Do you remember when you first started showing symptoms of your disease?
I remember thinking it was just a stomach bug mixed with vicious hemorrhoids. I had a basic understanding.
I knew something was wrong. And that I was going to the bathroom a lot. I even remember telling my husband (then boyfriend) that my stomach was upset and had been for weeks (though, I didn’t mention the blood).
Like many others, I ignored it. Hoped it would go away. Hoped it’d get better… but it didn’t. It only got worse.
It’s easy to get offended and ticked off at people for saying, “Oh, I know how you feel. Stomach bugs suck.” Or even, “So you poop a lot?” But you have to remember that they are coming from the perspective of someone who’s only experienced diarrhea now and again. We on the other hand have suffered through the grueling diagnosis process and have had plenty of time to research, study and really come to understand our diseases.
Most of the time, it’s an honest lack of understanding. Or perhaps somewhere down the line, they were misinformed (we ALL know that there is so much information about IBD that is completely false!).
This is why it’s important to start at a person’s basic level of understanding. This is why I am beginning the #ShowMeTheMummy campaign. We all started at the same place. Something was wrong, and we didn’t understand it. This is a good place to start a conversation with someone who’s misinformed.
