Your working life is an important part of managing your colitis. Not only is work important to earn money to pay for medical bills, and is important especially to keep your health insurance, but I believe work is actually necessary to healing properly. I’ve gone through several fluctuations of being in work and not being in work, and I have to say, the ability to work goes a long way in healing both physically and mentally.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
Has anybody ever heard of a virtual colonoscopy or CT colonoscopy? It’s a relatively new procedure that is less invasive than a traditional colonoscopy. Some see it as a further tool in screening people for colon cancer, whereas others see it as an unnecessary and needless expense since the test is not as useful as the traditional optical colonoscopy.
A virtual colonoscopy works like this: the patient preps the bowels as normal. Then the patient lies down in a x-ray scanner and has a small tube inserted into the rectum. The tube pumps air into the colon, inflating it, then x-rays are taken of a person’s GI tract. The x-rays produce 2-D and 3-D images of a person’s insides.
The virtual colonoscopy can detect most polyps, except very small ones. If the person has no polyps, they go home. If polyps are detected, a traditional colonoscopy is required to remove them. Sometimes this colonoscopy can be done the same day to prevent having to do a second bowel preparation.
Much debate surrounds the medical value of this procedure. Check out some articles here, here, and here. Proponents say the uncomfortableness of traditional colonoscopies (such as sedation) and the risk of perferating the colon, prevent many people from getting screened. This less invasive method, then, will encourage more people to get their colon looked at.
Opponents point out that traditional colonoscopies have to be performed anyway in polyps are detected, so virtual colonoscopies are a needless expense. A further drawback of virtual colonoscopies is the inability to take tissue samples, which are necessary to help diagnose inflammatory bowel diseases and other colon diseases not characterized by polyps.
Medicare has tentatively decided NOT to pay for virtual colonoscopies, though the decision isn’t official yet. People in the know, though, don’t expect Medicare to change its decision. Some private insurance companies pay for the procedure, others don’t.
I’ve had two colonoscopies in my life and both were done the traditional way. Virtual colonoscopies wouldn’t even have been an option as the doctor took tissue samples both times. It is encouraging, though, that the medical community is looking for more noninvasive treatment options for bowel diseases, even if the results aren’t perfect yet.
Question: Have you had a virtual colonoscopy or known anybody who has? What were the results?
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
In an outreach program last Saturday, doctors in Ventura County, California, performed free colonoscopies to two dozen uninsured people in their 50s and 60s. The outreach was a one day event and points to the importance of getting colonoscopies to screen for cancer and other bowel diseases. I’ve had two colonoscopies myself and they are not always fun, but the benefits far outweigh any uncomfortableness.
And if your doctor recommends a colonoscopy before you hit that magical age of 50: get it. You don’t want to end up like this guy.
If you want to see what’s happening on the other side of the pond, check out this story from Ireland. More than 900 people have been waiting between 3 months and 2 years to undergo potentially life-saving colonoscopies. Many in Ireland find these figures unacceptable. Ireland’s health system, from what I understand, is largely socialist with a mix of private insurance.
Have you been putting off getting a colonoscopy? And for my viewers in countries with socialized medicine, have you ever experienced delayed healthcare due to waitlists?
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
If you’ve read about life post-takedown surgery, you’ve probably heard of this concept. Once you start using your j-pouch, you will quickly have burning and irritation around your butt. This is a problem that comes and goes depending on circumstances, but is worse more in the beginning of j-pouch life.
This video describes how I deal with the burning.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
Question: For the j-pouchers, do you have problems with burning and how do you take care of it?
I’ve found some encouraging happenings in the IBD community while perusing news sites recently. Read below.
With the help of star Crohn’s disease sufferer Mike McCready, lead guitarist for the band Pearl Jam, the Washington state legislature has passed an emergency restroom access bill. The bill would allow sufferers of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and other bowel conditions to use a business’s private restrooms if no public restrooms are available. The bill passed overwhelmingly 93-0, and now sits on the governor’s desk. To use a business’s private restrooms, an IBD sufferer would have to present a special identification card or written permission from a doctor. Hopefully this law helps save sufferers the embarrassment of losing control of their bowels in public. And hopefully the act of showing this identification card and explaining one’s situation to a business owner doesn’t take too much time. We sufferers sometimes have only seconds to make it to a bathroom.
The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America has just received a $5.6 million grant for research from the The Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. The money will support research for the next three years. The CCFA is the leader in IBD research.
Comments on either of these stories? Does anybody live in Washington who can take advantage of this law once it’s enacted?
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
This is a continuation of what I was like before surgery. The first video, “My Condition Before Surgery” deals with my physical condition. This video, “My Ignorance Before Surgery” deals with my mental condition.
I certainly didn’t know as much as many of my viewers now know before their surgeries.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
Question: For those who have had surgery, what did you know or what didn’t you know before your surgery? Reply to this post!
Hey everybody, I just wanted to let you know that the collective video views of my 80+ videos just surpassed the 50,000 mark yesterday! It has only taken six and half months since releasing my first video to reach this goal. The success of this vlog goes back to all of you, my viewers. I cannot thank you enough for watching my videos, passing them on to others, and most importantly, contacting me and telling me your story. I have talked to so many people through this project and I appreciate every one of those conversations.
Help me reach my goal of surpassing the 100,000 mark by September 30 this year. I think we can do it. If you peruse Crohn’s and colitis forums or message boards, post a link back to my videos or even post one of my videos right in the forum if you are able to. All of my videos have embed codes next to them on YouTube, allowing you to easily pass them around the internet.
If you have your own website, give me a shout and tell me where it’s at. I’m willing to tell everybody about your site if you let me know where to find it.
And most importantly, if you have found this site useful and think others would find it useful, talk to your local GI doctor or ostomy nurse or surgeon about getting the United Colon Vlog into your hospital. I’m able to send you printed materials free of charge as long as you bring them into your clinic. Visit this page for more information.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
This video is for everybody considering surgery. It’s sometimes hard to know if your condition is “bad enough” to have surgery. This video describes where I was before surgery. Some might listen to my testimony and think I wasn’t very sick at all, but after trying all available medicines and having none of them work, it was only a matter of weeks before my health completely fell apart.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
Question: For those who’ve had surgery, how sick were you before you went under the knife? For those who haven’t had surgery, how sick will you let yourself get before considering surgery? Answer this post please!
Everybody who has suffered with ulcerative colitis probably doesn’t need to read too much of this description to know what this video is about: the title alone says it all.
Flare ups can take a terrible toll on one’s weight. Countless people have expressed to me the horror they first felt when they lost 40 pounds in a matter of weeks, or watched their weight drop below 100 pounds for the first time since being a kid. When all of your waste is leaving your body before your system has a chance to process it, the body doesn’t get the strength it needs. So it eats away at its own reserves to survive.
And surgery can be just as bad. The body works overtime to heal itself from so much trauma. Weight loss is natural. But sometimes hard to deal with. Especially for people who are thin like me to begin with.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
Question: How has your weight fluctuated since being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis? Reply to this post!
Hey everybody, I realize I am gathering quite the collection of videos on this vlog. Currently this vlog is approaching over 90 videos totaling well over 9 hours of content. That’s a lot of videos.
The reason I make so many videos is that I want to document every aspect of this disease, both pre-surgery and post-surgery. I want to go beyond the scant information about colitis, ileostomies, and j-pouches usually found in the literature rack of your gastro department.
The downside of documenting every aspect is that it can often be hard to find exactly the information you are looking for. I try to keep the videos focused and well-described. But to help you find the information you are looking for even easier I have posted a new video page, the Alternative Video List. This list categories the videos differently, mostly around what information you need to know before surgery and after surgery. Also, I have ranked the videos in terms of importance so that you can find the best information faster.
I hope this new list helps. I will maintain the original one as well as both have their advantages and disadvantages.
And a preview of the next month or so, I am currently working on two new projects for this site so get excited. One is a viewer-participation project, so get your video cameras ready because I’m going to need your help making a new series of videos.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
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