Ulcerative Colitis & Renting an Apartment: Five Key Factors to Consider

I have ulcerative colitis and I live in an apartment. When I got my first apartment I made about every mistake there is to make with respect to apartment living.

I found there are five key words when considering apartment living and one has ulcerative colitis. They are "time", "location", "transportation", "height" and "bathrooms".

When I first got an apartment I gave no thought at all to my work versus my home. I had a long way to travel. A lot of time lapsed from my job to my apartment and this was a problem if I had any type of a flare or any type of bowel problem with respect to my ulcerative colitis. Since there was a great distance to travel to get home there were many more things that could happen such as traffic jams or street repair. Further, since I was an ulcerative colitis sufferer, if I was alright when I left work, there was always something that could start on the way.

Closely related to that is the location of the apartment. Is it in a residential section or a somewhat "commercialized" section of town? I found that I mistakenly got into an apartment that was not near any type of commercial transportation. In the event that the weather was too bad to drive or, I wasn't feeling well enough to drive there was no way I could take any kind of commercial transportation home. Further, once again, since I lived a long way from home, a bus ride could be too much for me to take if I was having an ulcerative flare.

With my first apartment I had a much older car so I had to rely on commercial transportation more and that has got to be a consideration with respect to where I lived, but, I opted to live too far away and often had a problem

In the first apartment I had one bathroom. That may seem like no big deal, but, when I was really having bowel problems, running back and forth among several rooms truly wore me out. With ulcerative colitis I should have known and planned for much more convenience.

Finally my first apartment was on the fourth floor and there was no elevator so I had to climb the stairs and when I was cramping that was no easy task. So, maybe I should add a sixth "key word"; that key word would be "elevator". In any event, I had no business as an ulcerative colitis sufferer living on an upper floor.

The first time that I had an apartment I was very young and single. Now, with the kids raised and out, my wife and I have reverted to apartment living and using all my mistakes we got the following apartment.

I still do work but I work out away from the city so we got an apartment that is on a direct route from work to home. It takes about five minutes to drive and, in a worst case scenario a taxi is not too expensive. (A taxi was not an option with my first apartment).

Our apartment is on a direct bus route which only takes about ten minutes as long as I know when to go out and catch the bus. In fact, when I'm feeling alright I often take the bus to save on fuel money. In any scenario it is easier to get home because the distance is so short even with an ulcerative colitis flare I've got a fighting chance.

The transportation problem has pretty much taken care of itself since I have a better car and my wife can also drive me to work and pick me up but, if I had an old car, being on a bus route and being so much closer to home would have solved the problem anyway.

My current apartment has two bathrooms. One of the bathrooms is in the bedroom. When I'm having an ulcerative colitis problem it makes things much easier, because I don't have to go running all over the apartment which is terribly uncomfortable.

Finally, our apartment building still has no elevator. I don't care. I live on the first floor. As soon as I am home I am "in the door"; there are no stairs to climb.

I found at an early age that learning to live in an apartment with ulcerative colitis took some planning and forethought. I didn't get it right the first time, but I did the "second time around".

I would make one more small observation and that is initially I wasn't careful about the cost of the apartment and that made me worry which made me cramp.

My wife and I planned our current apartment cost more carefully and as a result I don't have near the problems with my ulcerative colitis from that source.

I have found that while it seemed like a monumental task to take care of my illness and still have a great and very functional apartment, it really was not that hard.