Hello and welcome to The Colitis Experience.

There is probably one question that you want answered? What qualifies me to offer this information to you? I am not medically qualified and don't pertain to be. What I am qualified in is actually experiencing colitis, living with colitis on a daily basis all the way through to surgery, a stoma then a j pouch.

So to help you have an understanding of my colitis experience, here is a brief history of what happened to me. I am sure you will be able to pinpoint where you are and therefore I am sure there is included in this reference some knowledge for you to use to ensure your colitis experience is a little easier to live with.

In November 1994, at the age of 28, I was diagnosed with colitis. I had up until then very good health, was fairly fit and quite literally it was a bolt from the blue. I returned to work after about 5 weeks off and was recovering quite well when my first relapse hit in June 1995. I lost my job. I returned to good health but a second relapse happened in August 1996. Thankfully, this was much milder than the first two times and then I had good health until Dec 2000 when I was hit badly by the next relapse. It took longer to recover though good health returned once again.

In July 2004, the mother of all relapses occurred and would not let go. In September I underwent surgery for the removal of my large colon which was about to perforate and the creation of a temporary ileostomy. As I was so weak and had been seriously ill, the consultant waited until June 2005 for the second operation to create a j pouch but due to difficulties it was immediately kick started into operation. But in July 2005 further difficulties arose and saw another operation in which the j pouch was deactivated and another temporary ileostomy formed. In March 2006 the j pouch was reactivated and I have been learning to live with it since.

As you can imagine, I have been through a fair experience of colitis and beyond, you could even describe me as a colitis survivor. With this experience, I decided that it is too valuable to be locked up in my head. Undertaking research, I could see other sufferers were posting question that they desperately wanted answering as they could gain no satisfaction from the general colitis information that is available.

You now have the opportuntity to gain access to my knowledge and experience, the tips, tactics and advice that I have gathered over this period of time. The very experiences that you can use to make your daily life easier. I found that I faced many situations without having real life answers to fall back on. The doctors could only tell me as much as they knew, which resulted in a huge gap of unanswered questions relating to daily occurrences. If I had only known then what I know now, my life would have been easier.

For you this need not happen. 

That gap in information has now been filled with The Colitis Experience.