Bigger and better than Crohn's Disease

This morning I saw a trending post on Facebook and I couldn't help but write about it. It was an article from the Independent about a young man called Ste Walker who suffers with Crohn's disease. Many of you do already know, but for those of you that don't, my boyfriend and best friend Sam suffers with the disease. Luckily, Sam's condition doesn't seem as severe as Ste's, but of course, all his struggles are relative to him.

Sam was diagnosed earlier this year, however it was something that we knew had been happening for a while - he now manages his condition with a hefty amount of tablets and has just finished a course of steroids. His steroids have given him bad skin and he has a very weak immune system, meaning that small cases of what we'd see as a bit of a cold, can really affect him and make him ill.

Now - if you met Sam, you would have no idea that this was all going on inside of him. Although he is 23 next week, he is often referred to as "the man-child" for being so hyper and upbeat so unless he comes out and tells you (which he does tend to, as he's quite open about the disease), then you probably would never guess.

Talking to someone everyday, you don't really see the effect that the disease is having on their body, but when I look back to pictures of him at his worst, when he couldn't eat properly and was under 10 stone - I can really see how ill he was.

If I'm honest, I find Sam's disease hard to understand - I'm ashamed to say that sometimes I'll forget and get frustrated if he's too tired to do something or if he's being short tempered with me and it has really tested our relationship. But I always make it clear that he knows that no matter what happens, I'm always here for him - because if I find it difficult to understand, one of the people closest to him, then how can we expect others to? It doesn't matter how much literature I read on the subject or how much people try and explain it to me, Crohn's is a disease that is very hard to understand if you're not going through it. Which I assume is true for many 'invisible' diseases.

There is a very strong link between Crohn's and depression. This is for many, many reasons. The disease can give you extremely painful stomach cramps - making day to day activities difficult such as simply going to work or even leaving the house. This can leave you feeling not only in pain, but helpless - 'normal' people can go to work and go out with their friends with no problem, so why can't you? It doesn't seem fair. It's important that anyone with an 'invisible' disease knows that it's not invisible, people do care and understand and they do want to help you and make you feel better.

A lot of Sam's friends are at University and a few of them have just left for 6 months in Australia and so he feels as though there's very little to do with his time - although he's played football pretty much all his life, even that can be difficult. I know this gets him down, but luckily he has incredibly supportive family and friends, although they may not always be around, myself included. He probably wouldn't say it to many people as he likes to come across as the happiest guy around, but in reality, he's not necessarily. He has good days and bad days, luckily the good outweigh the bad. However, it's important to remember that what's going on, on his face is not always exactly how he feels and we need to be mindful of that. 

Later this year (or it could be next year, I'm not sure!), he has signed up to do two marathons in two days in order to raise money for Crohn's and I think it's very important that we all get behind him. It's something that has affected his life in a way that he never could have anticipated and it's something that anyone can develop; there's no known cause or cure.

Reading Ste's story this morning really hit home because although it's hard and it doesn't make Sam's struggle any less of a struggle, you can see that it is not as bad as it could be. I wish Ste all the best on his journey as I know that he is probably going through some very similar experiences to Sam. Something I know too well. 

Although it has strained our relationship in the past, it is part of who Sam is and it has made him who he is. I wish I could make his life easier and make it go away, but I wouldn't change our experiences. I believe that everything happens for a reason and Sam is dealing with it incredibly. He is such a strong person and I love him for it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/ste-walkers-facebook-post-about-living-with-crohns-disease-is-shared-more-than-33000-times-a6720451.html