In the Dark

For a long time I lived in the dark about my disease. I never knew what I had or why I was experiencing these symptoms. I also am the kind of person who doesn't ever go to the doctor. I never talked about my pain or the diarrhea that I had almost daily. These would have been really key things to tell a doctor to be diagnosed earlier. I believe that I was some what scared to find out and I also believed that it would go away. Boy was I wrong.

After a while you get use to it. I had diarrhea everyday for a few months and was still thinking that it would clear up. It became normal and then I just got use to it. Anyone else would probably say "Oh no I couldn't let that go on". Well I did. It wasn't all that bad till the other symptoms started appearing that really made life hard sometimes.

I will start from top to bottom. My mouth. I started getting soars inside and outside. The outside was due to nutrients lost in my digestive system from all the inflammation in my intestines. They are little cracks in the corner of the lips. They are from Iron or Zinc deficiency. I was definitely and still am Anemic. They would last for weeks before healing. It was hard to heal A. because they were the result of deficiency and B. I had to open my mouth to eat and that would reopen the cracks every time.  I would be very embarrassed of this like any other person I suppose. I didn't want people to think that I had something else going on.

Another thing that was painful and annoying to have were the lesions that would show up inside my mouth at the bottom of my jaw on the gums and cheek. I would later find out that they were mouth ulcers that are a symptom of Crohn's. These were one of my least favorite symptoms because they hurt a lot. They would be irritated when I ate food and drank water. It was always a burning sensations like something touching an open wound. These would last for a few days or so not as long as the cracks in my lips.

The last thing that occurred was my throat also had ulcers. Just imagine swallowing and having the feeling of pins and needles stabbing the inside of your throat. OUCH!!! Probably the worst of all the things that would happen in that area. The worst was when I drank water. I am not sure why but that was the most painful. As you can imagine it was a big task to eat and drink for a few days. Nothing I did would help remedy it. When I wasn't eating or drinking it felt like a soar throat. At this time I had thought this was the result of my seasonal allergies. I'm sure that was me giving myself an excuse to not have to face the fact that I needed figure out what was going on with my body.

There are many more symptoms that would occur throughout my body but I will leave those for another time.

Thanks for reading!