bit nervous because i had never had surgery other than removal of cauliflower ear (story on cauliflower forum). But I didn't sweat it. They explained the surgery to me on Friday, made me drink a whole gallon of colon cleanser that tasted like pool water all through the night, and then starved me to 3 PM Saturday. At 3:30 pm they anesthetized me. I dont remember what time I woke up but i do remember demanding some form of painkiller. The nurses there fumbled with the morphine drip for over 20 minutes trying to hook it up, and once they got it straitened out they handed me a broken drip button adding 10 more minutes to getting a working button.
I stayed in the hospital for about 5 days recovering. In the hospital i was on the morphine drip, which i hardly used because I prefer not to rely on painkillers; mesalamine pills only, prednisone, and isoniazid (which is Tuberculosis medication, I do not have TB but the prednisone messes up the lab results and they would rather have me take it to be safe.) As soon as i could stand i weighed myself in at 139 still 5' 10 looking like the Pianist, I even grew a Jack Sparrow beard. When i was released and got home I found out I was allergic to mesalamine which caused fever, dry skin, nausea, and cold sweats. So i stopped taking mesalamine, im still taking the prednisone tapering off, they prescribed percosets and started my remicade doses again. The prednisone does help alot but also causes me to get a rash/acne on my forehead. Last dose of remicade I suffered from and incredible back pain but i sucked it up and didnt say anything, later the nurse told me that it was a common side effect. Recovery from the surgery was not too fun. I could not use my lower for... I still cant use my lower abs. Ive already gotten used to living with the illeostomy and bag. But im so much less active. The reversal surgery is projected for September. Right now im looking forward to rebuilding my body and physique. I can feel the lack of fast twitch muscle fibers in my legs.

Rate my Writing. first post ever on a forum.
 
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Location
USA
Hi TigerFu! Wow, you have been through a time! I hope that the surgery and remi are putting you on the road to remission.

put me on a clear liquid diet. My favorite meal was broth and jello, (that was the only meal.)
LOL!

Don't hesitate to report symptoms to your docs - it's not belly-aching.... ha ha... ha.... ok, sorry for the terrible pun!!!

Anyway, glad you've found the forum!
 
Hi and Welcome. Sorry you went thru a lot. Hopefully meds work fast and you can resume your exercise routine. We have also the Diet and Fitness forum maybe you may want to take a look.
 
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