It appears that my joint inflammation is still being caused by my ulcerative colitis, however weird that may be. This all seems to be gradually improving with the Enytvio infusions, the new med I’m on, but one of the big issues I keep intermittently having is difficulty breathing, mostly upon exertion. This is obviously not great for my attempts at training. My GI doc says he thinks it's from inflammation around my lungs related to the UC. The Functional Doctor I've been working with says he thinks it's due to my anemia and my body struggling to get more oxygen to my organs.

Last week I finally went to my GP to hopefully rule out pulmonary edema, since my symptoms seemed to potentially match that. The PA did a chest X-Ray and immediately informed me that my heart was "very large" as she said and my lungs "look like I have COPD." They called me the next day to inform me that I have bilateral pleural effusion (a build up of fluid in the area between the layers of tissue that line the lungs and the chest cavity). This all scared me more than any of the UC issues ever did.

My first thought was to question myself and think:

Have the years of heavy training increased the size of my heart due to the extreme temporary increases in blood pressure? Have I shortened my lifespan because of this? Would it be worth it if I had?

At one point I wouldn’t have cared, but the older I get, the more I do.

Of course I started doing plenty of my own research to self diagnose, which the doctors always love. From what I found it seems that what I most likely have is pericarditis or pericardial effusion (inflammation or fluid build up in the pericardium, two thin layers of a sac-like tissue that surrounds the heart). This is often caused by autoimmune diseases since they can cause inflammation anywhere. It is also often mistaken for an enlarged heart in X-rays.

I had my appointment with the Cardiologist today. They immediately performed an EKG and took my vitals. When we met with the doctor he was very down to earth and explained that he wanted to do an echocardiogram/ultrasound to get a better idea of what was going on. He listened to my lungs and said that he didn’t think there was any fluid in them. He also said that he didn’t want to give me any hypotheticals until he knew exactly what was going on, which I appreciate. On our way out he informed me that my EKG was normal which is reassuring.

This seems to be never ending. My ultrasound is scheduled for tomorrow. I decided to take this week off training until I had a clear answer on this issue. I’ll keep you updated.