“I first made an appointment with my PCP, but she left on maternity leave and my conditions got worse, so I scheduled an appointment to go to urgent care. The doctor on duty was fresh out of medical school and working with a more experienced doctor but neither could determine what was wrong with me and even started trying to find connections to unrelated health conditions from the distant past. Even though they’d drawn blood and saw that my blood levels had dropped so drastically that I had become anemic, the best they could give me was a referral to see the gastroenterologist in that same hospital — in more than a month.”
Everyone’s initial symptoms with IBD varies, but you know when something is different with your body. For Reynolds, he began to lose weight. “Over the course of a calendar year, I lost more than 50 pounds and went down two sizes in most clothes. This, coincidentally, happened at the same time when I started working out regularly and cooking more, but the weight loss still seemed extreme. It wasn’t until I felt strong stomach pains for days at a time that I chose to speak to a doctor.”
There have been historic issues with healthcare providers not believing Black people when they tell doctors of their symptoms. It was once believed that Black people couldn’t get ulcerative colitis.
“My symptoms continued to get worse to the point where I was afraid to eat or was going to the bathroom at work every hour simply as a precaution. Thankfully, someone close to me also has some gastrointestinal issues and recommended a private practice doctor named Dr. Julia Dyer. She saw my lab results and heard my symptoms and immediately jumped into action and scheduled me for a colonoscopy just a few days later. She confirmed that I have ulcerative colitis, as she expected.”
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Although this is a chronic disease and cannot be cured, the goal for doctors is to bring the disease into remission (a long-term state where there are no symptoms).
AVOID FLAREUPS
The best way to remain in remission is to avoid anything that will cause a flareup (reoccurrence of active symptoms). Some factors that may cause a flareup:
■ Food (certain foods trigger symptoms, know yours)
■ Smoking
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■ Missing IBD medications or taking the incorrect dose
■ Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
■ Antibiotics
■ Stress
