I'll start by saying this may not be a pleasant read for some. Life sometimes isn't pleasant.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
June-ish 2013. Going for a run on the well beaten path of Wexford Racecourse. Lap 1 done. Lap 2 became uncomfortable. Lap 3 was started but quickly aborted. Straight to the car, home fast, tense. Made it inside the door and to the toilet. Just made it. Phew. Bad curry or something.
About a week later - same thing. Just on lap 2 this time. Didn't have curry this time. Training hard...maybe my sleep patterns were acting in storing energy then releasing. Maybe it was the pounding moving things along.
Then it happened again. Was it something I'd eaten? Was it the potatoes that I'd had stomach difficulty with previously? I cut them out.
August. It was happening every time. I said to the wife that I can't go running anymore. And I'd just started to enjoy running too. About this time I started to see streaks of blood too. That's nothing new...it was a pile I told myself. I've had blood streaks on and off for a few years. Hindsight tells me that I should have taken note back then.
September. It had escalated. By now it was happening anytime. Still not too put off. Still training.
October - the blood increased dramatically. It became scary to look down and think that there was enough for a blood donation. And this was every time up to 20 times a day. And the fatigue from the blood loss just wears you out daily. And it's still happening that way. What was wrong? Was there something "more serious" going on? Being the condition and where it was you obviously have a tendency to leave it alone and it'll get better. But it wasn't. So I went to the doctor asking about hemorrhoids. Nope...none there but I got treatment for it in case it was internal. I'd arranged to have a specialist have a look. In the meantime it became more regular...several times before breakfast, work was fun. At work only going, going back to the office, going back again. Quickly.
I got a scope done and finally an answer...Colitis. I had a bloody disease. My son had Crohns which is related. But me, someone, who in my head, was is still grasping at youth had something that I would possibly have for the rest of my life. I was getting old?
So medication, steroids. That's what I was on. And it improved somewhat...but colitis doesn't go away. You may get relief but there's no guarantee. That relief lasted 1 week at best. I'd gone to the gym in the meantime. Once. But not since.
Current status is the same. I have to plan a journey. I'm not talking a plane flight...I'm talking, for example, to the barbers. When is it safe to go out of the house?
A trip to Dublin to bring our youngest to Crumlin was scary. I nearly shit meself (humour, I didn't). But the journey to me was the scariest thing I'd done. Where do you stop on the M50? I had to basically stop eating the previous evening and hope for the best and eat the minimum when I got there. We got home and I was OK but as soon as I got home it was back...another night warning the kids not to spend too long in the toilet.
Luckily I have a job that allows me to answer natures calls. If I was a bus driver or worked on a site or a traffic warden I'd be unemployed by now.
And the internet is awash with "fixes". There is no fix. There is no step 1 to 10 and you're cured. There is no medication to stop it. You need to find out yourself what works and what doesn't. There is a popular SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) which is supposed to help. Think Paleo diet, but stricter.
There's conflicting information.
Use Aloe Vera...don't use Aloe Vera. Use Chlorella...don't use Chlorella. Peas are OK...don't eat peas, etc, etc, and so on.
Thankfully Stephen Bourke of Westport put me in contact with a US friend of his in a similar situation. And also there is another Wexford Kettlebell Club member who has similar who was in contact, both of which I appreciate and thank. There's times when you think that this is never going to end. A recent trip out and I saw a guy in a wheelchair and I thought..."I'd nearly prefer to be in a wheelchair. At least he can get around". And the symptoms of my condition are not as bad as other sufferers. And I feel their pain.
Hopefully over time it will go into remission and I'll get back to living a normal life.
But reality says that this maybe is the new normal. And the Joker isn't funny.
