Living with Crohn’s Disease A Story Of Survival: Autobiography By Paul Davies

After suffering with Crohn’s for 30 years and four operations later, I’m now ready to tell my story of how I’ve survived for so many years. It has, at times been extremely difficult physically and especially mentally. I don’t know if I have been lucky or unlucky, by getting the disease at such a young age. What I mean is it’s all I’ve ever known and learnt to deal with it, as I have grown as a person. I don’t know if it would have been a different story if I’d been struck down later in life; one thing I have learnt over the years is staying positive really helps and not to get to stressed. I’d like to think my story and experience I have had over the years, can help all ages of Crohn’s sufferers and their families. I’m not a Dr. or anyway medically qualified to offer advice to anyone, but some things I have done over the years, may help or give a different perspective on things. I have also hit rock bottom and one night did decide enough was enough, with only one option and one outcome. But luckily something did stop me from drinking the last three bottles of amitriptyline, (amitriptyline is to help with the pain and helps me to sleep a little easier) and I’m still here to fight another day so I must be doing something right. The stigma surrounding Crohn’s is a bit of a taboo subject for some I.e. Diarrhoea and the toilet, but not me.... I only have one chance to write this autobiography, so the only part of my life I’ve not wrote about is for the few years I was married. I’m not a betting man, but I think the odds for the marriage working would be pretty high, if I’d not had Crohn’s; anyway I’ve not held back on anything else. This is why I think it is important to also talk about smoking cannabis, it was a big part of my life for about nine months, and looking back now I think I smoked far too much, well I know I did. It helped me and it might help others. But there are always side effects with all types of medication, whether there legal or illegal. Cannabis helped all the symptoms I suffered with at the time, some of the side effects were very nice and made me feel great. And after several months things changed and the side effects made my life hell....