There are 2 days left in 2017 and I've considered writing this blog post for most of the previous 363. It's on a topic that nobody wants to talk about. Ever. Let me start by saying Crohn's disease is a stigmatized disease. A recent study found it's more stigmatized than HIV/AIDS and genital herpes among the general public. And this topic, I think, takes that stigma and multiplies it by about 8. Most people who know anything about IBD know it involves a few main issues: diarrhea, abdominal pain, and sometimes blood in said diarrhea. Because Crohn's is a giving disease, it also comes with a slew of other problems including joint pains, eye inflammation, skin inflammation, bone density loss, mind-numbing fatigue, and fuzzy toenails. Ok maybe not that last one. Around 1/3 of us develop "fistulizing disease." Or what I like to call body termites. Fistulas aren't unique to IBD and can happen for other reasons, but IBD is a main source of the
If you're living with a chronic illness, you're in the right place.