Isabelle's Story

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in the Spring of 2019 when I was 15 years old. In the months leading up to my diagnosis, I experienced severe abdominal pain that was primarily brought on by eating. Often it was a sharp pain, but sometimes it was a dull ache. Since eating caused the pain, I began to eat less and, in turn, I lost weight. In four months, I went from 125 pounds to 109 pounds. Although eating less food relieved me of my pain in the moment, it wasn’t a healthy diet or way to live. I would eat very little during normal meal times, and then late at night I would get hungry so I would eat things that did not exacerbate the pain as much like pasta or dairy free ice cream. My diet ended up extremely unbalanced, especially because it lacked enough fruits and vegetables. All of this happened before I was diagnosed and understood what was causing my pain. This was very worrying to me and my parents, who were extremely concerned about my weight loss.

Pain was a difficult symptom for me to endure, and it would occasionally interfere with school and volleyball which was very hard for me to cope with. I luckily didn’t miss a lot of school; however I did have to miss several days for appointments and medical tests when I was being diagnosed. I usually stayed at school, despite my pain, and I frequently ate plain chicken and rice for lunch to not upset my stomach. I didn’t want to miss out on my social life or get behind in classes, so I pushed through the pain which was not good for my stress levels. Unfortunately, I had to miss volleyball more frequently because it was harder to ignore the pain while moving my body as opposed to just sitting in a classroom. The exercise itself never caused the pain, but when I was already feeling sick, excessive movement worsened my pain. Additionally, I didn’t want to show up to practice and not play my best because of the discomfort, so I would just stay home.

The main thing that helped me to manage my pain was changing my diet. Dairy products seemed to be a trigger for me, so eliminating them made a big difference. I was off dairy for about six months, and then once I started on a biologic, I slowly started reintroducing dairy into my diet and treating myself with some ice cream or a slice of pizza every once in a while. I found good dairy-free substitutes for most foods so that made it easier for me to follow the diet. Also, eating foods that were easier to digest helped to reduce the severity of the pain I was experiencing, like pasta or bagels. 

Stress was another driver of pain and, being a teenage girl in high school, was impossible to avoid. Whenever I felt stressed, I became nauseated. I noticed when in a flare up of IBD, my stomach pain would immediately get worse with stress. Taking baths and using heating pads on my stomach were two routines I did to try to relax and they helped ease my pain.

My advice to patients experiencing similar pains, or even if your story is completely different from mine, is to try to do anything that eases your pain even the slightest bit, or that just takes your mind off of it. Also, it’s really important to give yourself a break, and in the short term, don’t expect yourself to be able to perform as well in certain aspects of your lives. Because in the long run, giving yourself some slack and not overworking yourself will help you to feel better, both emotionally and physically.