About Me

My name is Hannah, and I’m a twenty-year-old college student that just so happens to have Ulcerative Colitis.

And just what is Ulcerative Colitis? 

I describe it to most people as an autoimmune disease that causes ulceration and inflammation in the large intestine; a type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) similar to Crohn’s Disease but localized in the colon. While this is an accurate description, the disease—and what those of us with IBD go through—is not so simple.

With Ulcerative Colitis, going to class, going out, meeting up with friends, eating food, and even just getting out of the house suddenly becomes complicated. It’s not just the disease that we “UC-ers” have to deal with, but also side effects from medications and being more vulnerable to certain infections. Not to mention the sheer amount of pain that the UC can cause when it’s active. Because an exact cause has not been determined and the only “cure” as of now is to surgically remove the colon, we are forced to deal with a lot of unpleasant things that can make a person’s life quite a bit more complicated.

I find that most people I talk to, if they have heard of Ulcerative Colitis at all, usually have only a vague understanding of Irritable Bowel Disease, and more often show greater recognition of the label of Crohn’s Disease. While it is easy to define Ulcerative Colitis, it remains a challenge to truly convey the magnitude of the disease; especially when your outward appearance may not reflect the chaos transpiring in your colon. 

Thus, I’ve decided to begin this blog to share my experiences with other people who have UC, as well as provide a more personal insight to people without the disease that might be curious to learn more about it. I hope to help raise awareness about IBD and, with any luck, this blog may serve as helpful to others that also suffer from this disease!