Check our her blog here.

These posts might also help out:

• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• April 5, 2010 -- Home from Surgery #1 (1)
• March 27, 2010 -- Colston Thomas Mills (4)
• February 8, 2010 -- A little insight on my insides. (13)

After that the goal was to get me on an effective therapy to get my UC under control. I was and have been on steroids since June of ’09 and have tried Asacol, 6-MP, and Methotrexate. I can’t take any of the biologics because of my MS. My UC has never been in remission since diagnosis and has proceeded to get worse the last few months. My home GI referred me to Cleveland clinic to talk to a specialist who gave me good advice and advised that I should consider surgery. My home GI them told me that the doctor at CC was an idiot and that no surgeon would ever preform surgery on me. Needless to say  I was a bit conflicted.

I met with Dr. Remzi last Monday in regards to surgery against the advice of my home GI. Dr. Remzi was great and urged me to consider surgery. After throwing myself a pity party for a few days, where my only guest was myself…and I didn’t even get cake….I decided he was probably right and I should schedule my surgery. He said most likely he’ll be doing a 3 part surgery over 9 months with my first scheduled for March 25th.

So I’m just at the start of this journey…its going to be a long super sucky one…but I know there are a lot of you out there with me.

oh. Ps. I’ve attached a picture of what I USED to look like…you know before 8+ months of steroids….I hope to revisit this again someday

p.p.s. I make typos a lot. Deal with it.

These posts might also help out:

• April 5, 2010 -- Home from Surgery #1 (1)
• February 13, 2010 -- Take a walk in my shoes (93)
• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• March 27, 2010 -- Colston Thomas Mills (4)

We’d love to have jpouch.net give Lisa some great support and go visit her blog and UC to Jpouch Story Lisa’s UC to Jpouch Story .  She has just had Step 1 surgery and on the mend. She is new to the community and as we all know could use some jpouch support.  Meet Lisa in some of the below photos before surgery – we hope to see her in back to happy photos soon after this recovery! Lisa’s UC to Jpouch Story

These posts might also help out:

• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• March 27, 2010 -- Colston Thomas Mills (4)
• February 25, 2010 -- Commenter with Questions (13)
• February 19, 2010 -- Blood, Poop, and Tears (3)

This month jpouch.net has had readers visit from 84 Countries! Welcome readers from Slovenia, Chile, Uganda, Kuwait, Iran, Bahamas, Taiwan, Germany, India, Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Israel, Mexico, Hong Kong, Italy and more! Please reply by “Add a Comment” and let us know what country or state  you are from and why you are visiting jpouch.net!

These posts might also help out:

• August 4, 2010 -- Western Diet Causes Inflammatory Bowel Disease (0)
• February 19, 2010 -- Blood, Poop, and Tears (3)
• February 8, 2010 -- A little insight on my insides. (13)
• December 13, 2009 -- Welcome Lisa to the “No Colon Club” (1)

Natalie with her Partner

Hey Readers,  We recently met Natalie who has just had a colectomy after living with UC. She has created a blog and we wanted to let you know about it.

Email from Natalie below:

I have recently had a colectomy in March and a reversal just 2 weeks ago tomorrow, following years of having ulcerated colitis.

By going on your blog, it really helped to see what was entailed into the first and second operation. The pictures were especially helpful as I wouldn’t have known what a stoma looked like or how it was activated, and I really feel that it helped me come to terms with what I would be going through with the insight and information available on this website.

So I would like to offer a massive Thank you from me and my partner and family as it was a great help to us all and I have used the link on my blog to hopefully help other UC sufferers.

Here is the link to my site.

www.copingwithcolitis.blogspot.com

Many thanks,

Natalie

These posts might also help out:

• February 19, 2010 -- Blood, Poop, and Tears (3)
• February 8, 2010 -- A little insight on my insides. (13)
• December 13, 2009 -- Welcome Lisa to the “No Colon Club” (1)
• July 2, 2009 -- Jpouch Happenins’ (5)

Chaz just had his takedown and documented it here:   My life with Crohns

Paul talking with surgeon about possible surgery:  Living with UC

Abby is feeling better after complications:  Whole Heart and Soul

Ostomy lifestyle fashion show:  UCVlog

Balancing the Risk and Benefits of Treatment for IBD:   CCFA

Funny video. Sarah Haskin’s Target Women “Yogurt” for BMs:  Yogurt Spoof

These posts might also help out:

• July 22, 2009 -- Jpouch Life is on Twitter (0)
• May 27, 2009 -- New Comment Features for Jpouch Life (1)
• August 24, 2011 -- Thank You Supporters of Jpouch Dot Net! (1)
• February 19, 2010 -- Blood, Poop, and Tears (3)

Boots after surgery with ostomy

I finally got around to posting my pictures. After I put up my post, but hadn’t yet uploaded my pictures, I got a virus on my computer and it was in the shop for a week. The same day I got it back, my sister went into labor and we had to head down to North Carolina and were there for a week. Now I’m back and I got around to posting. Hope you enjoy them!

Check out Boots’ UC Journey…..I’d love to hear from you so feel free to contact me!

These posts might also help out:

• April 5, 2010 -- Home from Surgery #1 (1)
• February 19, 2010 -- Blood, Poop, and Tears (3)
• February 8, 2010 -- A little insight on my insides. (13)
• December 13, 2009 -- Welcome Lisa to the “No Colon Club” (1)

Thank you all at jpouch.net for providing a source of insight and sense of community to these conditions I thought were non-existent outside of my own experience. Knowing there are people who can relate to your circumstances is a much needed relief. And I mean exact circumstances, not ball-park figure guesstimates like “oh, sometimes I get tummy aches, is that like your thing?”, well intentioned as they may be. This support is a blessing I can’t thank you for enough.

My name is Brevin and I want to punch my Ulcerative Colitis in the face.

It’s not like I just met Colitis the other day, hitting on the girl I was going to ask out and now I want to engage in fisticuffs. No, we go way back. This is a scuffle years in the making. I was diagnosed back in early 2003 and I dealt with it pretty well, all things considered. We would sometimes have slap-fights and call each other names, but nothing that made me cry foul. But given my current condition, ongoing medication, accompanying side effects, and constant need to use the bathroom, it… it gets old. It does. I miss my quality of life. I have had so many medical complications because of my Colitis that I’m on a first name basis with the ER. That’s not something to brag about. I’m at the point where I consider the rest of my life and where I would like to see myself and my well being. I don’t like what I’m seeing with Colitis’s smug face in the picture. But I know the cure, that steak through the heart of the vampire Count Von Colitis, is surgery. Who’s afraid of surgery? Me.

Back in the early days of my UC diagnosis, my GI referred me to Stanford to go check in with a surgeon. Wow. That was the most horrific sync up ever. The doctor was cold, blunt, and scared the crap out of me (being a Colitis patient, that doesn’t take much effort, but still). I left that meeting convincing myself that surgery is not the way to go and I swore that I would try all of the possible alternatives before even thinking about the surgeon’s knife. Well, here I am. All alternatives? Check. Maximum dosage? Check. Progress with my condition? Nope. In my own cowardly defense, there weren’t supportive communities like www.jpouch.net back then, and if there were, I didn’t know about them through utter stubbornness.

Recent events with my health have me seriously considering the surgery. I’m using this opportunity to share my experiences, starting at the decision-making process. I hope these contributions help others in the same circumstances, even if only in the smallest of ways. Getting to write these thoughts down are therapeutical in a weird way, and hopefully current UC patients can relate. It’s a tough decision. It’s not something you sleep on; it’s something you hibernate on. I appreciate your support and I’ll share as much as you would like to know.

Thanks.
-Brevin

These posts might also help out:

• February 19, 2010 -- Blood, Poop, and Tears (3)
• February 8, 2010 -- A little insight on my insides. (13)
• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• September 2, 2010 -- My Foster Bag Wants to be Adopted (6)