Embedded Files
It's the post we've all been waiting for. Click the button to find out how my expedition to Everest actually went...
What is IBD?
What is IBD?
The first question I usually get asked is what is IBD, with most people confusing it for IBS! So, if it's not irritable bowel syndrome, what is it?
In a nutshell, IBD relates to Inflammatory Bowel Disease which is an umbrella term for two life-long autoimmune conditions:
- Ulcerative Colitis (what I have); and
- Crohn's Disease
(although there is Microscopic Colitis too).
There are thought to be 300,000 sufferers in the UK alone, but it is largely a hidden disease, and one that causes stigma, fear and isolation – it’s thought that many people with the condition go undiagnosed and suffer in silence.
We still don't know what causes it, but people often get diagnosed in their 20s and 30s, with there being no genetic predisposition to either disease - they can literally come out of nowhere.
As IBD would suggest, both diseases cause inflammation in the gut, with Ulcerative Colitis typically affecting the large intestine and colon, causing internal wall ulcers, with Crohn's disease often affecting the small intestine, but which can affect anywhere from your mouth to your bum and can cause perforations through the gut wall itself.
Symptoms include:
- diarrhoea - and an urgency to need the toilet without warning
- severe fatigue - some days it is hard just to get out of bed, you feel like you have weights around your ankles
- generally feeling shitty - feverish etc
- lack of appetite
- weight loss and anaemia
- and, as a final kick in the nuts, mouth ulcers
Both diseases can in turn lead to numerous complications, including surgery to remove sections of the gut and can lead to stoma bags having to be fitted etc. Sufferers typically go through waves where their symptoms are in remission (being controlled by drugs) and periods where their symptoms randomly flare up.
It can also have a significant impact on work and relationships, which is why awareness is so important.
On that front, one of the reasons I support Crohn's & Colitis UK is the work they do on raising awareness both for sufferers of IBD and others generally, producing a series of publications to help people cope with and support sufferers with the disease.
My IBD
My IBD
As I said previously, I have Ulcerative Colitis.
Personally, I think I am one of the luckier sufferers on the spectrum, with my disease, to date, being controlled by taking 2 tablets a day.
That being said, that does not mean that I am symptom free, with random bouts of severe fatigue being one of the biggest things I have to contend with and try and push through (not always ideal on a mountain, or even just trying to get up to go to work or train). I also occasionally get sharp, knife-like pains in my stomach, which can be connected to what I've eaten, although so far I haven't really noticed a pattern with it in this respect.
In the run up to my diagnosis, however, I was effectively housebound for over a month, as I started to need the toilet more and more frequently and in turn started to get weaker. It took 12 weeks for the NHS to diagnose me and get me started on medication and in that time I went from being someone who would run 3 and a half hour marathons or take part in ultra marathon obstacle events, to being unable to leave the flat to go to the gym or to even manage a 1km run. It has, therefore, been a long road to recovery to regain my fitness and keep this "Everest by 2020" dream on track.
It's also worth mentioning my diet. Whilst I've been told that I can effectively eat what I want, but to try and consume a balanced and healthy diet (keeping note of any foods which may trigger my symptoms), I have, since my diagnosis, adopted a predominantly vegetarian diet, eating white meat no more than 2 times a week (though in reality I eat less) and red meat no more than once a fortnight.
Thankfully I quite like cooking, so have been able to get along with this change and whilst I'm sure that the meds are unquestionably the primary factor in helping to control my disease, I do think the diet has helped not to aggravate my condition unnecessarily.
In terms of managing it on the mountain and also during training, the first thing I'd say is you need to listen to your body, but not be dictated by it. I personally have found, particularly with fatigue, that a lot of it is in the mind and that you can push through it in many cases, but equally have to accept some days that you just don't have the energy.
I've also found that during exercise itself, I have very rarely, if ever, had any Colitis symptoms, which I think is something that a number of sufferers have said - so keeping active seems to be a good thing!
Finally, being well prepared also helps. That means taking twice as much medication to ensure you have a back-up supply, having antibiotics and a lower threshold for taking them for stomach bugs and should a flare occur on the side of a mountain, having steroids to quickly bring it under control so that you can get down safely and back to care.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse