Why I use so much toilet paper.

I do use a lot compared to a normal person.  Just from the the number of trips to the toilet I take in a day (10 - 12 avg) would account for plenty of TP usage, but there is also another reason.

I was with my buddy Matt the other day having a good time talking about cars and stupid stuff when like clockwork my bowls began to grumble.  I knew it was gas trying to make it's way down to the exit shoot.  Problem is my exit shoot is angry with inflammation and like an old crotchety old man doesn't like to be bothered.  But my bowls couldn't take the increasing pressure from the build up of gas anymore.  I realize that it's normal to pass gas, everyone does it everyday, but for me passing gas hurts and is usually messy.  Messy because in order for my colon to protect itself against the inflammation copious amounts of mucus coat the lining of the inflamed areas.  So when I pass gas I usual pass the mucus too.  It turns out to be a really juice fart, literally.  Matt was particularly impressed with how juicy sounding it was and with a concerned look on his face asked if I just goobered my pants.  I hadn't and not because I didn't pass any mucus but because I had prepared by stuffing my underwear with TP.  This way the TP catches all the mucus junk and I don't soil myself.  I explained this to Matt and he asked me if I always had a wad of TP down there and I realized that stuffing my underwear had become such a daily routine that I indeed always had TP in my pants.

I know what your thinking, Dave why just get Depends and wear those around.  To be honest with you all, I have and occasionally I will.  But I still have huge reservation for wearing them all the time.  It's hard to explain why I don't. Partly the reason is that for me to wear them means that I've let the UC beat me one more time,  that it's winning.  I'm some small way I've let my UC get the better of me. I guess me not wearing an adult diaper gives me a little victory against my UC.  I can say to myself, "at least I'm not that bad that I have to wear Depends all day long." Plus I associate adult diapers with old dieing folks that live in stinky old folks homes.  So that's why I stick with the TP stuffing.  Lately I've tried to a great success folded up paper towels and stuffing with super absorbent paper sheets the kind used at hospitals as a barrier.  They all do the trick most of the time from having to change my underwear and pants.  Although I keep an extra set in my car with me all the time and yes I've had to change many times.  Sometimes I pass so much mucus that the TP just isn't enough. But most of the time I can make it to a toilet or in desperate times out in the beautiful wide open.  There are some funny stories to tell about that, but I'll save those for later.

Another frusterating night.

It's 3:30am and it's been six days now since my infusion and I don't want to jinks myself but I do seem to feel, and I'll put it this way, less miserable.  But whats six days really.  My doc, Doc Sleven, has told me that these biologic drugs really take a good 4 weeks to really start showing any response.  With that said, I'm sitting here in my room and my butt hurts and with a little bit of annoying left side pain.  It just sucks because I'd like to go to sleep but this pain just won't dissipate.  My normal tactics of siting on my heating pad help and laying on my left side help.  Interesting fact is that by laying on your left side as opposed to your right, your bowls actually relax more.  So tonight is another sucky night.  If it gets real bad I'll take a real hot shower to relax those butt/gut muscles.  I do take Tylenol too and that helps with the crampy achy pain.

4:00am The feeling now is like a heaviness on my anus and it won't go away.  I've been tossing from side to side on my bed and using the heating pad directly on my bum and still I just can't get it to go away.  It's so uncomfortable. If I lay on my left side I hear my guts rumble and sometimes I can release some gas.  It feels better to do so but it also strains my smooth muscles down there to the point that they feel clinched up and that just hurts.  Finally I go into the bathroom to use it and I'm able to relive my bowls after some coaxing and straining.  I'm in there for probably 15+min but it changes everything in my guts.  All that built up pressure is now released.   I'm now able to sleep, well at least for a few hours.  Until I'm woken up because I need to pass gas or something.  But the worst of it is over for tonight.

I'm going to get my last colonoscope pics scanned and posted up here.  Then you all can see how bad my inflammation is.  Untill then, I hope you all are getting a better night sleep than I.

Taking my Ulcerative Colitis (UC) seriously.

I would be lying to the world if I said that my life has been great or even "just ok" since April of 2008.  UC has changed my body and my life to such an extent that to deal with it I mostly force the reality of my situation out of my mind.  I've delayed with starting this Blog about my UC story because of this very fact, but I'm compelled right now to write about my experience and fight to share it with others.  Not just with my friends and family, but hopefully with others that are also fighting against UC or other inflammatory bowel diseases.  My hope is that others will be able to have a better understanding of this disease and that maybe some can find support through my fight.

Hopefully at this stage of my recovery I'm more towards the end of the tunnel.  Rather than talking about the last year and a half, I'll interlace the past through out my posts to give a full picture.  For those whom are unfamiliar with UC I suggest going to this link: www.mayoclinic.com/health/ulcerative-colitis/DS00598 there you'll get a better idea of the disease. Short answer is however: inflammation of the large intestine (colon), add pain, cramping, explosive mucusy diarrhea butt and you got UC.

This past week I entered into a new study drug group with my GI Clinic.  Which means I get a novel drug for UC and all the office visits and subsequent colonoscopy on the study's tab.  A small perk too is they actually compensate me like $45 bucks each office visit.  This new drug is called Vedolizamab and I get it by infusion once a month.  This week last Wednesday (Nov. 11) was my first infusion and I'm very hopefully that this will end the voracious inflammation inside me.  The good news is that others in this same study have seen wonderful improvements in just 4 weeks of there first dose.  It's just been 4 days for me so I still have to wait to see how my body response.

I'm going to monitor my weight and post this.  Before UC ravished my body I was a constant 205 lbs, now I'm 155.7lbs (Nov. 11).  I should begin to keep more weight on as I get better, but if drops it means I'm getting worse.