Have you ever heard of Crohn’s disease? If you haven’t, it’s probably only a matter of time before you do.
Crohn’s disease is one of those things that even a person who’s had it for years has trouble understanding. Simply put, it’s a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect everything in the gastrointestinal tract from the tip of the tongue to the bottom of the bowels. It starts with an immune system that doesn’t work properly – attacking the good bacteria that it really is supposed to protect. This leads to the chronic inflammation that eventually causes symptoms.
Symptoms may consist of severe abdominal pains and cramps, diarrhea, fever, loss of appetite, weight loss and fatigue. In kids, it can also substantially affect growth. This disease is somewhat of a medical anomaly due to the fact that there is no known cause and there is no cure. To make matters worse, the rate at which Crohn’s is being diagnosed in people of all ages is increasing. It tends to run in families, but that only accounts for 5 to 20 percent of cases. Our environment seems to play a role; Crohn’s is much more prevalent in developed countries compared with undeveloped, and in urban areas as opposed to rural areas.
For myself, the list of symptoms sounds painfully familiar. My journey began in the fifth grade when I began to frequently endure severe pains in my stomach. These pains were no ordinary ones where you just feel sick to your stomach; they were pains that I imagined getting stabbed in the gut would feel like. The pains left me bedridden for minutes, for hours or for whole nights, from dusk to dawn.
At first, it was suggested that celiac disease might be the culprit, but blood tests revealed that I had a high rate of inflammation in my system. I was taken to a gastroenterologist who immediately suspected the cause. The GI doctor’s suspicion was supported when he was told of my family’s history of Crohn’s: my grandpa and aunt both suffer from this disease. Now for the fun part! After draining my bowels of everything I love in life, a.k.a food, I had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. Soon enough the results were in, and I officially had Crohn’s disease.
By this time, I had lost weight, become anemic, hadn’t grown in over a year and no longer enjoyed food because it only made the pain worse.
After overcoming the fear of swallowing pills, I was loaded up with enough of them to start my own pharmacy. Luckily for me, these pills worked like a charm, giving me my life back within a year. Since then, I have occasionally had “flare-ups” but, thankfully, no hospitalizations and no surgeries like many other patients face. For many Crohn’s patients, being open about the disease is difficult due to preconceived notions about it. For me, it’s something that makes me who I am, and so if you know me, then you’ll know I have Crohn’s. I may have Crohn’s, but Crohn’s doesn’t have me!
Nick Iovino is a sophomore at New Albany High School. He keeps very busy playing soccer, being a percussionist with the NAHS band and the New Albany Symphony, and singing with his church choirs.
