“Allthrough high school, I suffered from serious anxiety rooted in my stomach issues. I would get nauseous, could hardly eat, had excruciating abdominal pain, and had diarrhea 10 or more times a day. By grade 12, I was missing school, social events, and opportunities, simply because I was nervous about not finding a bathroom in time. I even had a few close calls where I almost didn’t make it to the bathroom. And I didn’t feel like I could talk to anyone about any of it.
In my first year of university, after a lot of advocating for testing, a colonoscopy revealed five ulcers in my small intestine and I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. It’s a shitty diagnosis to receive, no pun intended, but it changed everything for me in the best way. Finally, I could get on medication and put a name to what was going on in my body. And once I could name it, I found I could talk about it.
Soon after, I started The Gut Gazette to blog about my Crohn’s experience and launched a support group on campus for students and faculty with digestive diseases. The response was eye-opening. I discovered that by talking about my illness and my experiences, I could help others — and that, in the process, I was also healing myself.
Overtime, I grew steadily more involved in advocacy, becoming passionate about helping others find their own voices and sharing stories that are often stigmatized. It amazes me how often better outcomes can be created simply by speaking up about the things we’re scared to talk about.
The confidence I’ve gained from sharing my own journey has opened doors I never imagined. Today, I’m co-founder of a company that focuses on integrating patient experiences into health care solutions. I’m on the board of Gastroenterology, the official journal of the AGA Institute, as a patient partner. I’m a proud mom of two with an incredible husband, and I’m living a life that teenage me couldn’t have imagined.
This is not to say that everything is perfect. Crohn’s never goes away. I still deal with pain, urgency, fatigue, and bathroom anxiety. It’s very unpredictable. But I don’t struggle alone and I don’t struggle in silence.”
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