Hey all. I've got a disease called Crohn's Disease. Currently I'm in a hospital, getting medicines pumped into me. I even have "food" going directly into my bloodstream.
I've been in the hospital for roughly a little over a week now because of severe cramping in my intestines, and an Entocutaneous fistula. It basically means that I've got what amounts to a second anus on my right side, letting out bits of liquid, and its connected to my intestines. Yeah, sounds gross, I know.
I've been living with Crohn's Disease for 17 years now, ever since I was 20 years old. I've had a bowel resection (the surgeons cut out 1 metre of intestine (1 1/2 foot large, 1 1/2 foot of small intestine, all together). I've had an incisional hernia repair at the site of the bowel resection. I've even had my tonsils taken out, though that was when I was around 6 years old.
Recently I became a little bit more like a cyborg. I had installed in me a semi-permanent way to get blood from my body and liquids into my body called a Medi-Port. This is installed under the skin of my right chest, and if I need to have blood drawn, they can just poke into that one port, and suck blood directly from the large veins very close to my heart. I'm also currently on TPN, which basically means they're able to boost my nutrition by giving me the basics of life directly into my blood, letting my intestines rest and repair themselves without having to worry about breaking down and absorbing nutrients. I like to think of it as I'm absorbing cheeseburgers directly into my bloodstream without getting fat.
You can not "catch" Crohn's Disease like you would the common cold. The only person I could ever give Crohn's Disease to would be if I were to have a son or daughter (forever alone). I could give all of my organs away (and have chose to when I die), and the organ recipients wouldn't be able to get Crohn's Disease from me. It's genetic. My mom's genes and my dad's genes combined, and gave me a binary 2 in a certain spot in my genetic code, thus I have Crohn's Disease.
So, any questions?
Please note, this is NOT a throwaway account. This is my personal account, and I'm posting all this because a lot of people don't even know what Crohn's Disease (and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, it's little cousin) are.