JenLynnArt

In late August of 2021, I revisited the hospital with a terrible Colitis flare. The pain was excruciating along the top of my gut and down the left side of my abdomen. The CT revealed inflammation not often seen with Lymphocytic Colitis, they called it Pancolitis; a term I wasn’t familiar with. Pancolitis is a type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that affects the entire large intestine, whereas Lymphocytic Colitis, which is my diagnosis, is characterized by an abnormally high density of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) in your intestinal lining that causes chronic inflammation in the colon.

A flare usually comes out of nowhere and results in severe consistent watery diarrhea, painful cramps, and the inability to eat/drink much because even water hurts resulting in dehydration. This is usually when I get to visit the hospital. I was released after a couple of days and followed up with my GI doc. He felt that I may have gotten some sort of intestinal bug that was going around that triggered the flair. I’m pretty used to this shit by now. So, in the words of the immortal Katherine Hepburn,