The Diagnosis

The Diagnosis

Melissa was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis in 2009. As you can see she was very young,

Oh and gorgeous. Melissa had some family members with IBS and figured that maybe she was experiencing some of the same symptoms. The first time she had blood in her stool was a shock and we immediately went to the hospital to make sure she was doing ok. 

Just like any hospital visit they asked millions of questions. They settled on Melissa meeting with a Gastroenterologist and having a colonoscopy. She met with her GI doctor (who she absolutely loved) and we had the procedure done. The results came back and in fact she had Ulcerative Colitis. Obviously we were oblivious to what this was or meant. The GI doctor suggested going to a conference on Ulcerative colitis so we did. When I say we I'm meaning Melissa, her mother, and myself. For information purposes I am Melissa's husband. At the time we were just dating and getting to know each other. I had the opportunity to go along and see what this was all about. Melissa has never been the lucky one when it came to health. If there is some weird, rare condition out there, chances are Melissa has experienced it. This was not something that Melissa was excited about dealing with but it was there. 

She was obviously showing symptoms for us to even be in this situation so this was her first experience with a "flare up" or being "out of remission". When you are brand new to this experience it can be very overwhelming and scary, and to not forget, exhausting! Her GI doctor started her on Azacol and luckily she had great luck with it. She has never been someone that takes a lot of medicine so she was actually taking half of the dosage that the doctor suggested. He was quite amazed that even on a lesser dosage she was able to get into remission so quickly and stay that way. She was taking this and remained in remission for 2 straight years. We were thinking that this wasn’t going to be so bad.

Melissa was able to finish up her hair school and receive her license. We were able to get married in August of 2010 and we started looking toward the future.