An Inspirational Story of Another Crohnee

My name is Terri. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s last September. After eight years of pain and going to countless doctors, I wound up in the E.R. with a blocked intestine. I was at the point of death. Emergency surgery by a wonderful local surgeon saved my life and diagnosed me with Crohn’s.

I had been told for years, my ailments were due to a nervous stomach. My doctors and I fought for my life over an extended stay at the hospital (four months) Crohn’s had eaten all of my muscles. I weighed 72 pounds, I was week, I was dying and I was extremely malnourished.

Crohn’s was like a hideous monster, eating away at my body. I had a perforated bowel, a fistula and a huge hole in my intestines. I was on the brink of death several times, but luckily my doctors never gave up on me. They poured nutrients and antibiotics into me, and then started on Remicade.

I Finally got strong enough to do the surgery to repair the damages and take out the damaged intestines. After surgery I grew weaker, to the point where I could hardley lift my head off the pillow, much less walk. At my lowest point, I weighed 62 pounds!

I refused to give up. My doctors did not give up. I Prayed to God that if I could not be healed, to take me out so I would not linger. I told God I was not ready to leave my children, that I could keep enduring the pain and the leaking Ostomy bags - if I could just gain a little strength.

The next morning I felt a little better. I had a Remicade treatment and six weeks later I was at 71 pounds. I went to stay at my mothers house. She is a hard woman, but I really had no where else to go. I had not lived with her since I was 16. She threw out all of my summer clothes (it was January of this year).

She thought surely I would be dead by then. My mother saw a show on OPRAH about a women in Africa with Fistulas. She tormented me every day with talk of how “If I were in Africa I would be thrown in a Hole because I was so nasty.” She constantly sprayed air freshners around me.

I showered twice a day, kept my bandages clean and kept my bag clean - still she said she could smell me. I am a Dental Hygienist, I am a clean person. I was often told I was attractive. Now I felt like an animal. It feels like sickness robs one of their dreams…

The only thing that kept me going was wanting to live for my children, faith in my doctors and faith that god had not brought me this far to let me fall. The only reason my mother was letting me stay was because she was remarried to a preacher, a kind man, and was worried about what the church thought.

Anyways, moving on past my mother…

Here is what really helped me:

I found the book THE MAKERS DIET. I followed it religiosly.

Now…3 months later, I weigh 102 pounds and I have muscle all over my body!!

Good doctors, The Makers Diet, getting away from my Mother (I now live with my brother) and my Remicade treatments are now helping me beat this disease. I am now just waiting for reversal surgery (for my ostomy bag). It takes every penny I can muster to buy ostomy bags. But one day I know I WILL have my life back.

I will stay on the MAKERS DIET the rest of my life and follow my wonderful doctor’s instuctions. And soon I can get my daughter back and have my own home.

Pray for me…You are all in my prayers as well…

Terri

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26 March 2006 | Personal | Comments