A 33-year-old woman has spoken of six years of devastating symptoms from swollen joints and stomach pain to chronic fatigue and passing blood whenever she went to the bathroom. And she has said she sometimes needs to use the bathroom 30 times a day.
At first Catherine Hopkins felt too embarrassed to tell doctors about her symptoms. But she eventually caught help and after numerous assessments, she was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis, reports MEN. Ulcerative colitis is a type of inflammatory bowel disease which can cause frequent diarrhoea, stomach aches and needing to go to the toilet a lot. The incurable disease is lifelong and can have a significant negative impact on the quality of life.
“I noticed there was a lot of pain in my left side, especially when I was going to the toilet,” Catherine, known as Cat, said. “Quite a lot of blood started to come out. I was pretty embarrassed so I hid it for about a year but it got progressively worse.
