As most of you know this week December 1-7th is National Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week! Awareness for IBD has always been a huge thing in my life and something I strive for everyday, to promote Awareness so people will know how horrible these disease are. It is estimated that 1.4 million Americans have IBD which is not a lot in comparison to our 300 million population, so not everyone really even knows what Crohn’s or Colitis is. I have met so many people who have absolutely no clue what these disease are and it happens all the time. The strangest thing someone asked me was if “Crohn’s disease was the disease that made your whole body swell up with fluid.” That is definitely not it! If you are reading this and by chance do not know what IBD is or stands for it stands for “Inflammatory Bowel Disease.” I urge you to be more informed about this debilitating disease that many suffer with. It is so important especially now that IBD seems to be becoming more prevalent and more and more people are diagnosed each year that we get the word out! That is the point of this week dedicated to raising Awareness for people with the disease and also people who have no idea about it.
I myself have Crohn’s disease was diagnosed at age 17 and immediately hospitalized, at that point I had no idea what Crohn’s disease even was I just knew I was very sick. I am 20 now and this disease has honestly ran my life for the past few years. Multiple stays in the hospital, Remicade infusions, 4-5 colonoscopies in the last 2 years not including EGD’s and Flexsigmoidoscopies, blood work, CT’s x-rays, the list goes on and on! Due to steroids I took when I was first diagnosed I was told I have another disease called Avascular Necrosis of both hips where the hip bone is dead and rotting away. This year at age 20 I have had 2 hip surgeries one being a total hip replacement and next week December 12th I will be having my second total hip replacement and 3rd surgery within 6 months of this year. Its been a hard few months but thanks to friends and family and the support of My facebook page for IBD and twitter I have had a huge response of encouragment, prayers and kind words that have helped me get through. Crohn’s Disease has taken a lot of way from me but not my compassion for those who have it, not my will to survive and be the best advocate I can be and help as many people I can with these diseases. I hear all the time how I have such a great attitude with everything going on, which I try my best to do and I couldn’t do this without the help of others. So thank you for helping me.
This week we have been doing the Purple Challenge where every day people send in pictures of them wearing something Purple in honor of spreading awareness and sending those pictures in to me and at the end of the week compiling them all together in hopefully a video! So please send in pictures to our facebook page www.facebook.com/ItTakesGuts or our twitter handle @LifeTakesGuts and if all else fails our email LifeTakesGuts@yahoo.com. We have had a great response so far so thanks to those who have posted, heres a pic of me doing it.
My goal for this week is to get some buzz going on in the atmosphere of social networking about IBD that will spread over into the rest of the year. Its not just about raising awareness this week its about starting an awareness movement that will spread like wildfire and people who have never heard of this disease will know. The more people realize and understand that this is a serious disease the more funding we can get for research and to help those in need who are all around us. So lets do it! Lets tell everyone we can about this disease and get the word out! I want to thank all of you for supporting me and others around us who need our help. I also will be having a giveaway on our facebook page this week www.facebook.com/ItTakesGuts so spread the word!
Thank you all for reading, If you need to contact me and need help you can find me at any of those links or my personal twitter @Aaron_Blocker or just send an email, I will be honored to help in any way!
