The main point to
understand is that in the vast majority of cases, in fact virtually
all, once you have been diagnosed with colitis you have it for life
(unless surgery is called for). The colitis symptoms of diarrhoea,
abdominal pain, tiredness, and general discomfort may disappear after
the first attack and not come back for a long time. If this is the
case, count yourself one of the “lucky” ones.
The majority of sufferers tend to fall into the pattern of first attack
then a period of remission (this can last for a period of months to
years) before another attack. A few unfortunately have continuous
symptoms that can be controlled to an extent with medication and
lifestyle choices. During periods of remission your health will most
likely be back to normal so don’t alarm yourself that you will never
gain a degree of good health again.
At the beginning of the first attack, the first and only aspect on your
mind, once you have consulted your doctor, should be your own
wellbeing. Everything else in life now comes secondary. It may well be
hard to accept, even appreciate at the beginning of your first attack,
but you will need all your strength and determination to enable you to
get through the worst period that is coming and ensure your
rehabilitation back to health is as soon as possible.
If you are to have anything like an average to a full attack, you
simply won’t be physically able to conduct your usual daily activities.
This means that if you work, you are going to have to inform your place
of work that you will not be able to attend for a period of time. Your
social life outside your home will stop and even daily life in your
home will have to change. Your family or other house members will have
to do the jobs that you did. In fact, you should do absolutely nothing
apart from concentrating on steering yourself through this illness.
There is differing experiences of this and everyone is different, but
for a normal attack of colitis, you should probably be accepting to the
fact that you will be off work for perhaps one month. This can differ
depending on severity of the attack. Your condition will worsen for a
period, then the medication that your doctor provides will slowly take
its effect on the colitis and you will then benefit from a slow
improvement.
Once you feel you are getting better, you will not be able to jump into
your daily activities again because you will be tired and possibly
rather weak. It will take time to start building yourself up because
you will not have been eating as normal for a period of weeks. Even
once you are back to work, it is not like that a switch can be flicked
and you are back into the routine, full of vigour. It takes time, you
must be realistic of what you are capable of doing and in no way should
you be pushing yourself. You must take time to understand this rehab
process or you could be heading straight back into trouble. Find out
exactly what you need to be aware of, the do's and don'ts with
The 27 Most Wanted Colitis Answers
