Hi everyone! I am a 25 year old female who was just diagnosed with UC on October 12 following an abdominal CT, colonoscopy, upper endoscopy, stool samples, and labs. My GI seems confident that this is the right diagnosis and at first, I was hopeful that now that we had an answer, I would be able to get started on meds that would help.

A little backstory: I began experiencing symptoms in March (bloody diarrhea (toilet full of blood), up to 10 stools a day, occasional incontinence, a ton of gas build up in my stomach, bloating, decreased appetite, some weight loss). It started with just a little blood and I chalked it up to hemorrhoids because I have a history of them. The other symptoms came shortly after and I knew it was more than hemorrhoids but I ignored it for months. Everything just kept getting worse and worse so I finally called the GI in August and was told to go to the ER. After a visit to the ER, an abdominal CT, and a speculative diagnosis of UC, they sent me back to GI. GI scheduled the colonoscopy and upper endoscopy at the end of September and got results and official UC diagnosis in early October.

My GI said that my UC is currently only in my rectum and sigmoid colon and because of that oral meds wouldn’t be very effective. She wanted to start me on mesalamine enemas but insurance denied them. Then, they sent in mesalamine suppositories which insurance also denied. Insurance is requiring that I try oral tablets before they will approve anything else. They sent in mesalamine oral tablets which is what insurance said they would approve but they denied them also. All this mess with insurance is what has caused the hopelessness. Firstly, I feel like we will never win this war with insurance. Second, even if they finally approve an oral tablet, will it even do any good, because the GI made it seem like it wouldn’t? Also worth mentioning is they put me on a 16 week Budesonide 9mg taper which seems to have helped zero so far.

I’m just worried because all my symptoms seem to be getting worse day by day and I don’t know how much more I can take. I’m just hoping someone has some advice or tips for how I can manage this awful disease. Thanks for reading my novel and for any advice.