#the entyvio lady is calling me tomorrow

[mey-rin-is-fabulous]

Okay as anyone who’s been around for any amount of time since 2021 knows I have colitis. And I’m gonna run through everything that happened before and after my diagnosis. Under a read more to save your dashes.

I first started having problems after easter 2014. Constant diarrhea and constipation and it was switching between the two constantly. It started off by me only having bowel movements every three days and I found my bathroom usage got worse after either eating high fiber foods or pizza. And as I kept going through highschool it got worse and worse, I had a hard time going to school and staying in class, my guts were constantly churning and accidents were not uncommon. All throughout this I had no idea what I was experiencing was a bowel disease, I just figured it’d clear up eventually. 

My mom and me thought it was a diet thing, so we tried adding more electrolytes, these blueberry smoothies and I tried to add yogurt. None of it helped. So now we’re coming up to late 2018 the end of my highschool career and start of my failed college career. I went to my doctor, he sent me to a specialist. I filled out a form, said specialist told me to just take metamucil, I thought that was the end of it. It wasn’t the metamucil did nothing.

2019 I was still experiencing problems. Went back to my doctor, said hey I think this specific type of food is setting this off. My doctor agrees that I should cut it out. I find out on my own somewhere along all of this about the gluten free diet and celiac disease. So I decide to go gluten free, it helps.

2020 since our family doctor retired me and my mom go see a satellite doctor, a small little cubicle in our local pharmacy with a nurse practitioner and the doctor on video call. I tell him about the problems I’ve been experiencing and he writes up a recommendation to send to a specialist.

Late 2021 I receive a call from said specialist, I have been scheduled for a colonoscopy early 2022. Colonoscopy gets pushed back a month from late January to early February. I go for my colonoscopy and after I am told that I have ulcerative colitis. I was prescribed an enema for like 2 weeks and mezavant(big pills we started at like 4 daily) which was constant. After that I had to get a TB test to make sure nothing would affect any current or future medications. Went back in March for a sigmoid( get yourself knocked out never do it while awake.) We scheduled another sigmoid for May, this time I would be knocked out for it, things were looking better. Also throughout this whole time, I was getting bloodwork off and on. Went into my doc’s office in September and my levels were looking good but around that time I accidentally had non GF spaghetti. After September things got rough for me again.

Now in early 2023, I had my first sigmoid of the year in April. My doc told me instead of ulcerative colitis it was looking more like chron’s colitis. I was told to stop taking my mezavant and was instead prescribed a steroidal medication as well as calcium tablets and vitamin d tabs. I was also prescribed another steroidal medication that required constant bloodwork. About a week or two on the new meds I was told to stop taking the new steroidal meds because my liver enzymes were up. Makes sense because I was extremely sick and after I stopped taking the medication I started feeling better. Saw my doc again end of June so now we’re in July and I’m getting a chest x-ray done this Friday and if everything’s good probably starting my new medication treatment after. the medication is delivered through IV but can be given through a needle injection after, it’s called entyvio.