When it comes down to it, I got pretty lucky with this Crohn’s thing. I’ve talked to countless patients over the years and I’m aware of how harsh a blow I’ve been spared despite a lifestyle that could be described as less than ideal. I’ve only had one surgery, my flare-ups are few, and on the infrequent occasions I feel bad enough to curl up into a ball, my bed is comfortable. Not so for others. This disease is an...

                      My apartment is a sacred space to me. In it I have all the accessories a Crohn’s patient could want – freshly-cooked food, a great bed to recover in and a bathroom containing not only a bidet but a tile and grout brush for easy cleanup. It is a carefully crafted refuge from the ravages of my bottom and it’s a space I feel very comfortable in. Away from...

WELCOME TO CROHN’S The first time I ever heard the words “Crohn’s Disease” was right after I found out I had it. I remember I was sitting with my mother looking at the latest round of x-rays from a small bowel series, and although to me it looked like a traffic jam in the Holland Tunnel, the doctors seemed confident that disease was evident. The room started spinning. Only four months ago I had been a seemingly healthy...

RICE IS NICE In the 13 years since Mr Crohn moved in I’ve noticed through trial and error that certain foods anger him greatly, and others slip by like a SBD in gym-class. So today I wanna talk about rice. Let’s face it – Angry Crohn’s has a lot to do with what you eat. Having been on just about every medication out there including the snip snip sew sew kind I began to examine the food and drink that was angering the part of my...

In late 2000 I had vowed to get in shape but my bowels, were irritable. Whereas only a year earlier I was sprinting amongst the cabs on 6th ave., Crohn’s had sprinted into my intestines and I couldn’t run-free without free-bathrooms close by. After a particularly unplesant jog where endorphins weren’t the only thing released, I hung up my running shoes and admitted defeat. But man did I need to work out. Supermodel-thin...

CROHN’S FROM COAST TO COAST It was the spring of 2006 and it was time for a change. I had been living in New York for eight years and having made it through a bowel resectioning surgery the summer previous knew it was time to take my resectioned bowels west. For years Los Angeles had loomed in my imagination like Moscow in a Chekhov play but as the brick in my abdomen also loomed I did nothing. It took my intestine hardening like...