how to explain??

does anyone have any ideas on a simple yet clear way to explain crohns to someone? i want to leave out the gorry details ( ie. diarrhea)

coworker

i usually say something along the lines of:

its a condition where very little of the vitamins/minerals/nutrients of the food i ate are being absorbed into my body....

you can add whatever symptoms your comfortable with sharing....fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, etc....

This is a situation that most of us have on a daily basis. I always ask them if they know what an auto-immune disease is and then go from there. Usually, I just explain to them that my immune system is really active all the time thinking that my intestinal track is sick and causes it to be come inflamed. Because it always thinks that it is under attack, the inflammation keeps going causing ulcers throughout everything, which in turn eventually cause scar tissue and other digestive problems. I also just explain to them that because the immune system is overly active, it also can cause inflammation through out my other parts of my body, mainly my joints causing arthritis.
The most important thing that you can do is inform them in a way that your are not seeking sympathy, but just educating them. This will be a big benefit to you down the road if you ever need to call in sick or need to ask for some help. Just like other chronic conditions and diseases, educating the public about our disease is a huge thing. All too often people get a little to gross or in depth in their description about their disease and eventually come across as a hypochondriac or whiner. If we stay positive when we talk about our disease, then we you are really sick or in a flare, people will realize how that you are really having bad day or flare.
If the person has other questions, do not be afraid to answer them if you feel comfortable sharing that information with that person. I made the mistake with sharing a little too much information about why I am on SSDI, and that person and his wife started spreading rumors about how lazy I was and that I was addicted to pain medication. The truth is, I have never been addicted to anything in my life( I have never even drank a drop of alcohol or tried a smoking), but I told him or bad days I had to use pain medication so that I could function.
So, to make this long post end, I will just sum it up and say to keep it simple and not to try to make it sound too rough, even though this disease is the hardest thing that most of us will ever go through. Even though there most days we need to just cowboy up and take the pain and other symptoms just live a little, not everyone needs to know that you have D several times a day.

When you want to keep it simple I say it's like having a stomach flu everyday.

:)

I find its hard to expain this illness to ppl. I just tell as little as possible.

I read an explanation once that isn't quite right but helps a bit.

The average persons intestine is like a rubber band, very stretchy and thin. A Crohn's person's intestine is like a rubber tire, very thick and not very stretchy. So you can imagine food trying to pass through and the way it would feel going through each one.

Then add the ulcers and the having the flu everyday to that and you pretty much have it.