Has anything good come from your illness?

[DaisyB]

I know this sounds like a ridiculous question given how horrendous it is to suffer from an IBD, but it's something I started thinking about last night.

Ever since I've been diagnosed it's for the first time made me seriously consider what I put into my body and how I treat it. I've started eating whole foods and doing yoga and pilates to help physically strengthen my body as well as for the mental improvements, as well as starting to meditate regularly.

I also think it's going to make me more compassionate towards others. I realise now more than I used to that we never know what is going on with people's lives/health just by looking at them.

Just a shame it took the illness to make these changes

 

[Orchid]

I've always held that our scars define us, they give shape to our personalities and cast a great light over every experience in life, providing emphasis on what's important and telling us what we can ignore. In that way, IBD is just another step through life, a collected experience with a lesson to teach us.

 

[M West]

Most definitely!

My wife, 4 children, and now 6 grandchildren!

Happy 4th fellow travelers.

Miles

 

[DJW]

The biggest thing for me was drive. A drive to do things. A drive to not let this disease rule my life.
I haven't exicuted perfectly but im happy with the things I've accomplished and things I'm working on accomplishing.

 

[DaisyB]

I've always held that our scars define us, they give shape to our personalities and cast a great light over every experience in life, providing emphasis on what's important and telling us what we can ignore. In that way, IBD is just another step through life, a collected experience with a lesson to teach us.

Good point Orchid, we are the sum of all of our experiences, good and bad.

 

[DaisyB]

The biggest thing for me was drive. A drive to do things. A drive to not let this disease rule my life.
I haven't exicuted perfectly but im happy with the things I've accomplished and things I'm working on accomplishing.

I hope you achieve everything you set your mind to DJW

(Apologies for the multiple posts, I don't know how to quote more than one person in the same post!!)

 

[Orchid]

Good point Orchid, we are the sum of all of our experiences, good and bad.

I think that's too simplistic, it casts a sort of mathematical functionalism on our pasts, with X a person will become Y. I think we're more than that, we're what we do with those experiences and how we let them shape us. I let my history of abuse turn me into a sensitive, quiet woman who keenly understands the emotional needs of others but in other hands that past could lead to someone hard and remote, good at self sufficiency but forever impossible to reach. You cannot simply solve for the human equation. We are what we do with what's been done to us, what we build from the materials life gives us.

 

[Chrispm]

Definitely. As much as I hate this disease, it gave me a certain drive as well. When I was diagnosed a year after high school, fear of the future forced me to seek financial security. After I finished my Associates degree, I went on for my Bachelors degree in accounting and am now studying for the CPA exam.

Without Crohn's, I would have settled for less. Worrying about my ability to support myself has driven my career choices. I also try to save about 25% of my income. The possibility of being unable to work at any given point scares the crap out of me (maybe that explains all the diarrhea, lol).

As I've told my girlfriend, I constantly think about the future because: 'The 60 year old version of myself would want to come back and beat the crap out of the 30 year old version for being selfish and not thinking about him.'

 

[jjk308]

Hell NO!

 

[poopaholic]

I was able to quit drinking because of my crohns . I was an everyday drinker for years. Caused me tons of trouble but never enough to ever be able to quit . Then when my crohns symptoms began drinking was very difficult . One night of pleasure would result in three days of misery . So quitting drinking was easy at that point . Other than that crohns has been a burden for me for twenty years now . I think crohns sucks.

 

[troutdogs]

My daughter has had stomach issues for the past 2 years and was dx with eosinophilic gastroenteritis but the meds for this have not really helped her. Once I was dx with Crohn's, we decided to empirically treat her for Crohn's and she has improved dramatically. I would suffer a million times over to help her.

 

[CrohnsChicago]

I quit smoking. I significantly cut back on overindulging in bad foods and alcohol. I am more mindful of the things that go into my body, food, drink and medicine. I am more responsible about my health than I was before.

I am more compassionate towards others for sure. I have an even stronger desire to learn about and help others in need when I am healthy and able. I also understand more the importance of living by example. I have unintentionally managed to make a positive impact on the lives of a few close to me in difficult times who saw me struggle and continue fighting to overcome my own suffering.

 

[MissCadenza]

The biggest thing for me was finding out who my friends actually are. A lot of people suddenly decided they didn't want to know me as I was their little ill friend, but those who stuck by me are friends for life, regardless of what happens. It helps that one of them has UC, so he understands a bit more than the others do.

Another positive thing was realising that petty, trivial things don't matter any more. You need to focus on what's important, and let silly things like INTARWEBZ DRAMAZ go. For instance, there was a huge row on FB about the fact that a lot of my friends didn't like the new Doctor Who. Er... so? If you're going to get that wound up about a TV show, I suggest you really sit down and work out your priorities in life.

And finally, my IBD has given me lots of lovely new friends, even though most of them I only know via Twitter. But I still consider them friends!

 

[LNS87]

Having IBD has definitely taught me i am much stronger and determined than I ever thought. It is how I went on the most amazing Israel trip last year, and met so many other amazing people who have IBD too. It is also the reason I ran a half marathon with Team Challenge, and has encouraged me to work on fundraising activities too.

Now if only we could just get the good parts without all the bad!

 

[krika]

i became a lot more economic and tidy - as all is in its place to simplify life and thats all.

 

[vonfunk]

Due to repeated blood transfusions I developed an antigen that apparently gives me an enhanced resistance to malaria and a few other things

That's really about it.

 

[mish2575]

Its easier to lose weight than for most people, but I'd gladly trade that in to have to diet/exercise harder.

Actually, I WANT to exercise harder but my extra-intestinal manifestations are stopping me currently.

 

[DaisyB]

Food for thought in these replies, thanks guys

 

[Grumpy1]

I have found compassion in places that I didn't expect it, lunacy in places that I didn't expect it and humor and support from my lifelong friends. I rediscovered my sarcasm. I found this forum and for that I am eternally grateful. I'm still struggling with the diagnosis and all that it brings with it - especially the arthritis, with the medications and getting the right one or ones, but everyday I find something to laugh about and that's awesome.

 

[Cosmojo]

Honestly the best parts about me I contribute to my disease, along with the worst parts of my life. I have AMAZING time management skills, focused, know how to relate to people struggling a lot better, keeps me humble.
I also miss out on a lot of things such as travel, and social life. The pain is rough too obviously, but to be honest I wouldn't be in grad school without the skills dealing with IBD has given me.

 

[Ali29]

I've always been a compassionate person and tried to help everyone that needed it, even if it meant putting things for myself behind them. I've found I don't take the little things for granted and try to see the good in everything I can. None of us chose this road but greater powers have seen fit to place us on this road.

Hug everyone, tell all the wonderful people in your life how much they mean to you - never take a day for granted (even the ones you feel like crying the whole day).

I never been a fighter but I will not give up my fight to get well! That is progress for me!

 

[valleysangel92]

I have stopped letting the little things bother me. I don't get stressed out about trivial things like a lot of my peers seem to. It doesn't phase me if little things go wrong, I just reroute my plans around it.

I find it much easier to stand up for myself now. Nothing gives you a back bone like having to correct a consultant who's just spoken to you as if you are a child who knows nothing. My parents are very supportive but they both work and it's meant I go to a lot of appointments by myself. I have a small frame and a young face and some doctors seem to read this as making me a push over. Wrong. I've been around hospitals since I was 14 and I picked up a lot from my paediatric team, including how to tell when I'm not being treated right. They taught me not to stand for it and I never have. The most recent example being when I had to set a consultant and 3 other doctors straight as he stood by my hospital bed and told me that I didn't have crohns and that I couldn't 'just have Pred like a painkiller '. I told him that I most certainly DO have crohns, and that having spent nearly 6 months on Pred prior to surgery last year I know all about its uses and effects. The next day I was happily under a different team who I hope to keep.

It's also made me have more faith in myself. I'm a lot more determined and when I've made my mind up about something then it stays that way. No one puts me off or talks me out of my choices.

 

[DaisyB]

Oh well I just found out that despite my lifestyle changes my inflammation has increased (not a surprise because my symptoms have been getting worse but still really disappointing). Been put on another, longer course of pred. I'm feeling really upset at the moment but going to just continue the way I have been and hopefully the new meds will make a difference. Was hoping to get myself off of meds all together but seems that's not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

 

[zilla7777]

I have found that I am much more grateful for the simple things, such as the times when I simply am feeling healthy. I enjoy, and am grateful for good food much more now.

It also has helped me define study path, and hopefully my career path in the future.