Ulcerative Colitis

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I've mentioned in the past that I have ulcerative colitis and the need for some heavy duty medication and how it also affects my being able to go to the pool. About a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I didn't know what was going on with me, only that I was having some serious problems and hoped it would be something easily cured. When I went into the hospital for double pneumonia, they also did a colonoscopy at the same time due to the evidence of blood in my stool. I wasn't ready for a life-altering disease that would affect not only being on medication for the rest of my life, but also the foods I could and couldn't eat. There are many symptoms associated with ulcerative colitis, and depending on where in the colon it's located, will determine how severe those symptoms are. Below is a list of symptoms. • Diarrhea, often with blood or pus • Abdominal pain and cramping • Rectal pain • Rectal bleeding — passing small amount of blood with stool • Urgency to defecate • Inability to defecate despite urgency • Weight loss • Fatigue • Fever • In children, failure to grow From the list of symptoms, many of which I experience when the medication isn't working, you can see why I'm also unable to go to the pool as I would like. With two infusions of Remicade, I'm still experiencing those symptoms, which is why I need to once again contact the doctor and find out if there is another alternative treatment that will work to put this under control so I can get my life back and be in the pool every day, not just a couple days out of the week. I've also looked into supplements for this disease and everywhere I've looked on the Internet, I found supplements that will work with the medication prescribed by my doctor, but they will not work alone to bring it under control. I'm doing whatever I can to get my life back, and one day soon, I hope, they will come up with the right medication and dosage that will help put this into remission and I won't ever need to worry about it again. Ulcerative Colitis is not cancer, but it is a disease that I will live with for the rest of my life. Symptom list found on mayoclinic.org Thanks for reading.