Life Changing

I met with my team again yesterday morning. It is really great to see how many of them have made connections and are running together during the week together. I am really optimistic about how many people are going cross the finish line for Crohns Disease and UC!

One of the participants that was at the practice yesterday is running for her brother. He was diagnosed in the last year or so with Crohn's disease. Many of you have read about how I felt when I was diagnosed, but for him it was much harder, it meant that he had to give up his life long dream of being in the military. Shortly after he was diagnosed the severity of his disease forced him to quit his job and reevaluate his life.

I am sorry to say that this is something that happens frequently to people with these diseases. Either they have to stop work all together, reduce their hours or switch jobs. Many doctors feel that stress contributes to Irritable Bowel Disease so those that are in stressful professions often times have to give up their career. I have been lucky that my illness is currently under control, but there were times I worried about having to give up my job or loosing my job because of all the sick time I was taking. Hopefully, one day no one will need to make a choice between their job and their health!