A Bedtime Story for Kids with Ulcerative Colitis

Honey, I know you're not feeling too good tonight. Do you want to hear a story about your tummy ache? I thought you might.

Many, many years ago there was a very mean king and queen. All they ever wanted to do was hurt people and they really liked hurting children. They lived alone because they were so mean and no one liked them but they had a lot of power.

One day they were sitting together eating rocks (they didn't like regular food), and the king said what is the best way to hurt a child? The queen thought and she thought and she said "what if we give them a pain in their head all the time?" At first the king grinned in an evil way but then said, "No, they could just take medicine and the pain would go away".

Suddenly the queen jumped up and said excitedly "I know, we will make them feel sick in their tummy; we will make it come back all the time and we will make it so there is no medicine for it!" The king could barely contain his excitement and in an "ement" which is an evil "second", they attacked as many children with stomach pain as they could reach. They thought they were smart because they had visited Italy once so they used a word called "colitis" which means a "mad tummy".

Soon many children were sick and they were also very sad because the pain was always there and they didn't feel like they were the same as everyone else.

You know though, the mean king and queen didn't know about the WW. You've never heard about the WW? He is called the Wonderful Wizard and he stands for everything that is good and he finds the evil king and queen "icky"

When the Wonderful Wizard heard about what the evil king and queen had done, he went straight to work. He told the doctors what they could do to help children with the pain; he talked with parents and told them how they could help their children; he gave children with this tummy problem an especially great personality, and, most, importantly, he sent one of his special helpers to be with each child attacked by the evil king and queen; even though the children didn't know they were there.

Some of the special things he said to do was walk and be happy and drink water and that you should know that things were going to be better because someday he was going to help the doctors find a way to stop this pain forever and ever.

He had a special message for me to give you! He said he had a special present for the evil king and queen and they just might not like it.

Oh, and the Wonderful Wizard said one more thing. He said to give you the biggest hug I could!