About

Hi!

I'm Sam, and I have Crohn's Disease.

I also have a soft spot for emotionally-withholding cats, a love of baseball and politics, and a tendency to go off on a tangent about feminism at the dinner table.

This blog, however, is mainly about the Crohn's Disease part.

I was diagnosed in 2010 after a lifetime of having a "nervous stomach" and about a year of said stomach being so "nervous" that I couldn't eat anything but plain crackers. I was 18 when I was finally colonoscopy-ized. The next day, I put on a pretty dress and went to turnabout all while actively avoiding telling my date about the camera that was just in my intestines because #modernromance, amirite?

I went on medicine and was (mostly) fine for a long time. I never had the stomach of a normal person, and I got tired way quicker than my other college friends, but I was like fine, okay? I was coping super well, as I told my doctors emphatically in my sad attempt to be what I deemed "a normal kid."

This is me (left), the day after my diagnosis, smiling because I am no longer mid-colonoscopy.

Since then, my cavalier attitude about my fairly serious symptoms has landed me in the hospital. It's gotten me into some flares so bad walking down a small flight of stairs makes my body hurt. But it also got me into the idea of blogging about it!

I am here, writing this blog, because I am a writer by trade who also happens to have Crohn's Disease. Writing is my favorite (and only) way of coping with stuff in my life that is not rainbows and unicorns. I am writing this blog for me, but also because I see a real gap in chronic illness coverage online. In so many articles I read, it's presented as something that only happens to really old people who smoked a lot and watch Wheel of Fortune. While I love Wheel of Fortune as much as the next shut-in, I wanted to put a different face on chronic illness. MY FACE. Everyone look at my face!

It's the face of someone who doesn't really know how to cope with all the things happening in and to her body. It's the face of someone who gets occasionally bitter about the whole "invisible illness" thing, because people don't seem to understand that it means you're actually sick. It's the face of someone who is always on a lot of pills, and not in like a fun, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas kind of way.

But it's also the face of a girl with a social life! And a love of alcohol, when she can drink it! And a cool job! And a lack of willpower at Sephora!

Here is a photo of me drinking in public to illustrate that I am hip and cool and not always horribly ill

All of this is simply to say that I'm gonna talk about stuff. Like different medicines. And the complex relationship my disease has with food. And coping mechanisms that can hopefully help anyone with any chronic illness. Basically, I want a place where we can all feel a little less alone.

So grab your meal replacement shakes and heating pads because this will (probably) be a wild ride~~*

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Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any of the photos on this blog, or attempt to make money off of them! I'm just a girl blogging about my life and adding in the occasional cute cartoon I see on tumblr. That being said, if you see an image on here that belongs to you and you'd like me to take it down, please email me and I will do so immediately. Also, thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone, etc etc.