Tag Archives: Colitis

Hump Day…What is Your Hump?


Every Wednesday officially known as Hump Day.  I started thinking, this would make a good blog.  So my questionis…what and when was your hump?  Now I am not talking about the dirty type of hump.  I am talking about the bump in the road.  I am talking about that little obstacle that slowed you down but didn’t’ stop you.

My hump happened in Dec 2011 & Jan 2012.  In December for no reason at all I started going to the bathroom a lot.  I don’t mean 10 times a day.  I am talking 30.  I spent almost all my time in the bathroom.  And with these trips came the pain.  Severe pain where I would double over and get teary eyed.  I would take Imodium but that didn’t even touch me.  Now at the time I was taking Metformin (Glucophage) for high blood glucose levels.  I am now convinced this was the cause of my problems. I called my Endocrinologist and told him what was happening and he told me to stay on the pills.  Needless to say, that was the last time I ever spoke with him and I took myself off the pills.  I also tried to call my GI but he was on vacation.  Luckily there was another great GI around he was prescribed me Lamotil.  This was a lifesaver.  It helped slow things down and the pain started to go away.

Now, I was starting to get things in order, but the underlying problem was still there.  I was scheduled for a colonoscopy in February and I couldn’t wait for it.  But I was scared at the same time as I kept thinking that things were going to be so bad that I was going to be told my colon has to come out.  I stumbled into depression and felt so alone.  I had no one to talk to that would understand what I am going through.  The only person I knew of that could have helped me was my father in law because he had his intestines removed from Colitis…but he had passed away in May 2011.  I was at the lowest point in my life…and had hit “The Hump”.

I decided to finally confront this disease that I have had for 23 years.  I finally started to do some research online and found so many wonderful people.  I heard so many inspiring stories and learned that even if I did lose my colon, my life would still go on.  I started to have hope and determination to move on.  I started climbing the hump. 

At the end of January, I decided to take my life back into my own hands.  I needed to lose weight and get my health back in order.  I joined Weight Watchers and took a really big step by going Gluten Free. 

When I finally had my colonoscopy, it turned out that not only was it not that bad but my ilium had healed to the point where you wouldn’t know it was diseased. 

To date (May 2012) I have lost 16 lbs.  I go to the bathroom about 3-4 times a day.  I have little to no pain.  I do have some issues still like a low Vitamin D level, but overall I am improving.  My depression has subsided.  I haven’t used Lamotil or Imodium in months.  I have gotten over my hump.

I now know that no matter what life throws at me…I can take it.  I can get through what ever comes my way.

IBD Advocacy….It’s Not Just For Women


I have had Crohn’s for 23 years now and never in all that time have I thought I would want to advocate for the disease.  In fact, I kind of denied that I even had it.  I didn’t want to face it.

Earlier this year in January I was at the lowest point with this damn disease.  I was going to the bathroom 30 times a day and having a lot of pain.  Nothing, not even my meds, was helping.  It was then that I realized that I had to face this disease head on and acknowledge it.

I went online to look for help for the first time in my 23 years.  I thought I was so bad that I was going to have to have my intestines removed so I started researching ostomies.  And that is when I found Maggie on YouTube.  From there, I saw she watched some videos which I eventually did also…and that is how I found Sara (inflammed and untammed).  Doing some more research led me to Kelly (I Have a Bad Tummy).  All 3 women have a following and have different issues with IBD.  They have a strong voice for advocacy and made me want to reach out to others for support.  I then found a number of other strong women who advocate (Full Frontal Ostomy, The Great Bowel Movement, Blood Poop and Tears) and many other sites.  One thing I started to notice is that every one of these people were women.  Where are all the guys?

Within my search for support I have found some guys out there.  Brian Greenberg of Intense Intestines is one.  There is Jason from the Crohns Disease Support Network.  Both are big advocators within the community.  Another person who is a little low key but has a following is Patrick Leger aka SCDPat.  He is known for spreading the good word of the Specific Carb Diet.  I recently spoke with him on Twitter to get some insight on building a following.  He gave me some great advice.

One of the things I mentioned was that I wanted to form a “Band of Brothers”  Recently a bunch of the women I mentioned went to Chicago to advocate and they called themselves the Girls with Guts (or something like that).  I thought that was great.  They had always been separate..but banded together they can do a lot more. 

So here I am.  There aren’t many guys out there advocating and alone, we are just one voice.  So I am reaching out.  GUYS….if your reading this, help us out.  I would love to get a group together to advocate.  Patrick suggested “Crohnie Boys” but I don’t want to exclude our other IBD brothers.  If you want to help raise awareness please let me know.  Let’s get a group together.  Together we can be powerful.

IBD Advocacy.  It’s not just for women.  Let’s show them how us guys do it.  Let’s speak up and be heard.