Gracie Cappelle should have been looking forward to her first year at the Texas State University.
Instead, she took a collision colitis (UC) course.
“I had never heard of ulcerative colitis,” Cappelle, 19, told The Post. “It took me a really long time to understand what was going on inside my body.”
Cappelle was diagnosed with chronic illness in the summer of 2024. She spent her first year eliminating milk and fat foods from her diet – not easy as a college student – in the hope of managing her symptoms as she has no cure for UC.
About a million Americans are believed to have UC, the most common type of inflammatory intestinal disease. Experts are not exactly sure what causes the condition, but they think it is about abnormal immune system reactions.
Inflammation and ulcers develop in the colon and rectum lining, often causing stomach pain, bloody diarrhea and frequent bowel movements. Crohn’s disease is similar, but can affect any part of the GI tract.
UC is most often diagnosed in people 15 to 30 years old. Adults between 50 and 70 are also at higher risk.
Cappelle didn’t immediately realize that something was wrong. Occasionally she noticed blood on her bench, but realized it was not a big deal.
“At first it wasn’t bad,” Cappelle recalled. “I came it several times, and the only two things that would come out were internal hemorrhoids or colon cancer. And I was like, ‘ok, well, I have no colon cancer, so it’s probably just internal hemorrhoids.’ So I didn’t worry about it. “
The bleeding eventually intensified to the point where it was happening every day. A colonoscopy was planned for two weeks before leaving for college.
“I literally came out of my coloscopy, and my doctor told me I had [UC]”Cappelle said.
She had to fix her diet immediately.
Individual triggers change, but UC patients tend to experience high -fat foods, spicy foods and foods rich in insoluble fiber.
Alcohol, caffeine drinks and sugar drinks are often not non-nos.
Before diagnosing it, Cappelle usually had yogurt for breakfast, a sandwich with cheez-Its for lunch and turkey on the ground, chicken or steak with potatoes or rice for dinner-or fast food.
“I definitely didn’t eat well,” she admitted. “If I would like [Raising] Canes or Chick-Fil-A, if I would like fast food, I would go to get fast food. “
She first accessed the spicy foods, including her hot cheetos her flain ‘hot cheetos and hot sauce, soda and gluten.
Unfortunately, her stomach pain did not go right away.
“I was trying to eat whole food, but it is definitely difficult, especially being a first student in college,” Cappelle said. “You are living in a sleep, so you really don’t have a kitchen.”
She came home in the Greater Houston area in December, cutting milk and alcohol from her diet and increasing her exercise routine.
She also began working with a therapist and gets infusions of entyvio, prescription medication aimed at intestinal inflammation.
Her stomach pain and bloody stool calmed down, and she plans to return to the Texas state in August.
“I think it will be easy this next year, because I will have an apartment and my kitchen,” Cappelle said.
“Hard hard because you can’t necessarily eat what everyone else is eating. But for me, personal, it’s not worth eating, knowing what can happen if I eat like that.”
She is sharing her journey to Tiktok, hoping to connect with people who face the same challenges.
“The hardest part for me [is] Feeling so alone, ”Cappelle said.
“I really just want to put the message there, you are not just in that, and you can get better, and you will get better.”
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Image Source : nypost.com