Making friends

I've lived in Chicago with my husband a year now, and we've really been unable to make friends. We've met people but invitations are not reciprocated.

So my sister put me in touch with a woman who is my age, has UC and is gluten free. I hope we can make a good connection! That would be neat!

Anybody have an UC buddies?

I have a lot of UC friends online. Hell, one of my BEST friends is someone I met on this board... but we havent met in person yet, as my condition worsened and I had to cancel my trip to visit her.

As for IN person. I found a local chapter of CCFA support group. Havent made it to a group yet (30 minute drive hasnt been possible as of yet) but I did join the Facebook group. It was nice to see people in my area. So close! If I left the house more/better I am sure I could have lunch/tea with some of them. But its hard to leave the house. Especially since I can't be very active or eat much. lol.
And usually I meet people with Crohns... not UC. So that is nice, but not as nice as if it were the SAME disease.
Though this disease is so different for everyone.... :)

I found a lot more superficial connections but a lot better networking and finding people in the area from Facebook.
There are so many support groups on Facebook.

I even created one for the midwest. And joined one for Wisconsin.
Still hard to find UC people in my area. And even harder to find ways to meet up.
But I started talking to a guy only a half hour south. And we will probably meet up after my surgery.
So that will be cool! :)


Def check out Facebook. Crohns and Colitis Support.
My Midwest Crohns And Colitis group is new and small... but has a few people in Chicago. :)

Yeah - no prob!

My first resource was healingwell.

Then I got on Twitter. And had the CCFA group on Facebook.

But after a few months I wanted even more options and found all the Facebook groups.
I like them because Im not super involved... there are ALOT of people asking A LOT of questions and lots of responses. sometimes i just throw in a comment or even just "like" someone elses.

It's sorta easier. Twitter is I got pretty involved for a while. And of course healing well.. I became a "veteran member" within months... lol. I used to post A LOT.

No real-life friends with UC or Crohn's. Got a brother with Crohn's, but his is quite different to mine; seems to be mainly proctitis and he's in remission most of the time. We never talk about our disesae to one another.

During one hospital stay, I actually shared a bay with a woman the same age as me with Crohn's. I'd stayed in the gastroenterology ward a few times before and this was the first time I'd ever met anyone with IBD, let alone someone with so many similarities to me. For the first day or two, it was all totally BFF, swapping of phone numbers, and stuff.

But we were both raging neurotics, so it wasn't too long before the dream fell apart. She was a total anorexic (I should add she was in for a back problem, so she wasn't not eating because she was flaring up badly), who never. stopped. talking. Especially about food. What she could eat. What she couldn't eat. What she couldn't eat would fill a book, while what she could eat would fill a small post-it note.

Me, I was on IV steroids and cranky with it, so I kept on jumping down her throat. One morning I got so irritated with her, I actually fled the ward and found an empty room I could stay in; got a weird look when the inhabitant of the room came back. Still, I got a couple of hours of peace.

All in all, we spent 5 days together; she left the day before me. We gave each the fakest goodbye hug ever, and never spoke to each other again. Despite everything, I still think about her from time to time. Would've been nice if we could've been friends, but I guess it was not to be.

#BlogWell.com

"No real-life friends with UC or Crohn's. Got a brother with Crohn's, but his is quite different to mine; seems to be mainly proctitis and he's in remission most of the time. We never talk about our disesae to one another.

During one hospital stay, I actually shared a bay with a woman the same age as me with Crohn's. I'd stayed in the gastroenterology ward a few times before and this was the first time I'd ever met anyone with IBD, let alone someone with so many similarities to me. For the first day or two, it was all totally BFF, swapping of phone numbers, and stuff.

But we were both raging neurotics, so it wasn't too long before the dream fell apart. She was a total anorexic (I should add she was in for a back problem, so she wasn't not eating because she was flaring up badly), who never. stopped. talking. Especially about food. What she could eat. What she couldn't eat. What she couldn't eat would fill a book, while what she could eat would fill a small post-it note.

Me, I was on IV steroids and cranky with it, so I kept on jumping down her throat. One morning I got so irritated with her, I actually fled the ward and found an empty room I could stay in; got a weird look when the inhabitant of the room came back. Still, I got a couple of hours of peace.

All in all, we spent 5 days together; she left the day before me. We gave each the fakest goodbye hug ever, and never spoke to each other again. Despite everything, I still think about her from time to time. Would've been nice if we could've been friends, but I guess it was not to be. "


Hahahahahaha, this was funny.

I recently met someone with crohns. She's been a long solid 5 year remission. It was nice to not have to explain my issues to someone. She also gave me hope of a "normal" life. I hope to start a friendship with her.

I have a lot of friends from high school still, the ones that stayed around the area. The newer friends I have, have come from a mixture of places...

-From people my friends or their siblings were dating.
-From interests I pursued.
-From dating people, even when it didn't work out.

I met a great friend of mine at a CCFA walk. She was doing a fundraiser for doing a run for CCFA, and had a booth at the walk. A dietitian I had used was at the walk and told me to go talk to her... that I'd get along well with her. She has Crohns, and we immediately had many, many things to talk about. Her and I are spiritually on a very similar level... very open minded and wanting to learn and connect with the world. Her and I didn't date (although my mom kept urging me to ask her out, lol), and now our present partners each encourage our friendship since my wife and her long-term boyfriend don't really get the things we talk about spiritually.

I met some other great friends through this place that held meditation and yoga classes. I met a couple who were awesome people, incredibly kind, etc... but, they moved away... to Chicago funny as it may be. Maybe you can have them as friends now! lol

people are people - whether they are dealing with a nutsowacko disease or not !

I was even going to join a medical school study based on UC and Stress, but I got too stressed out about it. I wanted to do it to meet new people.