Hi everyone my name is Hannah and I am 17 years old. I'll start off with some background information- I was in And out of the hospital a lot from ages 11-13 and then finally diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age 14. I started getting remicade infusions every 8 weeks along with weekly shots for being anemic. I've struggled with it a lot but for the most part managed to live a pretty normal life up until recently. I'm usually not one to complain but it's all gotten to be too much to handle and I guess I just need somewhere to turn to, so I'm hoping to find some support. As I'm sure most of you know, remicade works by suppressing the immune system. I've always gotten sick a little easier but it was always minor stuff that was easily treated. Recently, I've been in a rough patch that I just can't seem to get out of. It started off when I was visiting my brother in Colorado. I had a really uncomfortable rash on my leg so I went to a hospital there and was diagnosed with shingles. I stayed at my brothers house for 2 more days before returning home and was sick and miserable the whole time. Upon returning home I noticed that the rash had spread throughout my whole body in random places so I ended up being hospitalized with deseminated varicella due to the remicade. The blisters became infected with staph and I was in the hospital for the first couple weeks of school. It took about a month for the blisters to completely heal and they left scars all over my body. Just as everything was healing up I noticed that I was having trouble breathing so I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with pneumonia. I just got over the pneumonia and now am facing a new set of problems. I haven't had an appetite the whole time I've been sick and haven't been able to maintain fluids at all so in turn, I have lost a significant amount of weight. I have always been extremely skinny so losing a lot of weight for me is a big concern. I'm waiting to see a specialist in a bigger hospital to figure out what to do to gain the weight back but in the meantime I am extremely dizzy and I even pass out sometimes. On top of all these medical issues my school isn't being very helpful despite my 504 plan. I had 3 teachers request that I drop their classes because I haven't been able to attend enough. I understand that I have a difficult situation to deal with but it doesn't seem fair to me that I should have to give up my education just because it's a lot of work to catch me up. I thought about fighting this, but at the end of the day I decided I was too tired and sick to deal with another thing so I ended up just dropping the classes. I spend most of my time laying in bed now so I have become extremely depressed. I have lost all of my friends while going through this as none of them understand or care enough to stick around. I guess I just feel like no one is working with me. I have never felt so helpless in my life. The worst part about everything to me is whenever I try tell my story anywhere else I can just feel that people don't care so I stopped trying to explain myself. I know it sounds stupid but I guess I just need someone to tell me that it's all gonna be okay. I need something to pull me through this because I'm out of strength physically and mentally. My family is supportive but they don't have any idea what I go through, and it would be extremely helpful to talk to someone who does. Any advice or words of encouragement would be strongly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this.