How Living With IBD Helped Me Discover My Superpowers

If you had x-ray vision, what would you do with it? Look through walls and spy on your co-workers? Find your dog’s lost ball under the couch, or lazily peek through your fridge to see if you’re almost out of your favorite Greek yogurt? Or maybe, like a traditional superhero, you would wander your town looking for clues behind the doors that no one can enter, and use your powers for the greater good. What if your x-ray vision allowed you to not just see through things, but to see the invisible? I was given that super power, in a way, because of my life with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). As many patients know all too well, the difficulties associated with IBD are often invisible to others. It’s the hours when no one is around as you traverse from your couch to your bathroom; it’s the pain and fatigue that lurk in your body; it’s disappearing from your friends as you drive to the doctor’s office; and it’s the emotional pain too - the loneliness and isolation - when it feels like no one understands your experience. My journey with IBD dominated my college experience. I realized, during that time, that one of the most important tools I needed was support and understanding. It hit me one time, on a particularly symptom-ravaged day, that no one I knew understood my experience and my pain. No one knew what it was like to be me, living with a chronic disease. I needed those around me to use their x-ray vision and see the invisible illness inside of my body and min...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news