Jonno’s Story
Never Say Die
It all started slowly at the end of year nine. I just felt off. Not feeling hungry and never having any energy. I was sent to a paediatric gastroenterologist who started me on medications that seemed to be working. But ever so slowly things started to go bad again. During the next two months I lost 12 kg; my weight went down to 29 kg and I slowly got weaker.
Then it all peaked. I was constantly in pain and unable to eat or drink anything, not even water, and I could hardly get up off the lounge. Mum and Dad were really worried. They decided to take me to hospital, but I was so weak she basically carried me to the car.
I was sitting on the front seat with a bucket between my legs all the way to hospital just trying not to be sick. Every time we had to stop at a set of lights the car would jerk and I felt like my head was going to explode. When we got to hospital I thought I was going to die.
After a week of treatment I had all of my alertness back and started to walk again. But it was only small steps. Once I could walk on my own a physiotherapist gave me an exercise routine to get my strength back and a dietitian ordered a special diet to help me put on weight.
At the end of two weeks the doctor said that I was well enough to go home. But a month later I had another flare up and I ended up with huge bruises and lumps all over my legs. It was really painful to walk.
It took six months to recover and I’m now in remission. Crohn’s disease never goes away, I’ll have it for the rest of my life. But with a good diet and looking after myself well I should be able to lead a very normal life.