How Will This Disease Affect My Life In The Long-Term?
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:14 pm
Hi All,
Though microscopic colitis is considered by the medical community to be a "benign" disease (meaning that it does not normally lead to a fatal outcome), it is in fact, a very complex disease, with life-altering consequences. Controlling the symptoms of MC is by no means easy, but it is doable, with or without medical intervention. Living with the disease is sort of like trying to get all of our ducks in a row, at the same time, and keeping them in line, against all odds. If even one of them is out of line, we tend to have symptoms.
It’s interesting to note that based on the diverse backgrounds of all of the members of this discussion board, we do not appear to be simply a cross-section of the general population. Instead, the demographics suggest that we tend to be perfectionists, overachievers, and “control freaks”. What does this imply? To me it suggests a primary reason why stress appears to be a dominant factor in our development of the disease. And after we suddenly discover that we are no longer in complete control of every aspect of our life, we tend to panic and/or become depressed, as our stress level is even further amplified.
Virtually all of us seem to go through that stage, before we learn to shift down a gear or 2, and we begin to take life a day at a time (or an hour at a time, if necessary). We certainly don't just stop doing everything, but we find that life is a lot easier if we cut ourselves some slack, and we stop trying to live up to the high standards that we may have set for ourselves prior to MC. IOW, we learn to be underachievers, and the goal of perfection in everything we do drops off our radar. We learn to control the parts of our life that we can control, and we do our best to stop worrying about the parts over which we have no control. We learn to just ride out the storm, and look forward to the things that we will do after we get our life back, and we just go with the flow until we reach that point. And we will reach that point, if we are willing to take control of our treatment program, and do what we have to do to heal our inflammed digestive system.
So we strive to eschew perfection, and tip-toe around stress, because clearly, they are not our friends. And guess what? As our stress level goes way down, and our treatment program has time to work, our symptoms soon begin to fade.
MC changes the rules of the game. That doesn't mean that we have to let it completely control our life, but it does mean that we have to accept it, and respect it (something that is very difficult to do at first, because we despise the disease, and it's tough to respect something that we despise), and it means that we have to develop a plan for reorganizing our life around it. Developing a reorganization plan doesn't have to be done immediately of course, because it will come naturally, as we slowly get our health back and continue to heal.
But worrying about all that now, and worrying about what others are doing, and what we would like to be doing (but are unable to do, at the moment) is counterproductive, and can only increase our stress level. And more stress is the last thing we need, because stress is the culprit that struck the match that lit the fire that ignited the inflammation in our gut in the first place, and initiated the cascade of events that led up to our development of MC.
We have to focus on what we can do — not on what we cannot do, and likewise, we have to focus on the foods that we can still eat and enjoy, not on the foods that are now toxic to us, and are no longer a part of our lifestyle. Research shows that the genes that predispose to these food sensitivities were triggered when the genes that predispose to MC were triggered, and that’s why we have suddenly become sensitive to foods that we have been happily eating all of our life up to this point. So now we find ourselves in a very unfamiliar situation.
This is similar to moving to a different country (or even a different planet) — while we enjoyed our life in the past, that life is now out of reach, and we have to concentrate on establishing a new life under new rules. But the good news is that while we always tend to automatically dread change (especially when the change is against our will), surprisingly, many of us find that we eventually reach a point where we are much happier now, than we were in the past. And we appreciate life more now, than we did in the past. That may be difficult to understand now, but hopefully you'll see what I mean at some point in the future, after you get your life back.
As one of the world's foremost philosophers (Gabes) would say, we have to embrace the disease, because it is now an integral part of our life, for better or for worse, and the sooner we come to terms with it, the sooner we are able to get on with the task of getting our life back. Yes, there is definitely life after MC, and that life is as enjoyable as we choose to make it.
Tex
Though microscopic colitis is considered by the medical community to be a "benign" disease (meaning that it does not normally lead to a fatal outcome), it is in fact, a very complex disease, with life-altering consequences. Controlling the symptoms of MC is by no means easy, but it is doable, with or without medical intervention. Living with the disease is sort of like trying to get all of our ducks in a row, at the same time, and keeping them in line, against all odds. If even one of them is out of line, we tend to have symptoms.
It’s interesting to note that based on the diverse backgrounds of all of the members of this discussion board, we do not appear to be simply a cross-section of the general population. Instead, the demographics suggest that we tend to be perfectionists, overachievers, and “control freaks”. What does this imply? To me it suggests a primary reason why stress appears to be a dominant factor in our development of the disease. And after we suddenly discover that we are no longer in complete control of every aspect of our life, we tend to panic and/or become depressed, as our stress level is even further amplified.
Virtually all of us seem to go through that stage, before we learn to shift down a gear or 2, and we begin to take life a day at a time (or an hour at a time, if necessary). We certainly don't just stop doing everything, but we find that life is a lot easier if we cut ourselves some slack, and we stop trying to live up to the high standards that we may have set for ourselves prior to MC. IOW, we learn to be underachievers, and the goal of perfection in everything we do drops off our radar. We learn to control the parts of our life that we can control, and we do our best to stop worrying about the parts over which we have no control. We learn to just ride out the storm, and look forward to the things that we will do after we get our life back, and we just go with the flow until we reach that point. And we will reach that point, if we are willing to take control of our treatment program, and do what we have to do to heal our inflammed digestive system.
So we strive to eschew perfection, and tip-toe around stress, because clearly, they are not our friends. And guess what? As our stress level goes way down, and our treatment program has time to work, our symptoms soon begin to fade.
MC changes the rules of the game. That doesn't mean that we have to let it completely control our life, but it does mean that we have to accept it, and respect it (something that is very difficult to do at first, because we despise the disease, and it's tough to respect something that we despise), and it means that we have to develop a plan for reorganizing our life around it. Developing a reorganization plan doesn't have to be done immediately of course, because it will come naturally, as we slowly get our health back and continue to heal.
But worrying about all that now, and worrying about what others are doing, and what we would like to be doing (but are unable to do, at the moment) is counterproductive, and can only increase our stress level. And more stress is the last thing we need, because stress is the culprit that struck the match that lit the fire that ignited the inflammation in our gut in the first place, and initiated the cascade of events that led up to our development of MC.
We have to focus on what we can do — not on what we cannot do, and likewise, we have to focus on the foods that we can still eat and enjoy, not on the foods that are now toxic to us, and are no longer a part of our lifestyle. Research shows that the genes that predispose to these food sensitivities were triggered when the genes that predispose to MC were triggered, and that’s why we have suddenly become sensitive to foods that we have been happily eating all of our life up to this point. So now we find ourselves in a very unfamiliar situation.
This is similar to moving to a different country (or even a different planet) — while we enjoyed our life in the past, that life is now out of reach, and we have to concentrate on establishing a new life under new rules. But the good news is that while we always tend to automatically dread change (especially when the change is against our will), surprisingly, many of us find that we eventually reach a point where we are much happier now, than we were in the past. And we appreciate life more now, than we did in the past. That may be difficult to understand now, but hopefully you'll see what I mean at some point in the future, after you get your life back.
As one of the world's foremost philosophers (Gabes) would say, we have to embrace the disease, because it is now an integral part of our life, for better or for worse, and the sooner we come to terms with it, the sooner we are able to get on with the task of getting our life back. Yes, there is definitely life after MC, and that life is as enjoyable as we choose to make it.
Tex
