Finally, access to all my medical records in a way that’s easy to digest! Listen to this post, click on the play button below! 👇Or scroll down to read 😀Need a voice-over or narrator: http://www.voicebystephanie.com I grew frustrated with my health care over the past year as things were starting to feel too compartmentalized acrossContinue reading “My health timeline with PicnicHealth”
Category Archives: My Journey
Get the book!
Crohn’s Fitness Food and my Rocky Road to Health 20 years with IBD I hit the 20-year mark with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) this past January and I’m excited to share that I’ll be releasing a book about my journey in the coming month. I wanted to share my journey with IBD as completely andContinue reading “Get the book!”
Dismissed, frustrated and not wanting to go back to my doctors
“Assuming you even had it [Crohn’s disease],” he said. My new gastroenterologist’s words hung in the air. I stared blankly from behind my mask, a deer in the headlights, unsure how to respond. Just like that, I was dismissed and invalidated. I said my intestines were bleeding for the past three months straight and hadContinue reading “Dismissed, frustrated and not wanting to go back to my doctors“
Stress and Crohn’s disease
The last four months have been an adventure. Between major life changes and a health scare in my family, during June and July I was facing an overwhelming amount of stress that led me to sobbing in the shower and brought my Crohn’s disease out of remission for about three months. In mid-June, my husbandContinue reading “Stress and Crohn’s disease”
Fatigue
Some of you have asked, so here it is. Time for Crohn’s talk again: Fatigue. Overall, when people ask how I’m doing, I’m doing fine — not optimal, but certainly not anywhere close to being at my worst. My GI symptoms are minor, which, once you’ve had an IBD flare up, anything short of thatContinue reading “Fatigue”
Kidney disease and my upcoming biopsy
As I’ve navigated my Crohn’s disease journey over the past 15+ years, I’ve often heard that if you have one autoimmune disease, it’s not uncommon to develop another. After a quick Google search yesterday, I found that according to this article in Maedica, about 25% of patients with an autoimmune disease have a tendency toContinue reading “Kidney disease and my upcoming biopsy”
Inside my head with chronic illness
For three years, I walked with a broken sesamoid bone in my foot while on active duty in the Army. To this day, I still remember the constant looks from people who clearly thought I was either making up or exaggerating the pain I felt. They gave me looks in passing — judgement written onContinue reading “Inside my head with chronic illness”
Forgetting Crohn’s (almost…)
Some days, I almost forget that I have Crohn’s Disease. Honestly, I don’t think there’s been a single day since my diagnosis 13 years ago–or even since my first symptoms 17 years ago–that I haven’t thought about Crohn’s or digestive issues. But for the most part, my day-to-day life with Crohn’s is well managed…and althoughContinue reading “Forgetting Crohn’s (almost…)”
Cystoscopy: My fears and anticipation vs. what actually happened
Do you ever find yourself loving Google, yet hating it at the same time? That was the case for me as I spent more and more time researching and looking up information during the two weeks leading up to my cystoscopy earlier this month. My last four urine tests all showed blood in the urine,Continue reading “Cystoscopy: My fears and anticipation vs. what actually happened”
“But you don’t look sick.”
My heart was racing at 100 beats per minutes. My skin was pale. My hands were cold and clammy… Let me rewind 48 hours and take you back to Thursday with me. My legs were weak when I arrived at work and walked down the hill toward the chapel on our school campus. IContinue reading ““But you don’t look sick.””