Overcoming Inflammatory Bowel Disease in High School

The onset of my symptoms was sudden and mysterious, but what frightened me the most was the severity of their nature. What was happening to my body? I wondered. Is this the beginning of a terminal illness, or worse, a slow death?

I was sixteen years of age, still in high school, and the constant painful diarrhea and debilitating aches made it virtually impossible for me to attend classes. How was I supposed to sit through an hour-long session, in a classroom full of students, who would continually complain of a strange smell (I couldn't help but pass gas, as the pains were so intense)? The smell also disturbed me: whatever was coming out of my body smelled as if it had been putrefied, as if the contents of my stomach were no longer being properly assimilated and digested. Of course, at the time, I was primarily worried about the social ramifications of my condition. I was already struggling socially in high school, and the stress of having something that no one else seemed to struggle with made me feel very alone, very abnormal. I was constantly darting from social events, avoiding friends, and acting aloof around people, as my mind was filled with ways to get to the nearest bathroom facility.

My parents had placed a lot of pressure on me to do well in school, and I suspect that it could be a contributing factor. I try to think back to the time when the problems began, and I can vaguely remember feeling nervous before school, and sometimes having cramps due to my anxiety. Once I would get to school, I would have to run to the bathroom, and relieve myself a bit, feeling better after doing so.

Yet suddenly, I was having explosive diarrhea, and would have to even stop at bathrooms along the route to school in order to keep an embarrassing accident from occurring. Not only was this an inconvenience, but it also got me into trouble at school, as I would constantly be late due to my morning detours.

I kept my problems to myself, and in retrospect, I feel terribly sorry for the lonely, scared girl that I was, trapped in a terrible world that was beginning to shrink around her as her symptoms became worse and worse.

Finally, I broke down and told my parents what was going on. At first, they accused me of creating this in my head, as they thought that I was trying to avoid going to school, as this was mostly where my stomach problems manifested themselves. My brother laughed at me, thinking that these "bathroom problems" were comedic and even silly.

Yet once my parents were made aware of the problem, their hearts began to soften, especially when I let them see how much I was suffering. Every time I ate, I would have to run to the bathroom, and they could hear me in there, in utter pain. I was also growing pale and seemed to be wasting away in energy and in vitality. I did lose some weight, but it didn't render me stick-thin, for I had started out somewhat "chubby". But my stomach problems certainly brought about a change in me. Though I had always been somewhat nervous and sensitive as a kid, my condition brought out certain obsessive tendencies in me. I started avoiding whole food groups, began holing myself up in my room, under my covers, and was very preoccupied with the smell of my body. I lived in complete dread of going to school, feeling sick just thinking about it. On Sundays, I would think about the five days of agony before me, as I would have to plan my way around my symptoms, and think up the excuses I would have to present to my teachers, facing the ever-increasing doubtful looks on their faces. This stress was constant, and I'm sure it exacerbated my condition further. Still, how was I supposed to deal with my problems, as I really didn't know anything about health at the time? Soon my parents, after witnessing the changes in me, grew very concerned, and decided to take me to get some medical help.

I went to doctors, who jerked me around for a while. One of them had me undergo a colonoscopy, which revealed several polyps which had grown in my intestines. They were removed, the symptoms subsided a little, but then they came back with full force. This left the doctors scratching their heads, for they couldn't find anything organically wrong with me: there were no growths, no tumors, no strange foreign entities in there. I was tested for parasites, and tested negatively. I had to drink this white stuff called barium, and had the insides of my intestines on display on an X-ray.

One of them presented a theory: perhaps I had chronic inflammation of the intestines. Maybe the lining of my colon was inflamed. Great, I thought. He told me that I most likely had some sort of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, under which diseases like Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis were categorized. He wasn't entirely sure what I had, just that my intestines were over-reacting in some way. Yet, there was something so dismal about the way he talked about the prognosis, and I wanted to seek out someone who was willing to steer me towards better health and living, not towards further misery.

Finally, I encountered a doctor who was open-minded and offered me good advice, even though she herself couldn't tell me exactly what was wrong with me. After I had complained to her how much I had gotten screwed over by the medical system, she looked me straight in the eyes.

"The diagnosis you've received," she told me. "Is just a name. You're not helpless. There's a lot you can do. Do some research. Listen to your body. Take your health into your own hands."

And so I decided to do so. I didn't want to feel like a puppet anymore. Though all doctors are not cold and uncaring, I had developed a great deal of distrust for them, and decided to educate myself as much as I could, so that I could ultimately take care of my own health. Of course, I had no plans to be reckless, and always kept in mind the importance of having the doctors as back-up in case an emergency situation arose.

By that time, I was constantly immersing myself in literature on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. A lot of questions were left unanswered, and I felt stuck in a constant cycle. The books had the same information, and failed to address other things that I wanted to find out. They talked about drug treatment such as immunosuppressive agents and anti-inflammatory drugs, but I really didn't want to take them. They were a) unaffordable and b) came with potential hazards to the body that exceeded the benefits. They also talked about restrictive diets consisting of bland foods, but I loved to eat, and wasn't willing to do this long-term. I wanted to find a way to get my digestive system back to the way it was.

Even at my young age, I was making connections between my mental state, my thoughts even, and my physical state. I knew that though my condition was heavily physiological, I didn't rule out the possibility of psychosomatic components. I knew enough by now to say with certainty that whenever I become nervous before school, my body would bring on a reaction in the gut. I was starting to delve into health psychology, discovering the mind-gut relationship. There had to be something to it.

I had withdrawn from my friends, and I certainly wasn't about to start dating. After all, that would mean that I would have to be close to someone, and closeness, when you have gas, diarrhea, and the perspiration that results from chronic pain (this was another strange symptom- increased sweating and body odor) is a total nightmare. I didn't even want to venture into the increased stress of trying to hide a major part of my life from someone who would probably eventually become intertwined in my life. I didn't even want to think about it. Besides, I was feeling so unattractive. My skin, besides its increased pallor, had broken out into large pustules and cysts, most likely from severe malabsorption of vital nutrients. Even then, I knew my food wasn't getting absorbed, for I could see whole chunks of undigested food in my feces.

I decided that I didn't have to live with a weakened body, and began a slow vitamin regimen. Initially, I had taken synthetic, mass-marketed ones because they were cheaper, and my body felt poisoned. I stopped them and felt despondent.

My piano teacher was really into alternative medicine, and she was one of the few I would tell about my problems, for I could sense that she would be sympathetic. After hearing about my vitamin fiasco, she told me to try herbal remedies to detoxify my internal organs. It sounded foreign and strange to me, but I decided to give it a try.

After considerable research (and I would highly recommend this to anyone who tries any remedies not directed by a qualified health practitioner) I tried milk thistle for several weeks, and was surprised that an herb could actually bring about noticeable effects. Yet it did. Slowly, I felt that my digestion was subtly improved, and this is most likely due to its liver cleansing properties. If the liver is congested, of course digestion is negatively affected as well. I then tried dandelion root as well as burdock root, which I drank as a tea every day, which is a mild liver cleanser and blood cleanser, respectively. I also tried pau d'arco, which has antiviral, anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties, and I felt that this made the most difference. Some experts say that inflammatory bowel diseases could be a reaction to a bacteria, fungus or virus. I felt that the pau d'arco tea helped me the most, but I had to discontinue it for some time as I felt weakened by it sometimes. Yet it allowed for anything bad inside me to lose its power, and in turn, I regained my own.

Next I decided to tackle my digestion. I took a multi-enzyme supplement, which had things such as bromelain (from pineapples), papain (from papayas), cellulose (which helps digest fiber), amylase (which breaks down starch), lactase (which digests dairy) and other enzymes, and I can say for a fact that the undigested food and oily feces were mitigated. I actually, for the first time in a long time, felt as though I was actually digesting and absorbing nutrients. I also added betaine hydrochloride, which increases stomach acid, as I had read that stomach problems and acne (both of which I had) could be due to a dearth of stomach acid.

My teacher also advised aloe vera. I took half a cup a day on an empty stomach, and at first experienced awful stomach cramps. I lowered my dosage and slowly increased it, and while it cleansed me, it also seemed to heal my stomach in the long-term. This was hard to do at first, since I was already having diarrhea and aloe vera is a known laxative, but small doses really helped me.

Also, to counter the malabsorption that had occurred from having years of diarrhea, I took a multi-mineral supplement which had calcium, magnesium, selenium, copper, zinc, and manganese. My body had missed out on these for some time, and happily assimilated them. I also included a vitamin b-complex, and took vitamins A, E, D and also took alfalfa to get vitamin K. It took years of studying and reading to come up with this regimen, and it wasn't always easy. I had to experiment with certain supplements, and decided to invest in high-quality, hypo-allergenic supplements that had no added soy, wheat, dairy or anything else. It's very important to invest in supplements in their purest forms, without the additives that could trick your body into thinking it is under further attack. With an inflamed, nervous (and sometimes angry) colon, you want to send the message that you are not trying to do it any harm.

It took years for me to learn to stop my negative thoughts. I knew that I had gotten into the habit of entertaining anxiety-provoking thoughts, such as "What if I have an attack in public today? What if I have to go to the bathroom, and there is none around? What if I have a severe urge to go when I'm hanging out with my friends?" Such thoughts were endless, and were constantly barraging my mind, and almost always triggering an attack.

My symptoms have become far more manageable over time, and while I wouldn't say that I have "outgrown" it, my body is not nearly in as much agony as it was when I was in those awful high school years. Life is calmer now, and I feel even wiser, for I've learned through direct experience that it takes time and discipline to learn to listen and ultimately work with, not against, one's body.