After a very happy and eventful week in our family, I’m taking a breather this weekend to enjoy my family and get my girl ready for the Christmas dance tonight. There’s hair to do, toenails to paint, and photos to snap. I will return Monday with a great series featuring some talented guest posters who will enlighten us about their traditions and activities surrounding their Christmas celebrations. You will want to “tune in” for this as these wonderful ladies come from different parts of our country and world. I’m excited to showcase them here so come on back and learn about “Christmas in My Corner” of the world!
As I wrote about in my Monday post, this is Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis Awareness Week and my goal is to educate you about what it is and give my readers a glimpse into what it’s like to have IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). I’ve had such a wonderful response to the post on social media and through personal messages, that I wanted to write about it again. There’s more to say and this comes from an angle you may not have expected: fitness and healthy living. I wanted to highlight a brave face of IBD and share with you my friend Joey and his endeavors. Buckle up…he has an inspiring story!
This is Joey…
Credit: Joey Morstad
Joey was diagnosed with UC in 2008. During his first hospitalization for IBD, he quickly dropped 50 pounds in six short weeks. One can imagine the damage that does to the body and mind…a difficult diagnosis, pain, and severe weight loss. All of these things sap you of your physical strength and sometimes even of your ambition and optimism. But Joey wanted to devise a way to regain strength and promote healing. So he did. I could tell you Joey’s brave and motivating story, but I’d rather let him tell it instead. He’s a courageous guy with a great story and immense knowledge. Whether you struggle with IBD, a different illness or no illness at all, he has some very valuable things to share with you. I urge you take a few minutes from your day and check out his testimony in the video below and even visit his site, http://www.strengthandnutrition.com/. IBD is a challenge for sure, but there are healthy options to work our way back to better health and gain strength. Joey is inspiring me to do just that!
What do you know about IBD? Do you know someone who has it? A friend? Loved one? A coworker? IBD is generally divided into two categories of illness: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. While they can be similar in nature with regards to symptoms, they vary in that Crohn’s disease can occur anywhere in the entire GI tract from mouth to anus and UC is located in the large intestine and colon. Combined, these diseases affect as many as a million or more people in the U.S. alone. I could dazzle you with all the statistics and numbers, but those too often feel impersonal and sometimes like empty facts.
I’d prefer to give IBD a face and a picture of what it really looks like to live with it, to be the one suffering from it and what that entails. More personally, I started having serious Crohn’s symptoms when I was 18 years old. My freshman year of college found me often doubled over with abdominal pain, spending far too much time in the bathroom, and even passing out from loss of nutrition.
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are diseases whose victims battle on a daily basis, often affecting every aspect of their lives.
For me, it took years to achieve a diagnosis and it came as an incidental finding, but not for lack of pursuing medical treatment during those long, painful years. I pushed myself through college and work, struggling all the while, and the diagnosis was almost a welcome relief. Finally there was a name to all the pain and suffering I’d endured, and we could begin treating it. Little did I know, that was just the beginning.
IBD is too often referred to as a “bathroom disease” implying that frequent bathroom trips is really what it’s all about. While that certainly is a huge, debilitating and limiting aspect of these illnesses, it certainly isn’t the only symptom we experience. Imagine living most of your life with the stomach flu: diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, headache, malnutrition (insert symptom here). You wouldn’t be able to work, attend school or carry on most daily activities that a person needs to participate in. Those symptoms can be merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg and often lead to other even more serious situations. Something as seemingly simple as grocery shopping can often be a monumental task for someone battling IBD.
Even though I’m a veteran IBD’er, I became enlightened to new symptoms and side effects just this past year. Painful mouth sores can occur as a result of different medications or simply an aspect of the diseases themselves. Often, folks with IBD have a suppressed immune system opening the door to all sorts of opportunistic (and unwanted!!) infections and symptoms. Fistulas are a painful and sometimes dangerous risk and so are intestinal strictures and blockages. When I was 34 weeks pregnant with my son, I found myself in sudden intense pain from a perforation in my intestines necessitating urgent hospitalization emergent surgery to remove a portion of my intestines…while still carrying my son. The risk to us both was incredibly high and he was born, premature, a week later. By the grace of God, we survived and did it well.
IBD is an invisible disease. One may look perfectly healthy to the causal observer. But that’s a completely unfair and typically inaccurate judgment. Many people assume a person afflicted with IBD should be grossly thin and sometimes we are. However, medications and other factors often cause the opposite effect and an IBD patient can be of average weight or even have some extra pounds. Ask anyone of us who has ever taken prednisone how we feel about that drug. It can be your best frenemy.
IBD can run in families as well. Two decades after my symptoms surfaced, my then 11-year-old nephew started experiencing the same ones and was eventually diagnosed with Crohn’s as well. I know of much younger children and much older adults who are fighting this fight, male and female. IBD does not discriminate.
IBD is an immensely expensive illness for the patient and their care is often limited by their insurance or personal finances.
Medications are exorbitant as is treatment and many IBD patients have repeat ER visits and hospitalizations on a regular basis. Even routine colonoscopies are several thousand dollars and these sometimes need to be repeated yearly or even more often. If a patient has no insurance or inadequate insurance, this can prevent them from receiving necessary treatment and medications. Humira, a newer and popular treatment used for IBD, is a medication that is injected on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis (depending upon the individual’s needs). Each pen (one injection) can cost upwards of $1,500 and most patients use at least two or more pens per month. AbbVie generously offers programs to patients and can sometimes reduce this cost to as little as $5 per month.
I am one face of IBD. Here is another precious one. This is Amy.. She has UC (ulcerative colitis) She has “no colon and is still rollin’!” (her words). Amy was hospitalized seven times in 2012 alone and underwent a colectomy in September 2012. Earlier this year, she had a J-pouch (an internal reservoir created in the absence of portions of intestines). Unfortunately, Amy also suffers from spondylitis and asthma and hopes (like we all do), that she won’t be diagnosed with anything else. This is more than enough already.
Amy: Fighting and still smiling! Attitude can make a difference!
IBD is so much more than what happens in the bathroom. It can limit one’s ability to be available to his or her family, participate in activities they enjoy, especially family activities, and maintain employment. Sometimes we are sidelined by our symptoms.
This is Amber. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease three years ago and since then has experienced many hospitalizations. Last year, she had part of her intestines removed and a few months ago, she went into liver failure due to a side effect of one of the medications she was prescribed to treat Crohn’s.
Amber: Warrior, fighter, survivor!
These brave faces represent warriors. The represent marriages, children, families, and circumstances that we can only really imagine. There are stories and lives behind these faces. There are dreams yet to be fulfilled and stories of amazing bravery. Take some time to educate yourself about this illness, especially if you know or love someone with it. Gain knowledge and compassion and help us raise awareness. And please, pray for a cure!
Not everyone has pets and not everyone wants one, but for those of us who love our animal friends, we can get pretty serious about it. I once read a quote (paraphrasing) that we may have many pets in our lifetimes, but for most pets we are their only humans. I found that pretty profound. Think back to all the pets you’ve had so far in your life. For many of us that will be quite a few. But how many humans has your pet had? The likelihood is that not many or maybe just one…you.
My first-ever pet was a blonde Cocker Spaniel named Brandy. Our family had a bent towards Cockers and it’s no surprise. They’re adorable with those sad, big eyes and floppy ears. They’re generally snuggly and loyal. Brandy was a wanderer. Once in awhile, she’d get free from the yard and I remember my parents quickly deploying my older brothers to go find her. They’d take off on their bikes riding through town calling to her while my older sister and I stayed behind fretting we’d never see our faithful friend again. She always returned but eventually quietly left us for good a few years later in her old age. But 30-some years since then, I still think of her fondly.
We had two more Cockers after Brandy. Sparky was rust-colored and I claimed him as my own. When he passed away my freshmen year of high school, I sobbed for days. He had been my canine BFF. Black Buffy came later and favored my sister and when I got married, a black cocker is what we brought home. Cuddles stayed with us until I was expecting my second baby and in between there, my parents’ dog Lady, had literally stayed by my side through my entire first pregnancy. It was no surprise she then became the self-appointed guardian of my daughter once she was born.
My dear friend Luke came to me quite by surprise. We were in the market for a pup to rescue. I was expecting my son at the time and had a husband who worked nights and I wanted a dog in the house. It made me feel more secure. And I loved dogs. I envisioned this cute, cuddly, tiny little pup. I had him or her all picked out in my imagination. It’d have longer hair and big eyes, much like a Cocker did. We showed up at the vet’s office on a whim after learning they had a puppy who needed rescuing. What we saw was anything but a cuddly, tiny, big-eyed, Cocker-looking puppy. What we did see, however, was a gangly, fawn-colored, six-month-old Labrador-Golden Retriever mixed boy. But he looked at me and I looked at him, our eyes met, and it was all over.
Our lovable Luke
Luke came home and was our staunch protector, faithful friend, strong boy, who at one time put himself between my kids and a much larger, much scarier looking stray dog that came on our property. Oh, how I loved Luke. He was our trusty steed and when he met an untimely passing, I was undone. He had been through so much with me personally…a difficult pregnancy and birth, and he’d loved my Dad who had loved him right back. He was a tie to my father who was also gone. Again, I sobbed for a solid week, desperately pained by this loss.
Now, we have welcomed Lillie our Beabrador and years later with a new husband, came a new puppy, Gracie. These animals love us so. They watch over us while we eat to ensure we don’t choke (that is what they do when they stare at me when I eat, right?)
“Watch” dogs over our meals.
They miss us when we’re away from the house. Even if we’re absent for a few short minutes, they greet us with enthusiasm as if we’d been away for months. Maybe to them, one hour feels like seven, just like dog years. I’ll admit, it’s a pretty great feeling to have pets jumping all over you expressing their love and devotion every time you enter a room. Gracie pines for my husband when he’s out of the house. She will sit in the window and await his return. She’s definitely his dog.
Gracie keeping a lookout for her “daddy” to return.
If you are fortunate enough to have a pet who’s waiting at home for you, who keeps your bed warm and feels comfortable enough to back it’s butt up to you while you sleep (as gross and annoying as it may be), accept the blessing. Even though we may have many in our lifetimes, each one is special and each one is beautifully loved. These little charmers love us more than we now and to them, we are their whole world!
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