My Life With Crohn's Disease

by Whitney Corbett

My Diagnosis

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2011 at the age of 16. I had two strictures in my small intestines that were surgically removed. They caused me to throw up almost every time I ate. When I couldn’t stand the pain or discomfort I would make myself throw up. But the bowel resection helped immensely. Along with surgery, I immediately started Remicade.

Because of the surgery I was able to graduate high school in 2013, get to a healthy weight, play tennis, have energy and a social life. I moved away from home and started college at Utah State University.

My second year of school things started to get worse. The Remicade stopped working and by this time I had been on it for almost 4 years. My symptoms were changing. They were in my colon this time. I started to feel like I couldn’t control anything anymore. I constantly worried about when I would need to use the bathroom, where a bathroom would be or if I'd be able to be social or make it to my classes. I started to feel arthritic. I could barely walk or move. Everything hurt.

I came home from school for a few weeks and I started the Simple Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) for the first time. I did it for about 2 months. But because the food at beginning stages of this diet are very limited, I began to loose weight again. I honestly couldn’t tell you if that diet helped me or not, partially because my doctor put me on a round of prednisone right before having me start Humira that summer and everything overlapped. I finished my second year of classes, but because of my health, it was really hard. I was on Humira for only a year when I decided to stop.

I had to inject myself with the pen every two weeks. This was before they took out the ingredient that made it sting. It was awful. It caused so much stress and anxiety as each injection day approached. Especially because this medication did not help my symptoms whatsoever.