Disease. It's No Big Deal.

One lesser known fact about me. I am sick.
Not just sick in the head, but chronic illness sick.

When I was 13 I was hospitalized and diagnosed with Crohn's disease. If you're a nerdfighter, you probably know that Hank Green has ulcerative colitis. Well my illness is very similar to his. Basically, Crohn's is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in which my intestines are inflamed (duh) with lesions that cause me pain when I digest food, if not properly treated. Crohn's also has other problems attached, like not getting half of the nutrients I would eat, my immune system not functioning properly and a higher risk of things like cancer and cataracts. On top of Crohn's, I also suffer from anemia and chronic migraines with aura (they kind of imitate mini strokes).

Looking at me now, you wouldn't know I have all these problems, and people are always surprised to find out about them. And while it's not a big deal to me, times like today just make me laugh at my life.
Today I went to the adult GI (gastroenterology) clinic for the first time. I've been going to the pediatric clinic for five years, so it was a change. This of course meant I had to fill out a ton of paperwork and answer a bunch of questions for the nurses. For one I had to go through my list of medications and she was just so confused by the fact that I've been on 10+ types. Then my new doctor suggested I have a colonoscopy over winter break just to check that my current meds have me in remission. So as another nurse was filling out the prescription for that, he started to tell me, "Now this is probably your first colonoscopy, so..."  Yeah, I had to stop him because I've already had 3 colonoscopies and an endoscopy. I just found it so funny how surprised these nurses and doctors were that someone my age had all this experience with Crohn's. I guess they aren't used to that!

I also found myself oddly proud of how sick I've been in the past, which shows that I really am sick in the head too.

xoxo F