Hello!

Hi, there!

I suppose that, since this is my first post, I should give a little backstory.

Right! Let's get to it, then, shall we?

My name is Jamie Greenhut. Currently 18 years of age, currently studying at Savannah College of Art and Design in beautiful Savannah, Georgia. Also currently, a survivor of a lovely little disease called Ulcerative Colitis. Believe me, not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. Its sister disease, Crohn's? Yeah, it isn't that much of a charmer, either.

I was diagnosed with UC around the age of 13-14, after many years of symptoms and stomachaches and plenty of day of school missed. For the most part, at that time, my disease was mild and I only had to make a few minor adjustments to my lifestyle. A few different kinds of medication here, some diet changes there, and I was living quite comfortably with UC for a good year or so. Unfortunately, things began to go downhill over the next few years. More medication, more diet changes until my life slowly turned into 12 pills in the morning, 12 at night, and hardly anything but plain chicken and bland white rice to eat. Not the greatest way to live, but I made the most of it.

That is, until around January of 2011. I began to spiral even further downward and began experiencing worse flare-ups than ever before, but I did my best to soldier on. My parents nearly canceled a trip because of the pain I was in, but I told them to go - I'd be staying with my grandmother and her boyfriend, and it was most likely dehydration. I was told to drink Ensure and water, water, water until I started to feel better. Of course, that didn't happen.

The next morning, I was hospitalized. Family and friends stayed with me until my parents returned from their trip that evening. What I thought was going to be an over-night visit turned into two nights. Then three. Soon enough, I had my own room at the West Boca Medical Center and it didn't look like I'd be getting out too quickly. I'd taken a turn for the worst, and this time my body didn't seem to be able to fight back.

A few IVs, blood transfusions, multiple tests, two doses of Remicaid, some steroids, and a PICC line later and West Boca blurred into the Weston Cleveland Clinic. I hadn't eaten in three weeks. I could hardly remember what 'normal' was. It felt like ages that I'd been stuck in a bed when we finally decided that surgery was the only way I could go from here.

And I did.

Three surgeries. The first one, to remove my entire colon and let my body rest. Also, to create a stoma/ostomy bag, which I would have until my final take-down surgery. The second, to create the J-pouch - my new imitation colon, made out of my small intestine. And finally, the take-down, in which the ostomy bag was taken off, the stoma closed, and the J-pouch connected.

There are many more, many more details than that. I could go on for years describing exactly how I got through it, what medications I was on, what doctors I had. But then again, this is just an introduction!

I didn't have any friends who had gone through anything like this. I didn't know any teenagers I could talk to about getting through the hospital, surviving my disease, or surgery. Somehow, I made it through.

Long story short, I'm here to help. Anybody suffering from Ulcerative Colitis or Crohns disease. Anybody considering surgery. Anybody wondering what sort of foods they should stop eating. Anybody wanting to know how to deal with having an ostomy bag. Basically, I'm here for anybody and everybody.

I'm here to help and to let people of all ages know, that you can do this.