About Crohns

We have causes for everything in this day and age. Races, events, telethons, or some other type of way to spread awareness for virtually any awareness such as breast cancer, prostate, lung, domestic abuse, child abuse, rallies of support for equality and much simpler things like, dollar candy bars for the schools, cookies for the girls scouts or raffle tickets for the local rec football team. What amazes me about it, people buy things in belief of supporting those causes. Small percent of net profits here, small percent of total donations there. Remember the ice-bucket challenge? I heard it raised over 100 Million dollars the summer of 2014 when it went viral, compared to 2.8 million the year before without the ice bucket challenge. I also read that due to that funding, they had an amazing breakthrough research for ALS happen in the middle of 2015. I was challenged to do the Ice-bucket  by my best friend Nick. I didn’t do it, and here is a screenshot of it.

Click to enlarge.

Crohn’s Disease & Colitis, What is it? What does it do? Can I get it if we sleep together, or if you have an open wound? These were some of the many questions I had when I first met Becke. It was around our 3rd time meeting and Becke had come to my apartment for dinner that weekend. She told me “I have something I want to tell you okay?” so I’m thinking to my self, oh man here comes the freak weirdo stuff, she probably collects all of her old fingernails or hair clippings… what have I got my self into! She said very calmly “I have a disease”  (now before I continue, as a young single and yes horny man, those are 4 words, no one wanted to hear. I instantly went into defense mode and shut down) “It’s not contagious and you can’t get it by contact, blood, or anything else.” So by now she has my full attention, and to be honest I’m second guessing my self. She went on to explain what it was, what has happened to her over the years and by the end of the conversation, I totally forgot about it being a “disease” and thought why haven’t I ever heard of it?

It’s May 2016 and we don’t have the amount of awareness and support for Crohn’s & Colitis like many of the other groups do. Every year in October its Hockey Fights Cancer, Breast Cancer, then November rolls in and the players do No Shave November, this isn’t including the hundreds of local chapters for every other awareness group who are at Belk or the other parts of the mall, holding events, races, or what have you. Celebrities posing as the poster child for your money in donations to support Lyme Disease, or donate blood. While thats fine and dandy and I agree they all need support, why is it no one wants to talk about poop? Where are the people who explain that your small $1, $5 $20 donation can help lead to breakthrough research for Crohn’s? See, we don’t have that for the Cronies community. Instead you have the CDC posting commercials about “Cigarettes are deadly and if you smoke you’ll have to live with an ostomy bag,” now two things here, One, yes, as a former smoker my self, cigarettes are bad and I highly recommend if you can, to please quit. I was able to fight my addiction over night, one day I smoked, put it out and said I’m done, I’m not doing it again, and here it is 2 years later and I’m smoke free. Two, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with having a Ostomy bag, Colostomy Bag or a Urostomy bag. In fact I find those to be signs of extreme strength and willpower. You have commercials for Cimzia, Humira, Entyvio and other newer drugs related to Crohn’s but they are advertised as “bathroom sensitive” or Rematoid Arthritis medications.

What is Crohn’s? Well, its a Gastrointestinal Disease. It is your body fighting it self for the lack of a better term. Crohn’s disease is a hyper active immune system that is seeing all of the bacteria (good and bad) that lives inside your guts and thinks “OH MY GOD, the swarms of death are upon us we must fight till the death!” and then your body goes in to a flair up and now, the person has abdominal craps, side note: Ladies if you gave birth with out medication, or have those monthly cramps, multiply those pains by about 5,000 percent. Men, if you have had a kidney stone, one large enough that would not pass and had to be surgically removed, imagine that pain 24 hours a day, for the rest of your life. That’s a small idea of what Crohn’s is,  now this does not include the frequent, or oopsie, I had an accident moments. You know how your just laying in bed, sleeping so well nice and warm, then BAM, you realize all of a sudden you’re laying in your comfy warm bed covered in your own fecal mater. Or maybe just sitting at work, baseball game? Driving down the road, perhaps or anywhere at any given moment. This is where Colitis comes into play because those are some of the same symptoms as Crohn’s only Colitis is a bit more treatable and goes into remission a lot easier and the flair ups can be controlled within limits. Crohn’s, not so much.

Becke and I met in April of 2009, by then she had 3 surgeries prior to us meeting (many different years apart, about 5 years apart). When I met her she was on year 2 of remission. We would eat out, try new places. Life went on like it never existed. One time i did a very shameful thing, she was in the bathroom going poop, and I’m a private person when i poop, i like to be alone in the house, or far away from people as most people are the same, but i live in a small apartment, so one day while Becke was in there it was really loud and the smell was horrendous (she will probably beat me for telling this). So I grabbed a can of air freshener and sprayed the whole can into the crack of the door, while laughing with my roommate about the smell and making jokes. Little did I know that she was in the bathroom crying about it. Well, she wiped her tears and put on a fake smile and came out side and said “sorry,” Life went on. Years later I found out I had broke her heart with what I did. Thats why she was crying, but like the strong person she is, she went on without saying anything and acted like nothing hurts her.

So here it is, 2016 Becke is now my wife (obviously we moved on and became more mature right?, haha no i still make poop jokes but in a different manner now) and she is fighting for her life. 20+ surgeries, no colon, 5 feet of small bowel left, she’s allergic to every mediation for Crohn’s, and has a Jejunostomy (which that in it self is extremely rare. 98% of people have Ileostomy).

Please, visit www.CCFA.org to learn more. As Becke or my self, don’t be afraid because the more that know about this, the closer we can come to getting the research needed.

-C