A Tale of Two Stories

I am currently at home, lying on my bed, unable to sit or stay in any position for too long as I recover from my proctectomy.....or in lay man's terms...the excision of my rectal stump. I have to say the current state of my arse or lack of it is one of the most painful things I have experienced! However I'm fine and will recover well! This, along with my previous op when I was given my ileostomy are direct consequences of Ulcerative Colitis.
Being at home has allowed me the joys of watching daytime TV and to surf the net finding interesting stories. Last week I came across a fabulous open letter from Sam Cleasby's blog http://sobadass.me. Sam's comments and experiences reminded me of my own experiences using accessible toilets! Sam's letter went viral and yesterday she appeared on BBC Breakfast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31636415

The interview that Sam gave and the way the BBC approached this topic was excellent... Professional, sympathetic and informative. A very positive way to raise the profile and to educate the public of some of the issues relating to IBD.

ITV's Good Morning coincidentally also chose yesterday to do a story about stomach problems. As we all know "stomach problems" is fairly all-encompassing and so to narrow it down Good Morning asked viewers to vote and the show's doctor would cover the top three conditions. The choices that ITV gave ranged from heartburn and indigestion through gallstones, stomach ulcers, bloating, acid reflux through to constipation, IBS, Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

http://www.itv.com/thismorning/health/which-stomach-issues-should-dr-chris-discuss

The top 3 issues were Crohn's, IBS and Acid Reflux. I stopped watching after the team had played with their gimmicky intestine that stretched across the studio, shown a beautiful model with intestines painted on her and given some brief information about Crohn's and IBS. At the point they focused on triggers for both IBS and Crohn's I stopped watching. Later that afternoon CCUK posted the actual results of the viewer poll on their Facebook page....
https://polldaddy.com/poll/8670482/?view=results

These results clearly show that the top three conditions voted for were Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and then, quite a way back IBS!

Hmmm....what's the point of a viewer vote if you are just going to ignore it.
But more importantly the way ITV approached this topic was insulting and trivialised all the conditions but particularly IBDs. Ask anyone who has suffered with either Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis they are debilitating life limiting conditions. Yes lifestyle and stress may be contributing factors, food may also contribute but it is too simplistic to suggest that these are the reasons. I spends years being told that I had IBS... I know first hand the lack of expertise a GP actually has on these specific and complex conditions. Being told that I had IBS meant that my Colitis was left untreated for years. By the time it was diagnosed I was literally close to dying. UC has led to me having two major operations... One an emergency subtotal colectomy which did save my life, the second this time last week...to make my Stoma permanent to remove my still diseased and inflamed rectal stump.

If you're going to cover these issues...please give the conditions the respect they deserve and give your viewers the respect they deserve. Don't insult us! And if you are going to have a poll don't ignore the results! It's just plain rude!

IBD is not IBS. Ulcerative Colitis is not Crohn's nor is it IBS. All of them are more than just lifestyle, stress and food related!

Thanks to Crohn's and Colitis UK for this publication about IBD:
http://www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk/Resources/CrohnsAndColitisUK/Documents/Publications/Booklets/understanding-ibd.pdf














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