Time For You to Learn More About Me.

I've been really thinking today, and I think it's time that I shared something about my life that not a lot of people know. I won't give many details, but it's about a sickness that I've had to deal with for thirteen years.

I have a disease called ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammation of the colon. It bleeds, can develop polyps easily, has difficult side effects, and also increases the risk of cancer. For the majority of my life I have been blessed to be fairly healthy. Sometimes though, I would have flare-ups resulting in embarrassing and difficult consequences. However, I never really thought much of this. I just took it in stride and moved on. No big deal. I never really understood the seriousness of my condition until this morning, when I had my yearly colonoscopy.

It's difficult for me to talk about these things, but please bear with me. The way my doctor described my condition was that it's like someone took sandpaper to my colon and messed it up. It looks terrible (trust me, it does. I saw the pictures from the procedure). He talked about how surprised he was that I've been able to hold up so well given my circumstances and my condition.

I've never had huge problems with this disease before. For a couple years I was really close to remission, but now it's back and more active than ever. I am not telling you all these things in order to gain any pity of any kind, but rather to ask you for prayer. It's really difficult for me to ask this, because I want to be normal. I want to lead a normal life apart from any disease. But here's the truth: I can't. I can be fairly normal, but I am always going to have this to deal with.

I'm continuing on my regular medication for the next 2 1/2 months, and then I have to get blood tests during spring break and meet with my doctor to see if anything else needs to be done.

I don't like asking for prayer for things like this - I feel like I should be able to handle it. But the truth is that I need prayerful support from my brothers and sisters in Christ. If you would be willing to do that, I would be more than grateful. Thank you to all of you who have supported me and will continue to support me. It's a huge encouragement.

I'm grateful to God to be as healthy as I am. It definitely could be a lot worse. God is good, and I know that His grace is sufficient for me. He gave me this to deal with for a reason, and even though I don't know what it is, I know that it is for my ultimate good and His ultimate glory. God is truly showing me that in my weakness, He is truly strong.