I bled for a year because doctors said I was ‘too young’

‘What brings you here today?’ doctor in Assessment and Evaluation I asked while walking behind someone flimsy blue curtain.

‘Well… when I go to the toilet, blood flows out of my ass and I don’t think that’s normal,’ I replied, I was scared and embarrassed.

The year was 2021 and I was 20 years old. Initially, I attributed the blood to the blood being drawn. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS)This means my skin can tear easily.

However, as symptoms worsen I knew something was wrong. And with a six week wait GP, A&E looked like me the only option.

But soon I began to feel like I was wasting their time.

After not one but two pregnancy tests, the doctor performed a rectal exam. ‘I can’t see or feel anything hemorrhoids“But I think that’s all,” he said, adding that they were “typical” for someone my age.

He fired me shortly after and told me that if my symptoms continued for a year, I would need further investigation.

I was ‘too young’ to do anything serious.

I felt like I was wasting everyone’s time. So I tried to carry on normally, but the bleeding didn’t go away.

It took me two years to become diagnosed as severe ulcerative colitis (also known as pancolitis) IBDThis meant my colon was dangerously inflamed.

Even though I told the doctors over and over that something was wrong I was constantly laid off. It seemed like no matter where I turned, no one believed me.

It almost cost me my life more than once.

I’ve always had a funny stomach. When I was little, I wouldn’t go to the toilet for days; Then suddenly I would have trouble going to the toilet on time.

During my teenage years my symptoms eased – but 2020, the 19 year old are back with a vengeance. Then they got progressively worse.

After what the A&E doctor said I tried to ignore my symptoms but I was bleeding constantly.

By the end of 2021, my bowels were pretty incontinent. I was having accidents with stomach cramps as well as bleeding.

I would wake up at night desperate to go to the toilet. It would be like someone pressed the button and I had to go.

I had no control, so I was confined to my home as a 23-year-old and had to wear adult diapers.

I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t socialize; This has taken over my life.

Throughout my journey to receive a diagnosis, medical professionals reminded me that I was “too young to be sick” and that bad things don’t happen to people. age.

But after pushing for help, My doctor in April 2023 reluctantly agreed to put me into various jobs tests to search at startup cancerbut we will soon expand this to look for intestinal disorders. My results showed severe inflammation in my stool, so I finally had a CT scan.

“You have extremely severe ulcerative colitis; “Your entire colon is ulcerated and inflamed,” they said.

‘Normally we can’t see this on a CT scan, but yours lit up like a Christmas tree.’ I can’t explain the relief I feel knowing I’m not in pain. above.

I immediately received steroid and iron injections due to anemia caused by prolonged bleeding.

I was constantly reducing steroid doses for months. Them It didn’t heal my gut but it just eased my symptoms.

These drugs are powerful derivatives. chemotherapyIt caused my hair to fall out and my skin quality to decrease, as doctors said He told me they would start working ‘after the next dose’. Eventually I was so sick that my next dose never came.

In February 2024, I developed what I thought was winter vomiting. I was sick and had diarrhea for over three weeks straight.

I eventually took myself to A&E on the grounds that I needed fluids and nutrition and convinced myself that I would stay there overnight and get on the road to recovery.

However, at the time of admission, my heart rate was 170 beats per minute. ‘You’re about to have something heart attack‘ said a doctor.

I was immediately resuscitated and The team worked to reset my heart. Hours later, my heart regained a safe rhythm.

In the following days, the hospital became my second home. I had an internal examination and discovered: My colon was completely ruptured.

He was literally starting to tear himself apart and my Ulcerative colitis had nearly destroyed my intestines.

I was given high doses of immunosuppressive medications and was prescribed a type of medication called a JAK inhibitor. This was actually the last stage of the doctors’ treatment could give it to me – they were doing their best to see if my intestines would heal enough to live together.

Not including, tablets came out whole in the toilet; my body had stopped absorbing all food, medications, and liquids.

At this point, three weeks into my hospital stay, I remember lying in my bed wondering if I would ever eat again.

I had two too stoma bags: One is for the main stoma outlet, The other is called a mucus fistula because the body tries to clear it by sending mucus into the remaining colon.

Recovery was slow and I spent 10 days in the hospital after my surgery, but things eased up once I started moving.

I did everything I could to embrace my stoma, knowing I wouldn’t be here without it.

But between the cut, nauseous feeling and seeing something alien coming out of you, it took me a few days to grasp it.

It’s become a habit now and the difference in how I feel is like night and day.

Within two weeks of leaving the hospital, I was able to eat outside the home. I was able to visit my friends without having an accident. I’m much closer to being myself again, but I’m not there yet.

I can’t believe I was delayed in getting help for my condition simply because of my age and the perception that young people can’t get sick.

I have no regrets about having a stoma – but things might not have been this serious I wish my concerns had been heard and believed much sooner.

If something isn’t right, speak up. You know your body better than anyone, and if you have a gut feeling, there’s a reason for it.

My story is not unusual, but it should be the exception, not the norm.

As told to Izzie Price

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