Haribol,

PAMHO AGTSP

Thank you Malati Manjari mataji, first of all, for setting up this group. I
had (HAD!) ulcerative colitis for 16 years, basically all my life and only
very recently am I meeting others who have the same/similar.

I was diagnosed with colitis when I was 9 years old, and it's pretty much
all I know: a life of searching for bathrooms, cleaning up accidents, and
avoiding situations where there's a ratio of 1 bathroom per 50 people (which
unfortunately can happen quite often at big devotee programs and festivals).
I moved into the Bhaktivedanta Manor brahmacarini ashrama 2.5 years ago and
things really went downhill fast. I was already pretty sick before then, but
it quickly came to the point of being afraid of taking a five minute walk to
the goshalla because they don't have a bathroom there that I know of. And
just the anxiety of things like that would cause problems for me.

Anyway, thankfully Krsna sent me a saviour in the form of Kundlata mataji
and her husband, Haladhara prabhu, who had had 'the operation' to cure his
colitis 15 years ago in central London, when it was still experimental.
Mataji told me not to be afraid, have this operation and she would take care
of me afterwards while I recover. I had been recommended to have the
operation to take out my entire large intestine and rectum 5 years earlier
because nothing was working on me anymore. I had just had an emergency blood
transfusion and was realizing that I couldn't continue on anymore, so I took
up mataji's offer and started the ball rolling.

And today I am 6.5 weeks post-operation and doing quite well! I can eat a
lot of things I couldn't before, and for once don't feel the usual cramps,
bleeding and diarreah of colitis. I am even staying in the ashrama again,
however doing very minimal service and resting a lot still. I will have the
second part of the operation hopefully in January or February, where they
will take away 'the bag' which I have temporarily and reconnect everything
inside so I'll be closer to normal.

I think it's really great that you are finding ways to deal with IBD in a
natural way. I had also tried homeopathy, Chinese herbs and Ayurveda, but
even these doctors said they wouldn't be able to do much for me because my
whole colon was severely affected.

your servant,
Rina.