Please have a read of the following which is an extract from an article that I wrote to a local uc group. It is all about being realistic in facing a colitis replase attack and what you should and should not be doing…
“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 are 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.
For more information of how to approach a coliti relapse go now and get my free Colitis Toolkit at having a colitis relapse