Roscher - How to Cook for Crohns and Colitis

I was diagnosed with Crohns disease in December 2001. My symptoms, though, had begun two years earlier. In the fall of 1999, I had diarrhea and pain in my abdomen every day for a month. I felt tired all the time. I thought it was the flu or that I had a bug that I just couldnt shake. I saw a doctor. He poked around my belly and then told me it was probably gall bladder disease (common for women my age). Thanks so much! He suggested a bland diet that included cutting down on fats. The pain, however, continued to come and go, sometimes being unbearable. The diarrhea didnt stop, and the gasoh my God! I kept wondering when I was going to pass those gall stones!

There was a heaviness in my lower abdomen, and my abdominal pain worsened, especially when trying to poo, which was most of the time. I returned to my regular doctor, and after an exam and blood work, she sent me off to have both external and internal ultrasounds. They found nothing other than I had a lot of gas. News flash! I just wasnt getting any answers. For about a year and a half I went on living with the symptoms. I lost twenty-five pounds.

In September 2001, my husband Dan and I moved to Myrtle Beach from Charleston, SC. Setting up a new household is stressful. Finding your way around a new city is stressful. Looking for a new job is stressful. And the move was particularly stressful for me because I was moving away from my daughters. Though they were adults (eighteen and twenty years old), they were still my babies.

On Christmas Day Dan and I invited a friend over to share turkey with all the trimmings. I made it through preparing the feast, even ate a little, and then excused myself to lie down. I couldnt do any more because of the pain. I thought, Maybe this is it, maybe Im finally going to pass those gall stones, or maybe its appendicitis, or maybe Im going to poop myself to death!

For the next couple of days, it was all I could do to get out of bed to get to the bathroom because the pain was so intense. Then it happened. A pain shot through me like someone had stabbed me the gut and was twisting the blade. I gasped for breath. Dan rushed me to the hospital. I woke up in the ICU with a catheter; a tube down my nose into my stomach; IVs in my legs, arms, and belly; my abdomen distended and terribly painful. The doctor told me I had nearly died of a disease I had never heard of: Crohns.

Five days later I was released from the hospital with prescriptions for antibiotics, steroids, painkillers, and acid reducers. The only information on Crohns disease I received before leaving the hospital was that Crohns is believed to be an autoimmune disease that affects the digestive tract. Surgery is often performedsometimes repeatedlyand there is no cure.

When I returned home, I had a lot of questions. What exactly is Crohns? What are the symptoms? What causes it? Is there anything I can do to control it? And most immediately, what can I eat? What cant I eat? Thats when my research began.