My name is Dennis Rued.

I am 27 years old.

I am Imperfectly Perfect.

The year was 2005, and I was 21 years old.  I was the guy that made friends with everyone, the life of the party. This is when I first started showing signs of the disease that would all but take over my life. I kept shrugging it off, telling myself that it was something I ate; being too stubborn to admit something was wrong. It wasn’t until early June 2006 - shortly after I met my future ex-wife, who was at first accepting of my condition. She was actually the one that forced my stubborn self up to the emergency room, because that’s when the disease reared its ugly head, and I would be diagnosed 2 weeks later.

On June 21, 2006, I was diagnosed Ulcerative Colitis(UC), a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease(IBD) that affects the large intestine. There is no cure for the disease , and rates of success for the many different treatments vary. The cause is still unknown, as the disease is relatively young, and it only occurs in 35-100 people out of every 100,000 in the US; or less than .1%. The doctors that diagnosed me informed me that I have an increased risk of colon cancer. And while it’s only a 10% increase, the idea is still very scary to me.

Even though it isn’t a fatal disease, it limits you in so many ways. For example, always having to know where every single bathroom is whenever you go anywhere, not being able to go for a walk in the park, or not being able to make a 20 minute drive home without having to use a bathroom. My life hasn’t been the same since developing the disease. Over the past 5 years, I have lost friends, my wife, and a job due to this disease.

I have tried numerous drugs, and even a trial drug to get it under control. Some would work for a little while, others wouldn’t work at all, and a couple actually made things worse. My wife, and my job were the only things keeping me focused at the time. Both were very supportive for a time but would ultimately get rid of me because they couldn’t deal with what I have. Whether it would be spending half the time of “a night out” in the bathroom, or needing to run to use the bathroom several times during a shift at work. During my own wedding, I spent a good hour in the bathroom. But in both my marriage, and job, when things fell apart, and when I felt like all hope was lost, my family has been there to support me.

 I cannot quantify how much family means to me. Over the past 5 years, I have spent a total of 7 or 8 weeks in the hospital. Twice I was in there for a 2 week stretch. It wasn’t until after my last 2 week hospital stay in June 2010 that I had any prolonged luck with treatment of the disease. Up until just recently, the second week of August 2011, I had been perfectly healthy, and finally starting to get back to my true self - ya know, the guy that‘s the life of the party. But that’s when the medication I was on stopped working, and I got sick again. So now, it’s back to the drawing board, and it is extremely frustrating and borderline depressing. Knowing that I will always have my family and good friends to lean on in times of need is what keeps me from getting too sad. Another thing that keeps me going and upbeat is hope. I have hope because I know that I was just healthy for an extended period of time, and that I can get back there again. How my disease works is that there are periods of remission, followed by flare-ups. So I don’t let myself get too down. I know that it will even out.

What I’ve learned from my struggle with my disease so far is that you can’t take anything for granted, whether it be people, time, or general health. Also, you can’t let a disease slow you down, or keep you down. I’ve learned to pull myself up by the bootstraps, and to never stop believing that it WILL get better. For all of those same reasons, I’d have to say it was a blessing in disguise. That is my silver lining. My advice to anyone going through any type of adversity that tests your character and sanity, is to know that no matter how bleak things look right now, you can never give in to sadness and negativity. This will only make the body more ill. Just live your life and be happy. Keep people around you that can accept you for you, along with everything that’s going on in your life - good or bad. Do this, and you will always be happy. The same advice can be utilized even if nothing ails you.

 Before visiting ImperfectlyPerfect.Org , and reading Jaime Lynn’s story, I never would've written about what I've been through, let alone written it somewhere for all to see. But the way her story touched me, and made me re-evaluate a lot of things in my life made me realize that if my story, or even if it's one of many on here, can inspire someone to realize that tomorrow is worth living, then it's worth posting on a million sites. That is why I'm sharing my story. I love what Jaime stands for. I want to let anyone reading this know that there are people out there that can relate to you, and that want to hear about your struggles - people that have genuine compassion for you.

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