Does your disease own you?

Does your disease own you?

For the longest time I let Crohn’s Disease take over my life, I probably didn’t have any choice at that time because I was really sick. Then I got my operation and the sick feeling just disappeared. At the moment I thought I was cured because my colon was gone. The doctors thought I had Ulcerative Colitis. My new friend was my ostomy. I was excited and I could start my life over. For five years there was no medication and I was filing like a queen.

That did change when I started to have problems with my ostomy. It was decided that the rest of the operations should take place. Said and done, a pelvic reservoir was created and linked to what was left of the rectum. In that procedure it was discovered that I had been misdiagnosed, I had Crohn’s Disease.

My whole world collapsed. First I got angry, then sad, after that I felt hopeless and my disease owned me. I didn’t understand that at first but then I started to accept the situation and I slowly got my life back, my family helped out a lot. My daughter was around 10 years old at the time and we had just got a new puppy.

I don’t think I am alone with this feeling when Crohn’s Disease hits you for the first time and life is changing direction without asking you. So what do you do at that moment? Do you let the disease own you or do you kick your sickness in the as?

You do have a choice when that happens.

It’s ok to just brake down for a while, let the medications heal you as much as they can and let your feelings come. Just don’t stay in this. There is a time to move on and find a new way in life. Getting Crohn’s Disease is not the end of life. There are a lot of things you can do to have a good life even with a disease like this.

How can you move on?

I found out that stress is the one thing that starts my disease to get worse more than anything else. What I eat has got an impact in how active my disease is too. I think I am one of the lucky ones though. I can work full time, my daughter are all grown up and have her own son. My husband has always been a great support, taking care of me when Crohn’s disease takes the lead in my life. That still happens now and then, I often don’t see it coming before it’s too late. My husband can see the signs before I do and he always tells me and I get annoyed every time, I usually don’t accept that in the beginning. Then Crohn’s don’t give me any choice and I have to surrender and back off for a while.

Most people would think that I know my disease after so many years (sense September 1998) and I do. I just ignore it sometimes, recently to often as it seems. It’s hard to always listen to your body when life is full of so many fun things and so much to do.

Have you just been diagnosed or have you had Crohn’s Disease for some time? Do you have someone to talk to, someone who can support you when your sickness hits you in the head (or stomach)?

If you don’t have anyone to talk to, you can always contact me, and hopefully I can help you out with advice or just some support. I will start with sharing my food-files again. Feel free to download them and use them as you wish.

See yaaa next time