Stress? What Stress?

Chronic diseases do not like stress. They react to stress like a roaring dragon reacts to a fattened sheep that obliviously wanders too close to the dragons outstretched claws. 

As the dragon devours the sheep, so does chronic disease with stress. It gobbles the stress up and then turns its voracious appetite onto the body. 

Said more simply, stress causes the symptoms of chronic diseases to be much worse, and this of course, includes ulcerative colitis.

But while this affects most chronic disease patients, it does not affect all. Apparently, stress doesn't bother my stomach.

For the most part, I'm at a point where I don't have a lot of hard stress. But two months ago, we put our house up for sale. (No stress there, right???) We had a valid offer pretty fast, but the buyers' situation was not ideal, which caused repeated delays, uncertainty, and rampant stress.

Then there was the packing, day after day after day. By three o'clock each day, I was exhausted. (But I guess that is to be expected, being in my sixties.) 

And then there was the other side, buying a house in the area where we were moving. So we were dealing with buyers and sellers, and both had some odd ideas. Even our realtors on both ends were at times stymied by the behaviors of the buyer and the seller.

Knowing that stress can trigger a flare, I was concerned how my stomach would be during this time. The last thing we needed was me running to the bathroom all day and in too much pain to pack or do anything else.

But I never had a problem. I often felt like crying and pulling out my hair, but my stomach was fine. 

We signed the closing papers on the house we were selling a few days ago. We're days away from signing the closing papers for the house we're buying. We will then start the unpacking phase, which will be busy but should be less stressful.

I am grateful and feel extremely blessed to have been able to work through this period of stress and have my stomach remain calm . . . even if the rest of me was an emotional wreck.

Past Christmas Posts 

This is the Christmas season, so I'm providing links to my previous December posts, which were actually about Christmas, unlike the one you just read:

December 2024 This Christmas? So Far So Good 

December 2023 Warm Fuzzies For Christmas!

December 2022 Christmas Too Commercial? That's Not Such a Bad Thing

Other Posts

© Colitis Senioritis 2025

Health Update, December 2025: A Strange Hiccup, But No Worries

Before I give my monthly update, I want to go back to last month for a minute.

A week after I posted the November health update, I went out to lunch. About 3 a.m. the next morning, I woke up with my stomach grumbling and growling. A half hour later, I was hit with that oh so familiar "get ready to run to the bathroom!" feeling. Sure enough, I found myself dashing to the toilet. I had straight diarrhea, but no blood or pain.

This happened three more times in the next four hours. But then I was fine the rest of the day.

However, it happened again in the wee hours the next morning. After a few days of this, I took an anti-diarrhea pill and all was well again.

I have no idea what happened. I had eaten at that restaurant many times before without any problems. I had ordered the same food. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

It has taken some time for me to come to the important realization, that my stomach is just more sensitive to things than it was before I developed ulcerative colitis. More things are simply going to cause gastrointestinal distress that is not a flare. So I wonder if there was some small thing that caused my intestines to spew everything out. Or maybe a restaurant employee passed something to me through the food. I don't know, but one of the frustrations of this condition is sometimes not knowing what is going on.

Now on to the current update!

Other than the restaurant debacle, I've been doing very well. My stool is better than it has ever been since I first became sick. My urgency has become much better. And this has all been while experiencing extra stress this last month. (You can read about it in my non-health December post.)

So all is good for now. Hopefully it will continue!

Next update: January 2026, Why Is There So Often a "However"?

Previous update: November 2025, A Short Update, But That's Good! 

All Health Updates

© Colitis Senioritis 2025