So I’m 25 this month and thought I might share some of the little anecdotes, and snippets of information I have gathered in my tiny lil brain by the age 25. You might find them useful, you may not! So, here we are! 25 things I have learnt about living with Crohns Disease…
1. You will very, very quickly become comfortable with talking to almost anyone about your arse hole.
2. You will easily go through a roll of toilet paper a day.
3. The pain of a colonoscopy with no sedation is not worth it. Get the sedation. Every time.
4. Your bowel is much closer to your bladder than you realised. Which will often result in you having a UTI alongside your flare. 🖕🏻
5. RADAR keys are the dogs bollocks.
6. Constipated? Get those knees elevated girl.
7. SPICY FOOD IS THE ENEMY.
8. When your scars heal, it will feel like tiny little people are living in your skin and constantly dancing a samba whilst wearing sharpened stilettos.
9. You will shit yourself. Maybe even a few times.
10. You can fart out of a fistula! Who knew?!
11. Having an ileostomy bag isn’t all that awful.
12. The nightmares you will have on PRED, however, will be.
13. Moon face is a real problem.
14. The noise your stomach can make will be loud enough to wake you up.
15. Putting an icecube up your bum is never a good idea.
16. If your meds make your hair fall out? Match your hair colour to your eyebrow palette and colour in the bald bits.
17. Humira injections are not painful at all. Trust me.
18. Hearing the words “sharp scratch” will very quickly become old news. No fear here.
19. Fragmin is a little bitch.
20. Nurses are superheroes .
21. In fact most people you will come across in the NHS are bloody fantastic.
22. You will fart like you’ve never farted before.
23. People might not understand. Or want to understand and that’s perfectly okay.
24. CCUK is great, and so are their volunteers. If you’re struggling, phone them – they will listen.
25. The pain can feel all consuming but you’ll get there. Pain is temporary, work with your gastro team to find a solution, because there is one out there.
So there we have it. 25 things I’ve learnt by the age of 25. They might not be true for you, but they were all new information for me at one point. What have you learned from your illness? Chuck a comment below. I’d love to know!
– R. x
The ramblings of a crohns kid. 