The pain was like a hand moving around inside my stomach

If you suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, your stomach rules your life.
June 11th, 2012, is a date I will probably never forget. Not because I was waking up in a campervan in some part of Poland, hungover after losing to Croatia in the first round of the Euros with the rest of Ireland around me holding “Angela Merkel thinks we’re working” flags.
No, it lives in my memory because that was the day the pain started.

That was a Monday; it took until Thursday for me to go to the doctor despite having had nothing to eat or drink for three days. I remember waking up with my stomach bloated. The pain was even worse than before, like a hand moving around inside my stomach, clenching my organs and slowly releasing.

Tears were rolling down my face, with one hand holding the phone and the other holding my stomach for dear life, I said, “My name is Doug Leddin, I’m a patient of Dr Mehigan. Tell him I’m on the way in. It’s an emergency, I’m in agony and I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” Then I just hung up the phone and drove as fast as I could.

For anyone suffering with this disease, as hard as it is, try not to allow it consume your day-to-day life and your mind. Try to conquer it, and talk about it and, most importantly, seek information from the ISCC.

Click to support Doug Leddin’s Las Vegas half marathon for the ISCC on iDonate fundraising platform.

The Irish Times  –  10 Oct 2014
Click here to Read more.