Kate's Story

Kate, Age 14

I got diagnosed with Crohn's Disease shortly after my 14th birthday. I had a relatively quick diagnosis thanks to my pediatrician, who referred me to a GI specialist very quickly after my complaints about weight loss, stomach cramping, and alternating constipation and diarrhea. After a bout with the stomach flu I just never seemed to have recovered.

My amazing GI doctor immediately scheduled a colonoscopy/endoscopy a few months in the future "just in case". I still was completely skeptical that anything could be seriously wrong with me and put the idea of the procedure in the back of my mind. However, over the next few weeks it quickly became apparent that I wasn't getting better. I was scheduled for the next available colonoscopy, which happened to be in the next two days. I wasn't scared about the actual procedure, it was just the anesthesia I was worried about. I couldn't wrap my head around being completely out and not be breathing for myself. I didn't want to do it but I knew I had to. The diagnosis for Crohn's Disease came on Wednesday of the following week.

Thursday was not nearly as weird as I had expected. Don't get me wrong, waking up knowing I had a chronic disease that there was no cure for was terrifying. But the day itself was eerily normal. And, for the most part, so has been my life since that day in May. I've been through my share of a cocktail of drugs and had my own setbacks through being immunosuppressed and getting a not-so-common cold, and a couple of rounds of C-Dif and the like, but I'm still standing. And I plan on keeping it that way. Reading the other stories on this site put my life in a "things could definitely be worse" scenario, and for that I am grateful.