Today I learned more about Crohn's. Which, if you haven't read my past blogs, I have. To be honest I never really knew the technicalities of it, nor had I heard of TNF. My Dr isn't the greatest for bedside manner, including a lack of explanations. More a "You've got this. Here's a booklet about it. Here's some drugs. See you in 6 weeks" kind of guy. Which is hard. And not ideal.
I met another gastroenterologist from my local hospital when I was having an iron infusion, and one of the first things he said to me was "it's so unfair, and it sucks a lot that you have this disease". I almost cried. The first time in 4+ years, the first time EVER that a doctor had announced that yes, indeed it did suck. It was like verification for the feelings. Thank you Dr Stein. Truly. For validating my feelings, when I thought "it mustn't be that big a deal since my Dr doesn't seem to think so, why am I so sad about it?" and felt like a freak for feeling gutted. (This makes me think about my anthropology class this week, and feeling rules and expression rules. Look up Hochschild if you're interested.)
I met another gastroenterologist from my local hospital when I was having an iron infusion, and one of the first things he said to me was "it's so unfair, and it sucks a lot that you have this disease". I almost cried. The first time in 4+ years, the first time EVER that a doctor had announced that yes, indeed it did suck. It was like verification for the feelings. Thank you Dr Stein. Truly. For validating my feelings, when I thought "it mustn't be that big a deal since my Dr doesn't seem to think so, why am I so sad about it?" and felt like a freak for feeling gutted. (This makes me think about my anthropology class this week, and feeling rules and expression rules. Look up Hochschild if you're interested.)
ANYWAY. The whole point of this blog, was to share some info from a link I just read about an Olympian going for a gold medal in London, who has Crohn's. Which in itself is amazing and inspiring and beyond comprehension. I'm so happy for her.
In this article, it gives a lovely, concise, non-jargon-filled explanation of Crohn's. I'm always looking for ways to explain it. So I thought I would put it here for safe keeping.
In this article, it gives a lovely, concise, non-jargon-filled explanation of Crohn's. I'm always looking for ways to explain it. So I thought I would put it here for safe keeping.
"Crohn's disease is named after Dr. Burrill Crohn who, along with two colleagues, recognized and documented the symptoms in 1932.
Crohn's disease is an
autoimmune disease of the digestive tract that most often affects the
small or large intestines, and sometimes both.
According to the CDC,
Crohn's is "a condition of chronic inflammation potentially involving
any location of the gastrointestinal tract, but it frequently affects
the end of the small bowel and the beginning of the large bowel. In
Crohn's disease, all layers of the intestine may be involved and there
can be normal healthy bowel between patches of diseased bowel."
In a healthy body, the
immune system creates an infection-fighting protein called tumor
necrosis factor. When Crohn's disease is present, TNF is produced in
excess as the immune system mistakenly identifies healthy bacteria as a
foreign presence.
This causes the body to
launch an attack and begin fighting the excess TNF, which leads to more
inflammation, which results in more TNF.
As this internal battle
takes place, it causes severe pain, abdominal swelling, cramping,
bleeding, diarrhea and deterioration of the affected portion of the
intestinal tract."
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/07/health/crohns-disease-explained/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment