The past year has been full of lots of doctor visits and more pills than I can even attempt to count, but I have felt better in the past year than I have a long time. That's because I've been taking medication for Crohn's Disease, or Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It's an immune system problem where the lining of your intestine becomes inflamed basically because your body thinks it needs to be in some sort of altercation with it. That's what caused my abscess last year. Or that's what usually causes abscesses in that area of intestines.
Normally, you need a colonoscopy to get a solid diagnosis of Crohn's, or the similarly related Ulcerative Colitis, but my doctor didn't want to upset things further while I was in the hospital and once I got out and the meds were working, he kind of just pushed it off more. So my diagnosis is super unofficial, but since the meds that treat Crohn's are working and I'm feeling good, he's pretty sure that's what's up with my intestines.
Basically, although I felt so terrible for so long last year around this time, I'm actually insanely grateful that it happened because I feel so much better now. Happy one year, Crohn's Diagnosis. Let's keep it the way things are right now because right now, we're good and feeling great. Also, shout out to my fellow Horned Frog alum, Bob Schieffer, for his Colitis diagnosis I just learned about last week. Not only do we love purple for our school, but for our stupid disease (purple if the official color of the awareness ribbon).
If you're interested in learning more about Crohn's and Colitis, check out the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America's website.
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