GI Kryptonite

My family and friends always told me how lucky I was to have such a strong immune system, this was mostly in part due to how infrequently I had anything more than a small fever. I didn't have any problem with the compliments, I just told them that my immune system was kind of like superman, so I just didn't get sick. Time and time again this proved to be exactly the case. In fact, there was a family ski trip I went on where every single person, with the exception of myself, got so sick that they missed a few days of skiing. I didn't have a single sign of fever of nausea even though we all ate the same food and shared the same space. However, I had yet to learn how true my superman analogy was.

It was a couple of years later that I received the first signs of my immune system's kryptonite. Funny enough now that I look back on it, they showed their face on another ski trip that I took with my family. It was a couple of days into the trip when I started to get feint pains in my stomach and I developed a few sores in my mouth (kind of like what happens when you don't get enough rest or eat too many sweets). I initially figured that it was just an ordinary occurrence and with a little more sleep they would be gone within a couple of days. To my dismay, the next day my symptoms had gotten substantially worse. The pain in my stomach had gone from a dull ache to sharp jabbing and the sores in my mouth were making it difficult to eat any solid food. My parents, unaware of the actual issue, simply figured that I was being dramatic and told me to suck it up. I probably would have said the same thing had I been in their situation; after all, I was only 13 or 14 years-old. Granted, by the third day my parents realized that something else must be the case and took it upon themselves to set up a doctor appointment for me once we got back to the cities. At this point, no amount of sleep or soft foods could fend off the sensations in my GI (gastrointestinal) tract. The best way to put it into perspective would be to take one of your standard canker sores, increase the size by five, multiple the number of them by 50 and them disperse them from your mouth all the way down to your large intestine. If that doesn't do it, think about having blisters in your stomach. If you still can't relate, try eating some broken glass.

After a short trip to the doctor's office, I had a date scheduled with my very first colonoscopy. At first, I had no clue what this 'colonoso-something' was so I just went with it. The date snuck up on my quickly and I was instructed to drink a certain amount of this liquid before I went to bed and I was strictly forbidden from eating anything from that time on. Being the care-free kid that I was, I poured myself a glass of this lovely, clear liquid of death and downed it in just a few gulps. Shivers were sent down my body as I finished the glass and the taste still haunts me to this very day. It was only 30 seconds later that I ran to the kitchen sink for my body to perform its natural purging act after drinking such an atrocity. For the rest of the evening I had to take it much slower and mix this bowel cleaner with other beverages in order to keep it down. Mind you, I couldn't drink ginger ale for the next four years because of how my taste buds associated that drink with the aforementioned liquid of death.

The next morning was an early one and I was quickly changed into hospital attire after I arrived there. I don't recall much from my first colonoscopy because I was put under for it. My second, and more recent, is a different story--to my misfortune, I was awake and remember it quite well (but that story is for another time). After the test was over, I found myself slowly coming to in the resting room and my mom was there by my side. I still remember the look on her face and it scared me half to death; it looked as though she had just heard terrible news. Being that I just finished my test, I had reason to worry. Shortly after the doctor came back into the room I was informed that I had been diagnosed with Crohn's disease. As I'm sure many of you are having the same reaction I did, it didn't really mean anything to me--I had never heard of such a thing. Still groggy and a little out of it, I had to ask him to repeat what he just said. This time he also included a definition to help me understand. To this day I still don't remember the mumbo-jumbo that he told me, I generally describe it as having a superman-esque immune system that doesn't know how to differentiate friend from foe and therefore just kills off everything--including the lining of my intestines. Anyone who has had an ulcer is familiar with this concept. For me, it was like that to the tenth degree. After all this fuss over my diagnosis, I was expecting a lifestyle far greater changed that it truly has been. At first I was prescribed some steroids and inflammatory suppression medication and eventually was given my long-term prescription that essentially acts as an immune system suppressor. Think of it like superman subscribing to the ways of apotemnophilia and deciding to have one of his legs amputated before running a marathon. Sure, it would suppress his ability to run, but I'd be willing to bet that he would still win against normal marathoners. It's similar to my immune system; even being suppressed, I have not gotten sick a single time since I was diagnosed with Crohn's.

Suffice it to say, I live a fairly normal life that is unaffected by this disease of mine and I have the wonders of modern medicine to thank for that. However, by understanding how grateful I should be for our advances in the medical field, I wonder how many people in the past suffered from this disease before it was recognized as such. Was there another kid like me whose parents told him to suck it up because they thought he was whining, only to find themselves visiting their son's grave a few years later? It also makes me wonder about our present world--how many people out there are suffering from something but know no better because we have not 'discovered' their disease yet? Studies and research on Crohn's are still young, so I am very fortunate to be blessed by their findings, but even I am unaware as to any side effects I may incur 10, 20 or 50 years down the road from the medication I take every night. Experiences like this help me understand that there is so much out there that we have yet to understand. Nevertheless, I find myself indebted to the benefits of our world's current knowledge of medicine.

Tyler Hilligoss (sorry user name is goofy and used for other bloggy stuff!)