Life after Crohn's

Just thought I'd write a positive little post about my life since being diagnosed with CD.

I was 21 when I was diagnosed.  At the time it felt fairly devastating.  I knew very little about Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  It was the one thing the whole family was hoping it wasn't.  I think it's fair to say that to begin with I got a little depressed about it.  I read the leaflets supplied by the excellent charity NACC. (Web address www.nacc.org.uk for anybody who hasn't come across it) To begin with all I saw was negatives.  A lot of websites and forums used phrases like "quality of life".  This immediately conjurred up images in my head of people laid out in hospital beds with little hope.

One night, as I lay in bed trying to get to sleep, a change occurred in my attitude.  I can't tell you why, or how it happened, it just did.  I made the decision that I was going to stop feeling sorry for myself and get on with it.  A very wise friend of mine said to me when I told her that I'd been diagnosed with CD:  "Remember, you control it.  It doesn't control you."   She hit the nail on the head.

Now one little caviat I will give is that I suffer with mild to moderate crohn's.  I know many people out there have had and are having it far worse.  But there is hope.  What I have found both with myself, and hearing other peoples stories is that this illness can definately make you more determined.  It is a condition that has a number of different forms of treatment.  People go in and out of remission, and with a bit of luck you can go into remission for very extended periods of time, and the disease appears to burn itself out.

In the time I have known that I have CD, I have lead a very normal life.  I have got married, I have two wonderful little girls that are full of life and mischief.  I have carved a sucessful career as an analytical scientist ( which I have recently given up in favour of working in a school - but that's another story - you can see my other blog "the strange world of science and education" for further details!).  I have many interests and hobbies from knitting, to surfing. The only thing I can think of that I have had to give up due to this disease is donating blood!  Which by the way I was very upset about at the time as I felt that I was just the type of person having an illness such as IBD, who would some day be in need of a blood transfusion.  The least I could do is donate some when I was well! 

I guess what I'm trying to say, is exactly what my friend told me 9 years ago:  "You control it. It doesn't control you."  If you always remember that, you can't go too far wrong.  Keep happy :-)