World IBD Day 2017
Tomorrow is World IBD Day... it is the 5th that I have celebrated. Tomorrow I will be wearing purple in honour of the day.
Prior to 2012 I had no idea about World IBD Day indeed I didn't know what an IBD was and I certain didn't know what an ostomy was!
In honour of my 5th World IBD Day here are 5 thoughts to share...
1) Having an IBD IS HORRIBLE. It is debilitating, life changing, life limiting and exhausting. At my worst I had very little life. I couldn't go out with my family, I couldn't do things with my daughter or my husband.
2) Going to the toilet up to 30 or 40 times a day IS NOT normal! It is not the same as having a dodgy curry! It is exhausting. And time consuming!
3) The medical profession can be both brilliant ... they saved my life...but also awful at diagnosing IBD. It is much easier to diagnose IBS than IBD. Being told for years that I had IBS probably nearly killed me.
4) There is no cure for IBD... research is finding answers slowly, but it is a cause that is consistently underfunded. It is not cool to fund research into poo! However research is crucial and more needs to be done to fund research to continue to understand IBD. There are lots of medications that can help to control flares and surgery is often the only solution for many people!
5) I have ulcerative colitis ... I am also an ostomate. These two things are linked and are part of who I am. I have been critically ill.... and I have had life changing and life saving surgery. They do not define me but they are both part of who I am! Some days are good some days are not so good... but all days are better than before surgery!
If you do one thing on World IBD Day... share a thought... Google IBD, watch a live Facebook event from CCUK or just read my thoughts!
And if nothing else then please remember that about 1 in 250 are likely to suffer from an IBD ... but propbably even more than this go undiagnosed.
For more information please visit: Crohns & Colitis UK
Prior to 2012 I had no idea about World IBD Day indeed I didn't know what an IBD was and I certain didn't know what an ostomy was!
In honour of my 5th World IBD Day here are 5 thoughts to share...
1) Having an IBD IS HORRIBLE. It is debilitating, life changing, life limiting and exhausting. At my worst I had very little life. I couldn't go out with my family, I couldn't do things with my daughter or my husband.
2) Going to the toilet up to 30 or 40 times a day IS NOT normal! It is not the same as having a dodgy curry! It is exhausting. And time consuming!
3) The medical profession can be both brilliant ... they saved my life...but also awful at diagnosing IBD. It is much easier to diagnose IBS than IBD. Being told for years that I had IBS probably nearly killed me.
4) There is no cure for IBD... research is finding answers slowly, but it is a cause that is consistently underfunded. It is not cool to fund research into poo! However research is crucial and more needs to be done to fund research to continue to understand IBD. There are lots of medications that can help to control flares and surgery is often the only solution for many people!
5) I have ulcerative colitis ... I am also an ostomate. These two things are linked and are part of who I am. I have been critically ill.... and I have had life changing and life saving surgery. They do not define me but they are both part of who I am! Some days are good some days are not so good... but all days are better than before surgery!
If you do one thing on World IBD Day... share a thought... Google IBD, watch a live Facebook event from CCUK or just read my thoughts!
And if nothing else then please remember that about 1 in 250 are likely to suffer from an IBD ... but propbably even more than this go undiagnosed.
For more information please visit: Crohns & Colitis UK
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