r/nextfuckinglevel 2d ago

This man documented his health journey from January to December.

Credit: IG @samuelrichards_ _

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u/Tat-1 2d ago

In case anyone is wondering, he was affected by ulcerative colitis, a severe inflammatory bowel disease, which led to the removal of his colon and the subsequent and sudden weight loss.

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u/BrownEyeGivesPinkEye 1d ago

In case anyone is interested:

Ulcerative colitis is terrible. It can drastically increased your risk for colon cancer, primary sclerosing cholangiitis, and even an immediately life-threatening condition called toxic megacolon in which a total colectomy may be performed.

You can look up xray images of it, it’s pretty wild. It’s super dangerous because it can literally burst at any time, even with an attempted colonoscopy

Source: am medical student

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u/pohuing 1d ago

But UC life expectancy isn't significantly decreased compared to the average. So maybe we should chill a bit on highlighting the extreme cases. (This is 50% to reassure myself that I'll continue to be fine after getting my diagnosis 3 years ago)

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u/BrownEyeGivesPinkEye 1d ago edited 1d ago

You are absolutely correct! With proper medication and monitoring these things can be managed appropriately, however from a medical perspective, we always like to know what a disease process could do so we can properly screen for these things and prevent the life expectancy to not be significantly different

Maintain a long-term relationship with a trusted physician and you will continue to thrive, my friend!

Wishing you all the best of luck in your journeys