Memior

It was a warm sunny day. I was enjoying a dinner at my church; little did I know it would change my life. In March 2009, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease is an auto-immune disease that attacks my Digestive system. There is no cure, only medicine that can help you. And sometime that can be like taking air. Some meds have to be infused. I’m on an infusion every 8 weeks called Remicade. Diagnosing me was hard; my problems were always acid reflux or Celiac disease. When I got admitted my first time my gastroenterologist did a lot of testing. My biopsies came back benign but they saw I had Crohn’s. I didn’t really know how to react

I had a tough year last year. I was sick and constantly in the hospital. One of the things that helped me was starbright world. Starbright world is a social-networking site for teens with cronic and serious illnesses. I felt alone like I was the only on going through this all. But on starbright I knew I wasn’t. I have made some Great friends on starbright that has helped me a lot.

The worst time for me was on my birthday. I was having an awesome day but after my dinner my stomach hurt really badly. The only thing was that I wasn’t getting better. Nothing was helping me; I was barely eating and just couldn’t go to school. I was put on homeschool. On November 13, 2009 I had surgery. I was stuck in ICU for 5 days on oxygen and a feeding tube. I really don’t like the feeding tubes they hurt and just uncomfortable. I don’t remember a whole lot after my surgery. It was a scary time.

I was pretty much healthy until around March then My Crohn’s flared up again. I had to go back on homeschool again because I was way too far behind. It was really tough because this was after I came to Will Rogers and I had made a lot of friends. I don’t really tell people because then they treat me different after they know. So it was hard leaving. But I eventually got better afterwards.

During the summer I attended Camp Oasis. Camp Oasis is a camp for kids with Crohn’s and UC. It was amazing there. I had so much fun just being with other kids my age who understood when I mentioned a test or a medicine and they didn’t look at me weird. My favorite thing is swimming, and at camp they have a Shamu (from sea world) shaped pool. I also liked the Woodshop. I kind of got homesick but my mom wrote to me every day she could and that made me happy.

Before my Crohn’s I didn’t really think about what I wanted to do. But after I wanted to be a pediatric gastroenterologist. There are not that much peds GIs in northern California. I want to find a cure for Crohn’s so not only me but the other thousands and hundreds of people can live life normally.

My family has been great through this all. My mom is awesome she stays with me in the hospital. She is like supermom she can take care of her family and me. All in all maybe one day there can be a cure from this terrible disease.