"Oscar the Pouch"
Here's a story about a 26-year-old husband, father, teacher and coach. I had symptoms like bloating, gas, 20 visits to the toilet in one day, nausea, loss of appetite, dehydration and I lost 25 pounds in 45 days.

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) after having a colonoscopy. Shortly after, I was hospitalized for two weeks and lost more than 20 pounds. Our family used humor to cope with the struggles of UC; humor like giving me the nickname semi-colon, and giving me a statue of a man thinking on a toilet, the slogan reads, "Wherever I go; I think of you."

Well, my condition worsened. Just several weeks later we made a decision to have my colon removed and then I had to live with an external bag, an ileostomy. With my new bag came, of course, more funny names. We referred to my bag as "Oscar the ostomy," and my 1½ year-old daughter called it "Oscar the pouch." My sister brought the family support together once again by making all 15 family members a semi-colon shirt. On the back of my shirt had the sayings, "Oscar the pouch," "Paper or plastic" and "It's in the bag baby!" The support made a world of difference.

I had my second and final surgery which formed a J-pouch and reversed my ileostomy. The humor and positive attitudes helped me get through the days living with the pouch. After the second surgery, we all said good-bye to Oscar and humorously made ornaments out of them.

Thanks to my family for all their love and humor to help me overcome UC.