Over the time I've been "blessed" with Crohn's, I can't remember how many times I've been asked, "what's Crohn's?" or my personal favorite, "what's Crohn's like?". Not sure even how to answer the last one. But it got me thinking.....how does one answer the question, what is Crohn's like?
So. Here is my answer from MY perspective (as everyone's Crohn's experience is different)
A crohn-alogy if you will.
Imagine if you will, being tired, exhausted and worn out all the time. Like, if you were to run a marathon at least once...everyday. Then throw in dehydration and the constant dry mouth and thirst. Add to that the knowledge that at any minute, and I mean any minute, you can be in hospital from an intestinal block or a number of other reasons. Mix in frequent bowel movements (with the occasional loss of a pint of blood or two), ten, twenty, thirty times a day. Sometimes 10 times in an hour. Stir in abdominal pain, abscesses, fissures, fistulas, dry skin, scars, hemorrhoids, kidney stones, Iron and B12 deficiencies and a bleeding rectum. The fetal position is one of your favorite ways to lay down. Pillows are your new best friends. Fold in daily doses of pill after pill after pill and monthly liquid doses of a biologic drug slowly dripped directly into your vein that costs more than your first car......
then, and only then, will you get a sense of what ONE persons life is with Crohn's.
....what Crohn's is like.....for him.
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