My Crohn's Journey

Hey! My name is Jordan Leftwich. I’m 17 years old and I’m a professional international model and actress. Although, one main thing that makes me different is that I have Crohn’s disease. I’ve probably been living with Crohn’s disease my entire life but I was only diagnosed around 2018, just four years ago.

Before my diagnosis, everything felt extremely difficult. I would get abnormal stomach aches that felt like someone was squeezing and pulling my stomach while there was burning lava in my belly button. It took me years to get diagnosed with Crohn’s. At first, people didn’t believe me when I told them how intense the pain was. I could barely finish my schoolwork let alone turn it in on time. It was hard for me to catch up with my friends and do the normal teenage activities they were doing, and at one point, it was even hard for me to eat, especially knowing how the aftermath would feel.

Even though I visited multiple doctors, they still didn’t know what was going on. One doctor had even prescribed me chewable antacids, which did nothing! I felt like I had tried everything. Between random over the counter medicines, diet changes, and life changes, it seemed like nothing was helping so it just got worse. First it was the stomach aches which worsened with stress, then I was scared to eat. Later came the extreme weight loss and soon enough it became hard for me to walk.

It was around the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, and at this time I
thought I just had a strained hip flexor so I had physical therapy and was given a cane, when in reality I had an abscess the size of a softball in my hip. The craziest part about this is all of this was going on when I was only 14 and at this exact time I got the largest opportunity of a lifetime to go to Spain and model for Miu Miu with Bella Hadid. I took the opportunity and struggled on set but modeling is extremely important to me so I pushed through, not to mention I had no idea what was actually going on in my body.

On one morning in February of 2020, I started to vomit blood and immediately told my mom we needed to go to the hospital. The hospital I was in transferred me to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and I stayed there for a month. My legs felt like they were being stabbed whenever they tried to move me. I wasn’t allowed to eat for the entire month because we couldn’t risk anything. At the beginning, everything was very up and down. I would feel stable but then my legs would start swelling or my blood panels showed something changed. Almost the entire month we were just waiting for me to get surgery. They placed a drain for my abscess and monitored me every day.

During this time my grandparents flew in from Chicago to help out me and my mom. My mom had stayed by my side 24/7. She was staying up late almost every night trying to figure out algebra equations to make sure everything was going right. My mom made sure that all of the doctors were communicating with each other and were in touch with my GI doctor. I truly wouldn’t be here without her. Later, my friend Shamon came to visit me when I was feeling better which really brightened up my spirits. Plus, my modeling agency at the time sent me a teddy bear with a sweet note. Finally, I had my surgery, recovered, and started medication.

Fast forward two years, I started to have a flare up again, but during this time I had way more friends by my side. When it was hard for me to eat everything, my friend Scarlet would keep applesauce pouches at her house and her mom would make sure I could eat something whenever we all had a meal. I would talk to my friend Ashton on Facetime which kept me laughing and happy so I wouldn’t be thinking of my situation. My friends Brandon and Harry made sure that when we hung out that I would be able to do the same stuff as everyone and have access to bathrooms and be comfortable.

Crohn’s can feel isolating when you don’t know what’s going on. But once you find the help that is needed and a medication and routine that works for you, the world feels a little brighter. I want to give a huge thank you to every friend, family member, agent, manager, doctor, nurse, service dog, and anyone else that has helped me along my Crohn’s journey. If you or someone close to you is experiencing these symptoms, try finding a GI doctor that's accessible to you. So let's work together to Make IBD Visible.