Living With Crohn's Disease! This Is My Story.

Hey guys, this one is going to be a bit different from me..

It’s going to be based 100% around my life.. From the time I was about 5, to this exact moment in time.

This is going to be the most personal thing I’ve ever released.

Yesterday I revealed a massive secret to my Facebook friends revealing something that I hadn’t really told many people in my life.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about my health, and also my mental health.

I decided to put up a super personal Facebook status to all of my Facebook friends.

Usually this is something that I wouldn’t do, and if you hang around until the end I’ll actually read the whole thing out to you.

But I’ve been feeling a bit down about this situation lately and it’s always something that has defeated me and my mind.

So I thought to my self.. Fuck it!

I’m not going to let it defeat me anymore.

I wrote a massive Facebook status and told the world about my life journey.

Basically from as early as I can remember I’ve always had stomach issues, sometimes I would be in so much pain that I would cry myself to sleep as a child.

Growing up I had many doctor’s appointments over this issue. None of them really took me too serious though.

I remember them basically shrugging it all off and never really caring enough to do something about it.

I was always in pain, most of the time. I use to sit in the bath tub for hours as a child to try and get just a little bit of pain relief. I use to sit there and have to refill the bath with hot water because I’d been in there so long the water had gone cold.

Hot wheat bags also use to work that little bit.

I was always in pain and never wanted to leave the house, this lead to me having to make excuses to my friends why I didn’t want to go play

or why I didn’t go to soccer training and also why I wasn’t at school.

At the age of about 12 or 13 I started to have suicidal thoughts to myself.

I never really told anybody this though. I was just a kid man, I just wanted to ride my bike and skateboard, kick the soccer ball and hang out with friends.

When I was 16 a doctor finally took me seriously and booked me into a colonoscopy and an endoscopy.

I was 16 at this time, I didn’t even know what I was in for. I remember having to drink this stuff that made you go to the toilet A LOT.

All day for 2 days I think it was, because they have to clean out your bowels out to be able to see clearly with the camera.

I was put to sleep during this procedure, and when I woke up still feeling groggy, the doctor cam in to me.

I remember his exact tone of voice, his exact words and his exact expression on his face.

And I remember the exact moment where he said to me “Why didn’t you tell us you were this sick?”

He then diagnosed me with Crohn’s Disease.

So what Is Crohn’s Disease?

For anybody who hasn’t heard of Crohn’s Disease before I’ll read out the Google definition for you.

Crohn’s Disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract.

Crohn's disease can sometimes cause life-threatening complications.

Crohn's disease can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, anemia and fatigue.

Some people may be symptom-free most of their lives, while others can have severe chronic symptoms that never go away.

Crohn's disease cannot be cured. Medications such as steroids and immunosuppressants are used to slow the progression of disease.

If these aren't effective, a patient may require surgery.

Additionally, patients with Crohn's disease may need to receive regular screening for colorectal cancer due to increased risk.

I live in a smaller town in Australia so we don't have very good access to health care and doctor's

So I was referred to the nearest capital city to my home town which is about a 4 hour drive.

When I first got diagnosed I was travelling with my parents every 3 months to go see the specialist.

Some of these were day trips where we would wake up early, leave at 8am, get there at 12, have lunch, my appointment would be at 2.

Then we would drive home at about 3.

Ready to start back at work the next day. I would always call in sick for these days, but it was actually just to travel that nobody knew about.

I was doing this for a few years from memory until the situation calmed down a bit, and my stomach was in a semi accepted condition.

On my first trip to Adelaide I got put on a strong medication. It was horrible,

I can’t remember the name of it but I remember that I would have to sneak off at work and vomit into a bin or in a bush because it made me feel constantly sick.

I was on this for a few months before I asked for my medication to be changed.

I was put onto a different one and cannot remember the name of this one either.

But what I do remember is I wasn’t allowed to drink alcohol. At this time I was 18 -19 years old, and a lot of my friends were turning 18 at this time.

So they were having big parties and I was basically the only person not drinking.

Every time this would happen I would have multiple people come up to me all night and ask why I wasn’t drinking.

I didn’t ever tell anybody why I wasn’t but this was messing with my mental health a fair bit at the time.

I wasn’t at that age where I could just say I didn’t want to or something like that.

I can’t remember exactly how long I was on this medication but at that point in my life

I just wanted to have fun with my mates, and alcohol was something that I needed at that time.

So I asked to be switched medications.

I was then put onto one called Azathioprine which has a warning on the packet about being more sensitive to the sun.

Unfortunately at the age of 25, this caught up with me and I had to have a skin cancer cut out by my doctor.

This has left a big scar on my neck around my throat area, where I had to have about 28 stitches from memory.

Once it was confirmed to be a skin cancer I was immediately told to stop taking this medication.

Since then I have been in a remission state. This is basically where this disease is resting I guess and not giving me any trouble.

It’s been a couple of years in this state, it might give me a day or two of grief but that’s about it.

It’s only semi minor and nowhere near as painful as it use to be though.

Fingers crossed it stays in this stage forever but we’ll never know.

This is my exact Facebook status that I let out to the world!..

I'm not usually the type of person that would write a personal status on this platform, but over the last couple of years I have realised how important writing is for my mental health and how beneficial it is for my life.

If me sharing my experiences in life helps just one person with dealing with similar problems then this will be completely worth it.

All through my childhood I suffered from massive stomach issues which affected me greatly growing up. Physically and mentally.

I was always in too much pain to catch up with my friends, go to sports training and just be a child in general.

I was always having to think of excuses why I didn't want to see people, or leave the house or why I wasn't at school.

As I grew older these severe stomach issues turned into more mental health issues and I was having suicidal thoughts at the age of 13.

All my life I was told by many, many doctor's that there was nothing wrong with me and none of them really did anything serious about it.

At the age of 16 I was finally sent to hospital where I had to have an endoscopy and also a colonoscopy.

As I woke up from this procedure the doctor came in and asked me "Why didn't you tell us you were this sick?".

He then diagnosed me with Crohn's Disease.

At the time I didn't even know what the fuck that was, but he then told me I will be referred to Adelaide to see a specialist.

I was travelling back and forward to Adelaide every 3 months for a couple of years with my parents.

I was put on my first lot of medication after my first visit. It was horrible, and made me feel very sick.

I remember at work, I would sneak off because I had to vomit. I never told anybody this though, and just pretended everything was normal.

My next visit I was switched medication onto one where I wasn't allowed to drink alcohol.

As an introverted social person this wasn't great for me, but what made it worse was everybody was asking why I wasn't drinking.

I never told anybody.

After this medication I was put onto a different one.

Azathioprine was the name of it, and one of the side effects from this was that you are more sensitive to the sun.

Unfortunately at the age of 25 this medication caught up with me and I had to have a skin cancer removed from my neck by a plastic surgeon.

I'm currently in a state of remission, and have to have phone appointments with my specialist in Adelaide.

It's the sort of thing that I have to live with throughout my whole life and it's always at the back of my mind.

I've always been too embarrassed and too ashamed to really share this with people which is why only a handful of people actually know this about me.

As I've grown older though I have realised that this isn't really a big deal. I've just made it a bigger deal inside of my own head than it really is to others.

You shouldn't ever be embarrassed about your health. Physically or mentally.

There's a lot of people out there living with the same problems and also much larger problems.

So why should I let something that I can't control defeat me? Well, today I won't and this is why I am putting up this post that doesn't affect 99% of you on here.

This is something that I've wanted to post for over 10 years.

This is my big win for the day!!!

I actually received soo much positive feedback through this post. I was getting messages and replies up to 48 hours after this happened.

I highly recommend that if you’re having trouble dealing with issues in life just talk to people. It’ll benefit you!