Originally published 12:00 a.m., January 11, 2011 Updated 10:23 a.m., January 11, 2011
At one point in her 20s, Kimberly Tucker-Bowman thought she’d never enjoy a normal life, such as having a full-time job, getting married or traveling.
The James Island resident, 34, has ulcerative colitis, a chronic, autoimmune disease that affects the colon or large intestine. the disease, which along with Crohn’s is under the umbrella of irritable bowel disease, can cause an array of symptoms, including bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping, rectal pain, the constant urge to use the bathroom and/or inability to do so, pain, fatigue, dehydration and significant weight loss.
If left untreated, the colon may be damaged, be prone to cancer and/or need to be removed.
Tucker-Bowman’s symptoms began in the spring of 2003. For eight months, she was using the bathroom 25 or more times a day and was withering away. Months of scary medical scenarios passed before she even heard about ulcerative colitis.
“I was a healthy, productive 27-year-old living her life,” recalls Tucker-Bowman, adding that the symptoms became so severe that she couldn’t work. “It took a three-week hospitalization at Duke for me to be diagnosed.”
Relief, however, didn’t come until the summer of 2004 when she began treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina with a intravenous drug called Infliximab, known by its trade name Remicade, that is used to treat several autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis. like others, Tucker-Bowman must get ongoing treatments every six to eight weeks, but she doesn’t mind.
“It (the treatment) has given me my life back. until then, I wasn’t living. I was wasting away,” she says.
In February, Tucker, who works for an event rental company, did what she once thought would never be possible. she got married and honeymooned in England.
She gives large credit to Merriman Dowdle, a physician’s assistant at MUSC’s department of gastroenterology & hepatology, for working with her on fine-tuning her treatments.
On a daily basis, Dowdle sees the toll the disease takes on patients as well as their loved ones.
“This disease affects everyone in their (the patient’s) life,” says Dowdle. “There have been divorces over it because some spouses just can’t cope with it.”
The difficulty often involves the need to use the bathroom up to 30 times a day as well as painful cramping and fatigue.
Dowdle says because it’s an “intimate disease,” often involving diarrhea, many don’t want to talk about it, and that can hinder diagnosis. But she added the problem doesn’t just lie with patients, but doctors who may not have it on their radar screen and, therefore, not order tests for it.
“The earlier the diagnosis, the better because once scarring takes place (in the intestines), the intestines don’t work as well,” says Dowdle.
While the lack of communication may be one factor in delaying diagnosis, another factor is that the disease affects everyone differently, and some may have a flare-up once and not experience problems again for months or even years, says Dowdle.
Because of the nature of the treatment, Dowdle and patients become close. she often gets invited to their weddings and baptisms.
Both she and Tucker-Bowman also are committed advocates for treating the disease.
This past year, Tucker-Bowman joined forces with the Voices of Ulcerative Colitis, a group of 1,000 patients — including former “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek, whose mother has it — who share their experiences in their various communities in an effort to help others.
“What I try to emphasize is that there are resources out and that you can get treated,” says Tucker-Bowman.
For more info: voicesofuc.com
Reach David Quick at 937-5516.
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