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/ Health Issues / How I was Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis

How I was Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis

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August 11, 2018 by Karen Leave a Comment

Let me give you a little background of my life before I explain how I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. My mother had me later in life. She was 42 and came into this world in 1920. Mom was a fantastic cook. I grew up with real food. We ate out in a restaurant maybe once a year. Snacks in the fridge were carrots and celery with no sugared cereal in Mom’s pantry. Fast food was not the “norm” and diseases like diabetes and Ulcerative Colitis had yet to grab hold of unsuspecting persons.

Being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis was tough.


When I graduated high school and went off to college Woohoo Sugar Pops was my favorite food to eat while I studied for exams. 18 was the drinking age back in the day.  Evenings were spent drinking pitchers of beer with pizza and as many cokes as I wanted to drink every day. Junk food galore!! Potato chips, pretzels, popcorn!  Man, it was awesome being able to eat whatever I wanted. So I thought.

Symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis

The summer between my freshman and sophomore year I married my ex-husband. After he graduated we moved to Virginia because he was in the Navy. Here I am, 19 years old, moving from Texas to Virginia, taking 60 hours of classes in order to graduate in an 18-month period and learning how to be a “Navy Wife”.   The stress was incredible.

Ulcerative Colitis symptoms started my senior year in college. My symptoms started slowly. I stopped having a bowel movement every day. I’d have one every five days. When a bowel movement occurred, my stools were smaller and very smooth. I just thought “that’s weird” and didn’t do anything. I just kept drinking cokes and eating Sugar Pops when I studied.

More symptoms were added; mucus was now in my stools and oh my gosh, horrendous, stinky gas. The cramping started when I needed go to the bathroom; I’d be in the bathroom 20 to 25 minutes rocking back and forth on the commode with cramping. I’d have to go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW. I couldn’t wait. See more symptoms  here.

 Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis

Still I did nothing; continued to eat poorly, eating junk food and drinking beer and cokes. By Christmas I had bloody stools. Now I’m starting to get scared.  I called my mom because that’s what you do when you’re scared, and she told me to go to the doctor.

Being in the Navy medical system seeing doctors takes time. It took six weeks to get an appointment to have a proctoscope and it showed nothing. Three weeks to get the results and another six weeks for a second proctoscope and still nothing.  Again, a three week wait for the results and another six weeks for  a colonoscopy which showed an inflamed colon and ulcers (sores) in the lining.  By now I’m missing classes and rarely leaving the house due to all those horrible symptoms.

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and started taking 400 mg of sulfasalazine 4 times a day – instant headache and upset stomach. Finding out the hard way that I had to gradually increase my medication to build up to the full dosage of my prescription.  It took me over two weeks to build up to the 8 pills a day.

Finally, the bleeding stopped! My stools were not normal, and I still had gas, but the extreme pain was gone. Halleluiah! The disease was still rampant within me but some of the symptoms were gone. Doctor’s only took one nutrition class in medical school. My eating habits were not discussed, nor my drinking habits. I continued to eat and drink the same and just took the medication to keep the bleeding in check.

Being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis was rough, but at least I now knew I wasn’t dying with cancer or something. I continued to feel bloated, was gassy. had low energy and did not have a normal stool for over 20 years, until I changed my lifestyle and improved my eating habits by:

  1. Not eating ‘fast foods‘ and processed foods
  2. Started eating “organic” foods. No chemical additives.
  3. Began doing internal whole food body cleanses

Learn how I healed my gut  here.

Being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis is lonely and scary.

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Filed Under: Health Issues, Karen's Colitis Journey

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Welcome! Hi, I'm Karen, it's great to meet you!
As a former colitis sufferer currently living a life colitis free,
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