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I had an interesting telephone call from my Dad yesterday about the status of his Ulcerative Colitis. But first, some background - he was dx'd with UC back in 1960 when he had a severe flare-up that landed him in the hospital and ended up with his being discharged from the US Navy for medical reasons. He was hospitalized, put on steroids, etc. As a child what I remember about my Dad was that 1. he never missed a day of work; 2. he spent a lot of time in the bathroom but nothing seemed urgent; 3. he was always taking these small white pills (I later found out they were Lomotil); and 4. He always ate and drank pretty much whatever he wanted.
About eight years ago he said he stopped having any symptoms of UC at all - no flare-ups, no urgent D, nothing - and considered himself cured. Well, being in his early 70s he had a colonoscopy last week to check things out. His doctor called him yesterday to say that the biopsies they took showed "underlying inflammation" and they want him to start taking Asacol (Mesalamine) to reduce the inflammation. When he questioned them on the necessity of this considering he has no outward symptoms they said that it's important to get the inflammation under control because if left untreated it can increase his chances of developing colon cancer - apparently with his history of IBD and his age he already has a 1 in 3 chance of developing it anyway.
So, he knows I've been taking Asacol for nearly 10 years now and called to ask my "opinion" on the whole thing which I found interesting because usually it's me calling him to ask advice.
Anyway, just thought I'd share this for those IBD readers out there - this was something new I'd not heard of before and thought it worth passing along.
Cheers,
Elizabeth
Author, Living with IBD & IBS
www.ibdandibs.com
About eight years ago he said he stopped having any symptoms of UC at all - no flare-ups, no urgent D, nothing - and considered himself cured. Well, being in his early 70s he had a colonoscopy last week to check things out. His doctor called him yesterday to say that the biopsies they took showed "underlying inflammation" and they want him to start taking Asacol (Mesalamine) to reduce the inflammation. When he questioned them on the necessity of this considering he has no outward symptoms they said that it's important to get the inflammation under control because if left untreated it can increase his chances of developing colon cancer - apparently with his history of IBD and his age he already has a 1 in 3 chance of developing it anyway.
So, he knows I've been taking Asacol for nearly 10 years now and called to ask my "opinion" on the whole thing which I found interesting because usually it's me calling him to ask advice.
Anyway, just thought I'd share this for those IBD readers out there - this was something new I'd not heard of before and thought it worth passing along.
Cheers,
Elizabeth
Author, Living with IBD & IBS
www.ibdandibs.com
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