"Are you losing weight?" Crohn's and the workplace

[JDTM]

So, I'm starting to get this question more frequently, and it's making me kinda sad, I'll admit. I'm a roughly 220-pound male (down from about 250), and I'm 6'2"... I certainly wanted to lose some weight before I was diagnosed, but this is certainly not the preferred method!

Anyways, I work in higher education, and one of our professors just asked me if I was losing weight. I told him about my recent diagnosis, and fortunately he was understanding (he has a brother with Crohn's, apparently), but it made me wonder about how you guys would respond to this question, especially in the workplace. It's one thing to let your close friends and family know what's up, but with coworkers and casual acquaintances, it's harder. I'm also very attuned to this as I have been working towards my M.Ed. in an effort to hopefully advance to a better/higher-paying position. Not sure how possible that is at the moment...

I certainly don't want the fact that I have Crohn's to affect my job prospects, even though I know it might.

I just want to regain some control. :'(

 

[littlemissh]

Hi Jesse,
I have been asked this many times and a couple of times ben asked if I had taken up marathon running!
More often than not I just say I have lost weight because I haven't been well recently. This seems to satisfy the majority of people.
Hopefully your meds will soon work for you, the way to take control is to eat well (food that is ok with crohn's), educate yourself in all the treatments for Crohn's so that if you don't get better you know what to ask/tell the doctor.

Best wishes.

 

[happy]

Hi JDTM,
I get this a lot. I'm female so it's usually something like this, "Oh, you look so good, good for you for losing weight", or "I've noticed that you have lost a lot of weight--are you OK?".

I respond to both questions with, "Thank you for noticing, I've been having some health problems for awhile, but I'm getting better now." And then I change the subject.

When we start to lose that amount of weight, it is noticeable and people are going to make comments. Some are just curious, others want to know what wonderful weight- loss method we are using and others are truly concerned about us.

I live in a small community, so gossip goes around. I would rather people hear the truth from me and not imagine something else, but they do not need the details. You have a right to your privacy, and people have a right to have a polite response to their questions.

If/when your health impacts your work, that is the time to have a conversation with your supervisor and possibly your co-workers.

I work from home and was unable to do my work for many months until recently. Because of how ill I was and my inability to eat solid food, I would have had to share some info with my co-workers if I were in an office as it would have been so obvious that something was wrong.

As long as you are healthy enough to be at work, share what you want with whom you want, remembering that it is your choice what you share.

May you soon feel better.

 

[CLynn]

Jesse, I have heard this more times than I care to tell in the course of 24 years with Crohn's. I have always worked for the public, a grocery store for the first 10 years of diagnosis, and bank since. Honestly, being young and in college, naive I guess, I never really worried about whether or not I told people. Was already working at the grocery store when I got diagnosed and was going to college. And I still really don't worry about it. My bank even rehired me after I was gone for 3 years, and they are aware of my Crohn's since the first time I was employed here was when I had my resection. But now I am rambling. Anyway, usually my customers will ask me. Had a lot of that this fall when I dropped weight. Like you, I wanted to lose 5 or so, but dropped 15 in a short time, as we tend to do. When people ask me if I have lost weight, I am just honest and tell them yes, most of my customers have been my customers for years, so I just honestly tell them that my Crohn's is active. It's never actually offended me, but it does when people tell me that I need to gain weight. Duh!

 

[JDTM]

Thanks everyone. I decided to have some pizza* for lunch... maybe put a little bit of that weight back on, haha!



*No red sauce... Even when I'm being reckless, I'm still kinda careful.

 

[CLynn]

LOL! I have been eating fast food breakfasts quite a few times a week. That has put some weight back on me.