The main point to understand is that in the vast majority of cases, in fact virtually all, once you have been diagnosed with colitis you have it for life (unless surgery is called for). The colitis symptoms of diarrhoea, abdominal pain, tiredness, and general discomfort may disappear after the first attack and not come back for a long time. If this is the case, count yourself one of the "lucky" ones.



The majority of sufferers tend to fall into the pattern of first attack then a period of remission (this can last for a period of months to years) before another attack. A few unfortunately have continuous symptoms that can be controlled to an extent with medication and lifestyle choices. During periods that you are in remission, your health will most likely be normal so there is no need to worry that you will never return to a good level of health once more.

At the commencement of an attack, once you have consulted a doctor for diagnosis, the only thing on your mind should be your own wellbeing. Everything else in life now comes secondary. It may well be hard to accept, even appreciate at the beginning of your first attack, but you will need all your strength and determination to enable you to get through the worst period that is coming and ensure your rehabilitation back to health is as soon as possible.

If you are to have anything like an average to a full attack, you simply won't be physically able to conduct your usual daily activities. This means that if you work, you are going to have to inform your place of work that you will not be able to attend for a period of time. Your social life outside your home will stop and even daily life in your home will have to change. Your family or other house members will have to do the jobs that you did. In fact, you should do absolutely nothing apart from concentrating on steering yourself through this illness.

There is differing experiences of this and everyone is different, but for a normal attack of colitis, you should probably be accepting to the fact that you will be off work for perhaps one month. This can differ depending on severity of the attack. Your condition will worsen for a period, then the medication that your doctor provides will slowly take its effect on the colitis and you will then benefit from a slow improvement.

Once you feel you are getting better, you will not be able to jump into your daily activities again because you will be tired and possibly rather weak. It will take time to start building yourself up because you will not have been eating as normal for a period of weeks. You will have to accept that once back at work you will not be able to immediately get into the normal routine and take on a full workload. It does take time and you should be very realistic of what you are capable of achieving to the extent that you should not be pushing yourself. You must take time to understand this rehab process or you could be heading straight back into trouble.