New here

[Shomethamonnneyy]

Hey everyone,


Its nice to know there are others out there with the disease who are soo supportive of eachother. I was diagnosed with CD last year and I am now 22. I was wondering are there any other young adults in this forum? Does it affect your social life at all? I have been pretty good about keeping it a secret but there are just times where I'll be in the bathroom 5x within the hour and I just don't know how to explain myself. Try explain that to a female ha how attractive. I would love to hear your stories on how it affects or affected your social life and how you made it a non issue. Thanks everyone!

 

[Ezio]

hi!
welcome

 

[bella_sky]

ha yes lady I understand! My social life has completely dwindled, gosh I used to live my life at 100mph then was hit with this. I have unfortunately realized that some friends arent really friends. The people that stay with you and help you pick up groceries and prescriptions, the ones you can call to be in the ER with you, those are the people in your life that you realize how valuable they are. And as far as looks, I loved my body, I have lost 15 lbs and some hair but my bf and friends only seem to say I still look fabulous. If I lose anymore though I'll look like a cancer patient so lets all pray none of us end up looking like that. Lady I understand and anytime u want to talk I'm here and happy to talk to someone my age that understands this all!!!! AIM - jjnfunkybunch (funny nickname)

 

[bphenn]

I'm 21 and in the Coast Guard. I was hiding my pain for a few months until enough was enough. I had to leave my ship for a month and always received phone calls from my best friends when they could talk to me. I have a flare up two or three times a year and the time it lasts is all dependent on how quick I get to the doc and how quick I get prednisone. It has effected my social life a bit and I used to hide my pain a lot to just go out with friends but I found it's better for me to just lay everything out in the open and people understand. I'm happily engaged to my fiancee and I even met her at a tail end of one of my flare ups. She understands I'm a bit crazy when I yell at my intestines for not being a team player and causing me pain. Going to the bathroom 5x's + a day does suck. I have had to miss out on some parties but you know, there will always be another one. Two things to remember that can help out a lot with social situations.

One, be the most positive person you can be! It may be weird but when I'm in a lot of pain I have a "friendly" talk with my insides. If you can eat something without pain or even go to the bathroom one less time, take that as a positive. Always tell yourself things will get better and they will.

Number two: if you're comfortable enough tell people that you do have Crohn's disease. Tell them a little bit about it. I usually say that my intestines just get angry with me, get inflamed, and create scar tissue. Then once you get to know them better you can include all the "fun" stuff like procedures and such.

Just have a bunch of confidence and always try to stay positive (it can be really hard at times but it helps). There is always a silver lining to any situation that you are put through, sometimes you may just have to look a bit harder for it. Keep your head held up high! Hope my .02 cents was worth a nickle!

 

[shazamataz]

So wise for one so young Mr Coastguard!

I have been doing a lot of study recently about psychosomatics and the bodymind connection - all very interesting.

One thing that stuck with me from a recent class was that we should 'talk' to our bodies. That is, we should respect them and communicate with them instead of expecting them to just get on with it and do whatever it is we want them to do, even if they are sick or we are doing something harmful to them.

My teacher is an avid believer in this. She talks out loud (or I guess in her head if there are people around) to her body with things like - 'Now I'm going to have a couple of wines tonight. Please could you process this wine and feel good tomorrow. I will make sure I only drink x amount and drink lots of water to keep you hydrated'.

Sounds mental but actually I have started doing this a bit too with regard to gut stuff. 'Now, I'm going to eath such and such. This is good food and I'd like you to enjoy it and process it to give me energy and nourishment.'

I also give my insides verbal (in my head) encouragement when having trouble pooing and it works!!!

Don't use words like 'don't get inflamed or angry' as it is thought the body doesn't recognise necessarily the context of a 'negative' word.

Dunno, people may think I'm nuts but what the heck is the harm??

 

[bphenn]

Shazamataz, I smiled through your whole post, actually I kind of laughed to myself because I do that just about every time I eat something. Glad to see I'm not a complete nut

 

[shazamataz]

Och, well it can;t do any harm can it?

We have also been encouraged to give our bodies verbal encouragement and praise - like thankig them when they've served us well. I often congratulate my bowels on the easy production of a decent poo

As I said, can't do any harm and likely works, just hard to prove it eh?

Anyway, people who are a bit nuts are the most interesting in my experience :tongue:

 

[bphenn]

Even some of the people I have met, be it at work or outside of work have had intestinal problems and you would never know. Even my physical therapist (for my knee) had diverticulitis and we could both relate to somewhat similar things and it was fun watching peoples faces as we discussed colonoscopies and other things openly. At work we have a guy that had colon cancer and had a colostomy installed. We have the best conversations (must be a guy thing) in the bathroom as we both frequent it quite often. You can make some special bonds with people that you never thought had similar problems as you, you just have to be comfortable

 

[shazamataz]

I have found it interesting that, since being diagnosed, and getting back out into the world after hospital, it is amazing how many people actually know someomne with Crohns or something similar.

I reckon about 90 per cent of ppl I have spoken to (and I am a big talker, so everyone knows what is going on with me) have knowledge of Crohns etc.

My biggest problem so far was that I do wedding photography on occasion for a bit of extra cash. I have three coming up in Oct/Nov and was initially a bit nervous about being sick, but am sure I will be just fine as feeling good.

Anyway, not long after i got out of hospital I got a call from one of the brides who knows people I know and she was practically hysterical. 'I hear you have Crohns disease!!! What about my wedding!!!!!'

She wanted me to organise someone else just in case which I said would be nearly impossible to do. I was annoyed actually because then I DID start to worry if I would be up to it! I have now arranged an 'assistant' to come with me (at the bride's expense) as back up. I am sure I will be fine. It's only one day.

Other than that, I haven;t had any probs with people. I'm a bit old for socialising much in the sense you have talked about so haven't had any issued with friends.

I find being open works well for me. Sometimes I am likely too open but that's just me. I have no problem with people knowing about my poo issues :smile:

I guess we just get on with it and do our best eh?

 

[gibby]

I have had this thing for 18years now, and last week was the first time i have physically met someone else who has crohns! I was at an engagement party of all things, and we are all nurses, and they know my history, but turns out one of my friends (the one who is engaged....) has a friend with crohns, diagnosed for a couple of years, he is really bad at getting treatment and getting seen, still in a bit of denial, and wanted me to talk to him cos i am an old pro...thing is, i have never talked to someone in person with crohns, so was a bit nervous at the whole introduction, i mean it was kinda "hi my name is yvonne, i hear we have something in common" i mean what kinda pick up line is that!
anyway once we started talking the conversation melted easily into bowel motions and how much pentasa are you on kinda thing, it was really weird as having this for so long, never realised how isolated i was! I mean being a nurse everyone of my friends has a good idea what crohns and UC is, so thats fine talking about it to them, but they dont REALLY know what its about. It was fab tho, felt quite good sharing my experiences, i mean the forum is brilliant, really helps me, but yeah talking to him was great. Its the first time i have talked to a bloke about diarrohea and not been embarrassed! I couldnt even really go into that much detail with my ex and we were together thru a time where i was really sick!
Gibb x

 

[Shomethamonnneyy]

Ha Bellasky and everyone else thanks for the input... Bellasky I'm not sure if you were talkin to me haha but I would love to talk to you on AIM sometime my SN is the same as my name on here