Looking for hope from people living with PSC/Colitis
Hi everyone.
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s at 12, but had no symptoms for years. At 26, extremely low hemoglobin led to a diagnosis of stage I colon cancer, which thankfully only required surgery.
Now my follow-up colonoscopy shows my entire colon is inflamed, so my doctor thinks it may actually be colitis. (what they saw during the colonoscopy looked more typical of colitis than Crohn’s).
I’m waiting for an MR, and today I was also told I have PSC. I may need biologics for life.
I feel completely overwhelmed. I’m only 26 and it feels like I survived one serious illness just to end up with several lifelong ones.
I also have social anxiety, and I’m scared I’ll never be able to go out and drink normally again. Finding a partner was already difficult, and now I wonder who would want someone with this many health problems who could potentially die young. Maybe I should just give up on relationships too.
I’m not really sure what I want from this post. My friends are very supportive, but they haven’t had to go through even half of what I have, so I guess I just want to hear from people who actually understand. Does life eventually feel normal again? How do you cope with all of this?