My skinny ass in recovery :b It was a long journey just to even get up to 100lbs, but I did it.
I’m seriously tired of people being so ignorant to auto-immune diseases, thinking “hey, it’s not cancer. You don’t need to work as hard to get better”. Uhm, YEAH WE DO. We still have to work hard to keep our bodies functioning. And I’m tired of people saying,”oh so and so tried this pill or this diet and they were cured”. NO. They are not cured, they are in what is known as remission. Remission is when your symptoms lay dormant in a sense until something triggers them. As of now THERE IS NO CURE. Until people get rid of their ignorance there will be no cure.
People with IBD, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, suffer from severe weight loss due to chronic vomiting or diahrea. I was 140lbs in March before all this went down hill, by the time I had my surgery in February of this year, I was down to 82lbs. I had fistulas,infections, blockages, strictures, and countless infections. My kidneys weren’t functioning properly due to the many steroids I was exposed to. My body was breaking down muscle and organ tissue in order to keep my body functioning. I was unable to eat ANYTHING because my body would just vomit it back up. I had so much bleeding in my esophagus and intestines…it was INSANE.
And so many other people have it much worse than I do! I was extremely lucky all things considered! And I want people to know that these diseases are just as important to combat. Any and all diseases take so much from us, both physically and mentally. It took surgery to remove parts of my colon and rectum in order to help me and I am forever grateful to my surgeon and GI doctor.
So please understand, that these diseases are just as destructive and we still need support emotionally too. We feel gross and disgusting sometimes because we have some pretty embarassing symptoms and we become self concious. We also feel lots of guilt because we often have to cancel plans because we are in SO much pain and we don’t want to ruin the good time with our dark cloud of pain.
Sometimes we feel helpless because we have to spend days at a time in a hospital because we have internal bleeding, another surgery that removes another piece of our intestine, go through countless days of a clear liquid diet and be completely willing to starve ourselves for days because we are so afraid to feel pain. I starved myself for five days because I would rather not eat than vomit and be curled up in pain. And I’m sure others have gone longer!
Others suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis because this is also an auto-immune disease that many IBD patients suffer. So not only are our digestive tracts being attacked but our joints as well. Some people have a hard time moving, dressing themselves, or even getting a shower. They have to have someone help them do these things! Their sense of independence is taken away slightly.
And don’t get me started on health care for this…we didn’t ask for this disease and the insurance and health care system want to charge us up the ASS for being able to live a comfortable life. If I didn’t have insurance, it would cost me $33,674 for my stay in the hospital alone. I still owe $9,000 for it…and that’s just for the one stay, I’ve had multiple stays. So something has to be done about that.
So don’t think that we just poop a lot. There is a lot more to it than that.