about me

I'm just a regular guy with regular problems.
Well, maybe IBD is more of a regular problem than it should be, and that's what set me on this journey to find the answers.

My Mission

To help others learn about their condition so that they don’t need to experience the pain and uncomfortable symptoms that come with IBD/IBS.

 

The picture above was a generic one for the template of the website but I left it in because I thought it was actually quite fitting for this section.

 

I can identify with this animal because sometimes I feel like I’ve climbed a mountain to be where I am, and if I’m not careful…I could still fall off. I have put in the time and effort to conquer the daily pain and discomfort of living with IBD, but that doesn’t mean my work is done. In fact, I must continue to summit that mountain every day, using a well-defined regimen of healthy living.

 

My Story

Early one night, at the age of 19, I came down with what I thought was a bad case of indigestion. It slowly got worse over the course of a few hours, causing me to start feeling intense pain in my lower abdomen. I laid on the couch at home, quietly moaning in agony, unable and unwilling to eat anything. When it got to this point, my parents took me to the emergency room of the local hospital where the doctors started to investigate my symptoms. 

 

During this first visit, they quickly assessed me and then sent me home, directing me to just take some over-the-counter pain meds and try some Pepto-Bismol. I went home, tried to get comfortable and follow the doctor’s orders but, after a few more hours it was clear that things were getting even worse. I started to have bloody stools and the pain was escalating to the point that I felt like I couldn’t move. My body started to reject anything I tried to consume, including even water.

 

My parents took me back to the hospital and I was extremely fortunate that the curtain to my emergency room bed was opened right as my family doctor just happened to be walking through the emergency room on his way home for the night. He was a wise, caring, seasoned veteran of the medical field who had been my doctor almost since birth. He checked in on me and luckily, he recognized the symptoms right away, even though one of the other doctors was thinking I possibly had appendicitis. Thankfully, he got me admitted to a hospital bed with all of the proper procedure, and I began this long journey of dealing with what I know now as Crohn’s disease.