and write about my own experience with the disease. I haven’t exactly lived an exciting
life, so I figured it was the most interesting thing I could write about. I continued writing
short stories about my life with UC and compiled
them in a fourth-year course called Making a
Book, in which students get to issue their work
through a publishing house called Life Rattle
Press. I wanted the book to give people who had
never heard of ulcerative colitis an idea of what
living with the disease is like; something more
than a list of the symptoms. Three Tablets Twice
Daily was published in 2011. I came up with the
title based on the number of 5-ASA pills I took to
treat my UC.
I wouldn’t say that writing helped me heal, but it
did help me cope. It’s difficult to talk to people
who don’t know what living with an IBD is like. Telling someone you soiled your pants
is not only embarrassing, it doesn’t adequately convey all the difficulties that come
with the disease: pain, worry, social isolation, and so on. Writing gave me a chance to
really let out all the feelings of anger and frustration and sadness that I had a hard time
communicating with the oral word.
I think most people have never heard of Crohn’s or colitis. I had never heard of either
until I started showing symptoms. So I wanted the book to introduce IBDs to people
who had never heard of them, and not in the way that a pamphlet would. Most of the
pamphlets I’ve read tend to gloss over
just how serious IBDs can be, and they
fail to illustrate what it’s actually like to
live with the disease. I figured stories
about living with UC would give readers
a better understanding of the disease
and the toll it can take on people.
All the stories in the book are my own,
and they’re all non-fiction and all of the
research and writing and editing and
revising combined took about a year.”
Rasheed has even helped other
members of his family in discovering
and accepting their diagnosis. “A relative of mine who has UC only disclosed her
condition to me after she read my book. I guess it helped her to know that someone in
the family would really understand. Other readers have told me that the book helped
them feel as though their experiences weren’t so strange, but in fact relatable to folks
like me.”
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