Crohns Disease and my Personal Journey
I was diagnosed with Crohns Disease at 14.
After months of enduring many symptoms including: diarrhea up to 12-15 times a day, blood loss, severe abdominal pain, lethargy, fatigue, nausea, weight loss, big dark circles under my eyes and and some offensive smells…
Mum took me to emergency when she saw how much blood I was losing each day.
And that’s where it all began… In and out of hospital, tests, scopes, drugs, fluids, weird diets and great lengths of time away from the things I loved most… Sport and school. For the rest of my teenage years. I found the internet at about age 16 (I'm not 28). I started doing my own research and found a few inspiring bloggers who were taking a holistic approach to their health. The main thing I loved about these people is that they even though they endured ill health...
They actively choose to do everything they could to live well despite their obstacles...
And so this became my mission too.
I wasn’t able to understand and control my health, though I did have the power to learn, and do what I could to keep as well as possible and still thrive and enjoy life. This became my silver lining. This experience lead me to peruse the health and science subjects at school to gain a deeper understanding of the human body. With a fascination I threw myself straight into my nursing career as soon as I could. Every day I was learning more and more about the body and medical management and I was helping myself as well as my patients.
I was doing everything I could and I was literally the perfect patient.
Everything was done, on time and I was relentlessly organised and informed. But I still got sick... and sometimes really sick. I started looking outside the drugs and treatments and went back to the blogs and personal stories. I was curious to know why… I was told to eat MacDonald’s when I fell sick (I never did though, as I intuitively knew it was not going to help me). And why I was never asked about my diet and lifestyle before I was commenced on a new treatment regime.
Let’s approach our health like a scale from Zero to Ten.
If you are a Nurse or been in hospital, you have herd of this scale in reference to pain. Zero being no pain and happy, 10 being giving birth or leg just chopped off ect. If we can relate this to my general health and well being. Zero to 3-4 would be going about my daily life with my symptoms minor and not effecting my daily routine or performance. 4-7 would be significantly out of balance, though still functioning. An example would be needing an iron transfusion that week (I can never seem to absorb any and I’m pretty much constantly on supplements). Eight to ten would be in serious need of IV medications, pain relief, colonoscopies, gastroscopes or surgery and admission to hospital. Basically unable to reduce the inflammation with rest and oral medications… Out of my control.
My philosophy on health and well being.
The medical system has saved my life on many occasions, where my health was in desperate need of intervention. Though the biggest thing I have learnt is that the harder I work on my “Wellness” when I am well, the better I feel and the quicker I bounce back from a relapse. When I was losing blood from my insides, I feared almost every food group out of pain and nausea and I looked 6 months pregnant when I wasn't. So;
I had good motivation to go to great lengths, just to live a normal life.
And I decided I would do what I could. I started trying different methods to get more healthy food in; green smoothies and juices, better protein sources, gluten free ect. I rested up when I needed to, and also took up exercising to live well with yoga and running. I significantly reduced the late nights, the drinking and processed take away foods that was part of late teens early twenties lifestyle.
Then I wanted to make up for what I lost.
One of the worst moments was watching my Representative Basketball team lose the grand final by one point… Whilst I sat on the bench, helpless and weak as I was only discharged from hospital a few days prior. My heart was aching to play, though I knew I was too slow and too weak to make any positive difference on the court. So when I started to feel well again, I wanted to do extraordinary things. With full time shift work and a nursing career, I chose Triathlons and Half Marathons would do, as I could train in my own time around work. It was fun! I did a few races and started cutting my times down.
Until it all fell apart again.
My body and health wasn’t coping with all the physical stress. Not only was my career physically demanding with shift work, training for hours each week was detrimental to my immune system and I was finding recovery harder and harder. I could never get past a certain point without crashing and burning...
So I switched it up. I was weight training twice a week to strengthen my knees on long runs. And I started to love feeling strong and empowered. I also liked the changes in my body as I began to see more shape, curve and definition.
Soon, I knew that gaining muscle and eating more healthy food was my ticket to health.
So out of the intention to improve my well being and to have a strong reason “why” I needed to get to the gym, stay away from the booze and get a decent night’s sleep whenever I could. I decided to sign up for a fitness model competition. And that’s where I opened my eyes to the world of prevention and wellness.
Here I was with a bit of structure to change my habits.
And I was gradually getting better. It wasn’t so much that I was cured (in fact much of my pathology and treatment remains the same) it was that I tapped into an abundant souse of energy and clarity that I never knew I could have. Then I started investigating further
I did a yoga class at a new studio, on top there was a holistic health centre. It smelt like incense and they seemed to be treating people with their hands and no actual drugs. Though something pulled me upstairs to check it out. When I set eyes on the owner, I knew I needed to see her. A woman in her forties who was literally walking on water. With an intellect way over my head (though ability to describe these complex pathways in such a fashion that I could join some dots from my Post graduate advanced anatomy and physiology studies).
She tested everything (including my poo).
Nutritional medicine was the missing piece in my health puzzle at that point in time. So I adjusted my diet, eating even more healthy foods, and I completely cut out refined sugar.
And so here I am today. Pushing my health from a 3-4 slowly towards a Zero. Investing in my health in the medical system when I need it, and working dam hard at preventing to ever need it again.
My message to you…
You must do what you can. Take ownership of your own health and keep searching for that missing piece in your own puzzle. As soon as you start blaming others and making excuses for your poor habits is the moment you loose your power. That’s not fair. You deserve to feel vital. You deserve to live well despite your illness or condition. Don’t just take for granted that there is no further options for you… Look hard at yourself, pick the things you are doing which are not helpful and start there.
I have created an
Online Support Group
For people who want to thrive and live well through making similar lifestyle changes... If this is you...