47 year history with Crohn's disease

My experience with Crohn's disease spans 47 years. I have had many surgeries, procedures, and challenges but I have developed various tools on how to manage this lifelong ailment. I have focused intently on managing my mind and emotions along with traditional medicine and diet and combined this has given me my greatest relief over the past decade. I remain optimistic that fellow Crohn’s patients can manage this difficult disease. I recently wrote and published a book on what I learned titled “Living with the Bully of Crohn’s Disease.”

Today I heard a talk on Peacemaking and I related it to my experience as a Crohn’s patient. I realize my mind and body are connected and I must work with both of them to experience true health. Creating peacefulness in me is another key component of my healing process. Peacefulness is not a passive energy but instead a dynamic force that says I am blessed and am confident the world is a benevolent place that nourishes me.

I realize that Crohn’s disease is active in me and I cannot wage mental and emotional war on that part of me, (my ill bowels) and expect healing. My anger, frustration, guilt or fear associated with Crohn’s are emotions of war and do not heal me, they make things worse. Instead, I must wage peace on myself and my wounded body and mind. I must come to appreciate and give credit to accomplishments in my life, the relationships I built, the qualities of character I developed and importantly, the need to see Crohn’s as something that I heal through seeing this ailment as a deep wound. I heal this wound by physical and medical treatments AND by the mental treatments of peacefulness, which include gratitude, joy, forgiveness, compassion, patience, kindness, and love. I do not yell at my ill body and swollen intestines but instead use healing energies. This is how I use peacefulness versus war in an effort to heal Crohn’s disease.

I agree that our emotional and mental health play a significant role in the healing process with Crohn's. For me it was the one area that I had spent little time working on for my first few decades with Crohn's other then to give it lip service. It takes a lot of work to apply it and it became a powerful tool as I did. My mental and emotional health became more than positive thinking, they became a healing way of life that improved my health. As you pointed out, this by itself was still not enough. I had to combine this along with medical, physical, and spiritual tools to effectively keep the bully of Crohn's at bay. This combination has worked well for me and the last few years have been my healthiest.

So sad to hear that you have suffered so long, and had to go through so much. My experience has been a long road of wanting to know what was happening on a cellular level. That led me out of the trouble of Crohns. Crohns is most often a fall back diagnosis when colitis is severe. Please make sure that all biopsies are cultured for herpes, and Titer tests run to rule out CMV Herpes Colitis. GI doctors can be skeptical on this, but more are understanding that you don't have to be immune compromised. I was misdiagnosed with Crohns based on a pathologist's biopsy observation. When I continued to relapse, I insisted on the cultures and tests. Bingo!! With the proper antiviral medication therapy, I'm able to control the flare ups properly and save my eyesight, all without the damaging immune suppressants.

Talk about timing. I was just thinking last night how much I've grown because of this DD over the past 32 years. You just have to dig in and move when you can and stop and take care of yourself when you need to.