And the misdiagnosis continued...

After staying few months in my mother in law's place, we returned to chennai as I had to rejoin work. Within weeks of reaching Chennai, my symptoms resurfaced. I started having nausea and bloating, my appetite also became poor.  This time, instead of allopathy we consulted a siddha doctor. This doctor didnt tag any name to my suffering, just gave tablets according to my symptoms. I also found some improvement in my health and continued the siddha treatment as prescribed by the doctor for 6 months. In the meantime, I rejoined work in May 2010. Even though, my parents took care of my baby while I was at work, it was physically exhausting, managing work and household chores. As it happens with any new mother, my sleep patterns also became erratic. I felt something was terribly wrong with me but I kept going. In early 2011, the frequency of my washroom visits increased and I also started getting mouth ulcers. I took few days off from work and we went to my mother in law's place. Like last time, we thought some magic would happen, but my ulcers became extremely severe. We consulted a GI at a hospital in Coimbatore. After doing colonoscopy, endoscopy and an abdominal scan, the doctor identified for the first time that there are issues in my large intestine. Till date, this has been the most painful colonoscopy. The doctor couldn't proceed much because of the strictures in my large intestine even after multiple attempts. The doctor also threatened me that if I dont cooperate, he had to put me on sedation. Fearing of sedation, I beared the pain and cooperated as much as possible, he finally diagnosed the disease as ulcerative colitis. He didnt give much insight about the disease, just asked to take less spicy foods and the prescribed tablets . Eventhough I googled, I didnt understand the seriousness of the disease. I just thought it was just a higher version of ulcer and pursued the treatment..

My journey into the long and the thorny path continued...