A Crohn's Story - Part 2: Diagnosis and Denial

I spent most of the next day waiting for the doctors to tell me when I could be released.  There had been the promise of real food and then the bigger promise of going home if my stomach could handle the food.  So I started with a liquid diet - chicken broth, jello, non-dairy protein drink.   I'd never been so excited for chicken broth in my life.   It stayed down and I stayed pain free.

Then they moved me up to a low-fiber diet.  In this case, it was a grilled chicken sandwich with some roasted carrots.  Again, this was the best chicken sandwich I'd eaten and I didn't even mind the carrots.  They made me wait a full half an hour before agreeing to release me and that was the slowest half an hour of my life.

It felt like Christmas and my birthday all wrapped into one when they finally took the PICC line out.  But that was quickly quelled when the doctors came in to talk to me about Crohn's disease and what to do when I got out of the hospital.

Internally, I was second guessing everything the doctors told me.  I kept trying to think of other things that could be causing my symptoms.  The internet has no end of possibilities for alternate diagnoses and I was convinced that it was a kind of false positive caused by the excessive amounts of Aleve I had been taking for my herniated disk.

I scheduled a second opinion with my dad's GI doctor and he was very patient with me as I asked all of my questions.  He gave me reasonable explanations for why my alternate theories couldn't be an accurate diagnosis and he reviewed the treatment plan laid out by the GI doctor I had in the hospital.  My heart was very heavy at the end of that call - I didn't want to be a "sick" person.

There is a lot of emotional baggage when you're diagnosed with a chronic disease.  The worst was when I read that my condition would be considered pre-existing for most health insurance companies and that I would also be covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 .  There is something about being protected by legislation that made me feel helpless.  Your health, safety, and livelihood can hinge on whichever way the political wind is blowing. (And, yes, I realize I'm coming from a place of privilege when I say this.)