As I've gotten older, I've matured as well. When
I was in my 20s and I had ulcerative colitis,
I thought, why me? Why do I have to deal with
this? But now it's like, oh, wow, I was given
that because now I can help someone else. And
I feel I have more empathy. I have more compassion
towards others. If I didn't have this, would
I be that kind of person? I don't know, but it
has made me, in hindsight, I feel like a better
person in the end. This is Janelle, who got diagnosed
with ulcerative colitis at age 25 in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. For years, Janelle navigated flares
and remission until the day her body stopped
fighting back. Janelle eventually opted for surgery,
which gave her her life back. Today, she opens
up about how she handled the emotional rollercoaster.
and how humor got her through the worst. This
is Talking S***, presented by Colitis Unfiltered.
My name is Frank Tabering, and on this podcast,
we talk all things IBD. So Janelle, ulcerative
colitis, age 25. Let's go back to the beginning,
to where it all started, even before the diagnosis.
Tell me a little bit about your first symptoms.
And also when you noticed that something was
just off, something was wrong, something prompted
you to seek medical help. Yes. So around the
age of 23, two years before my diagnosis, I started
seeing some really weird things coming in when
I would defecate. It was like white pieces of
something. I just didn't know what it was. I
thought it was really weird. And I thought, okay,
well, maybe I'm lactose intolerant. You know,
I was having some problems with my dairy. So
I cut out all lactose. Still was having issues.
Still was seeing this white discharge coming
out in my bowel movements. Fast forward a year,
I now started seeing blood coming out of with
my feces. And it kind of scared me. I went to
go see my doctor. She referred me to a gastroenterologist.
When I called them, they told me that I wouldn't
be able to come in for six months because I was
a new patient. And I said, I don't think I have
six months. Because at that point, I thought
I was having cancer. Who bleeds from their rectum?
I'm 25 years old. I don't know much. I told them
I don't think I have that long. And I told the
person who I was talking to my symptoms. And
she said, you either have Crohn's or colitis.
She assigned me an emergency colonoscopy. So
I had to do the prep that day. Let my work know,
like, I'm going to be out tomorrow. I have a
procedure tomorrow. When I woke up, I was still
really drowsy. And the doctor said, yes, you
have ulcerative colitis. And I just looked at
him like, I don't know. He's speaking another
language to me. I don't know what he's talking
about. They put me on medication. I went on Azacol
right away. Did I see improvements? No. I wasn't
bleeding. I wasn't getting the mucus discharge.
That's what they ended up finding, that white.
that white substance that was coming out, that
discharge, it was mucus because my body was trying
to heal itself and heal the wounds. My white
cells would just attack it. There were times
I went in remission. I have some very embarrassing
moments. I'm trying to even get to work sometimes
and you'd have an accident. But the best thing
I can tell people is have an emergency kit with
you all the time. Here in America, we drive a
lot instead of using public transportation. So
in my car, I would have a bin that included like
a flour container, like something that you would
hold like flour or sugar in. And I would put
a doggy bag in it and then use that and put that
underneath my bum. And it would collect in the
dog bag. And I could just throw out the doggy
bag. I also brought like extra clothes, toilet
paper, you know, wet wipes, like actual wipes.
So if any feces gets on your hand, you could
clean it up. This is what I dealt with for nearly
20 years. And I got to the point where one of
my colonoscopies, they said that I had ulcers
now all the way. Colitis starts in your rectum.
So that's where mine definitely began. And it
started going up. But it stayed like that for
years. It stayed like that for like 10, 15 years.
And then all of a sudden, one day, my body was
like, I'm not going to fight this anymore. I'm
done. And it just, all the ulcers went all the
way. They weren't able to see in the colonoscopy
if It was actually going into the small intestine.
They said they wouldn't know unless the surgeon
looked at it. Everybody I met with was like,
you don't want to get rid of your colon. You
want to keep it. And I said, you know what? I've
suffered so much and in so much pain that I don't
want it anymore. I researched. I met with other
people who had an ostomy bag. And I was like,
they have their life back. I think I could do
this. So I told the surgeon, I was very clear
with him. I want this. I want this ileostomy
bag and I want it to be permanent. And he was
like, no, no, you might want a J pouch. Well,
when I researched the J pouch, all they do is
they take their small intestine and they sew
it into the rectum. Well, there I'd have my rectum
still, which has ulcerative colitis in it. I
was like, I'm good. And the muscles are gone
back there. Like I would just go constantly.
So it was, no, that was not, I said no to the
J pouch. And I told him, I was like, please remove
my rectum. It's of no use. And he said, no, no,
we may keep it. It'll heal on its own. And I
said, no, it won't. I know my body. I know ulcerative
colitis. It doesn't heal on its own. And even
if I have that little. the little bit of rectum
left, it's going to be a problem. So I had my
surgery, I woke up. And this, get this, this
is really funny story. As I get up out of my
surgery, my surgeon had told me I was so tiny
and small at that time. He was like, I wasn't,
he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to
go in laparoscopically into tiny little incisions,
or if he was going to have to cut my stomach
all the way down. So when I got up, out of it.
I was like, open up my gown, open up my gown.
I want to see, you know, how it looks. And my
husband is standing next to me in the hospital
bed and we're opening this up and I see little
incisions. And I was like, oh my gosh, he actually
did little incisions. But you have a clear bag
and the clear bag is showing black, red, just
horrible, right? My husband is standing there
and he sees this and he faints. And I'm like,
I'm supposed to be treated by the nurses right
now. And now they're taking care of my husband.
So, you know, there's little funny things that
happen along this journey. But I wouldn't change
anything because it's made me who I am today.
It's made me strong. It's made me be an advocate
for myself. And now that I have my ostomy bag,
I'm back to being myself, actually better than
I was before. I'm never doubling over in pain.
I'm never looking every time I enter a store
or someplace I go, where's the bathroom? Where's
the bathroom? Because you always had to plan.
You never knew when. the flare would happen.
So now I can just actually relax and enjoy my
life and enjoy going to places without having
to run for the bathroom. And it's great because
I can travel and I don't have to stop as much
to, you know, have a bowel movement because it's
just happening all the time. Wow. So yeah, that's,
so thank you for that summary. There's a lot
to dissect here. So I'm going to go back a little
bit because there's something interesting that
you said. You were diagnosed, you were put on
azacol for a while, and then you said there's
a period of almost 20 years, right? During those
20 years... Did you stay on just as a call? How
did you manage? Were you constantly flaring?
Were you sporadically flaring? How bad were the
flares? Because 20 years is a long period, you
know, before getting to the point to say, oh,
well, now all of a sudden, like, I cannot take
it anymore. So maybe talk a little bit about
those managing the disease for 20 years and what
that was like for you. Come to think of it, most
of the time it's been a blur. Thank God for that,
right? For the most part, I did stay on Azacol.
They did move me to some other types of medications,
not remembering some of the names, but they would
make me feel really sick where I felt like I
had the flu. So we wouldn't stay on those. I
would just stay on the Azacol. There were times
that I would flare up more because we found out
that I also had irritable bowel syndrome. With
that, any stressors, anything like that, it's
going to aggravate it as well. So there were
times that I would also go on cordial steroids,
like a prednisone or budesonide. I ballooned
up really bad within my face. I was constantly
irritable. wanting food all the time. But I looked
into a lot of holistic things of changing my
diet, cutting out seed oils, cutting out carbohydrates,
cutting out sugar. Sugar causes a lot of inflammation
in your body. So does seed oils. So learning
that along my journey, it's really difficult
in the US to get around these things. So I've
ended up having to learn how to cook my own food.
So diet definitely helped. I did a lot of meditations
as well to help calm my stress that I had in
my life. And just working with those medications.
And there's times that I actually had remission
for three years, had no symptoms. I was having
normal bowel movements. Those were the most amazing
times. But the other times when I'd flare up,
it would get pretty bad. Obviously, when you
have periods of remission, you think, okay, right,
the disease is under control. And yeah, you might
flare up every now and then. But as you got closer
to a period of it getting worse and worse, so
much so that you chose surgery, was there never
a time that your doctors, your GI mentioned biologics
to try and save the day? So that was offered
to me. In the middle of my journey. But at that
time, it was... Remicade and Humira? Remicade,
yeah. Yeah, exactly. The two early ones. The
two as early ones. And I needed to go on like
a trial basis. They weren't just like giving
it out back then. And that was around like the
2010s. Then like... As I was getting closer to
the end of my journey of removing it towards
the surgery, then I started seeing more biologics
coming out. And at that time, they were offering
them, but I said, I just, I feel like my, I felt
like my colon was at its end of life, that I
should have had those earlier in my journey.
You know, now I was at the point where it's like,
it's irreversible. Because it was so much, the
whole colon was so damaged with ulcers. Did the
choice to not go the biological road then, did
that rest mostly on you? Or like, did the doctor
say, hey, maybe let's try them? And you just
said, listen, I know my body, no thank you. And
also, if that was the case, or even if it wasn't
the case, if you're looking back, do you ever
regret not trying them out? I just... didn't
get the opportunity in my journey. So at the
beginning, it was Humira, Remicade, and I was
seriously looking into those because I was put
into the trial, but they never called me to try
it. So it wasn't just prescribed. I don't understand
why, like how other people got it prescribed,
but my doctor wouldn't prescribe it. And then
again, later in my journey, they offered it again.
But then that was when I said, no, I don't think
that that's going to work either. Just because
I was getting fed up being a guinea pig with
medications not working. Sure. Yeah, of course.
At one point it's very discouraging. So you sort
of lose the trust in science if it really doesn't
work anymore. Now, obviously you making the decision
to have your intestines removed. That meant that
you were at a stage where you just couldn't take
it anymore, right? Yes. So obviously your condition
must have severely degraded. How did you deal
with that mentally? First of all, you know...
It getting worse all of a sudden after having
years of remission and a couple of flares, but
obviously at one point it really started to go
bad. How did you deal with that mentally, seeing
your body basically continuing to turn against
you to the point that you're the one who has
to make a decision and say, you know, I want
this thing out of me? That mental health journey
was very tough. I will not lie about that. There
were times that I've wanted to take my own life
just because I was sick of tired of dealing with
the pain. dealing with medications that didn't
work, dealing with doctors who just didn't understand
it as much as you would think they would. Towards
the end of my journey, I think I got better about
it because I was like, this is my life. This
is what I've been dealt with. These are the cards
I've been dealt, right? How can I make the best
of these moments? That's when I started standing
up for myself more and becoming more of an advocate
for myself and really researching things. I mean,
now the internet is blown up with so much information
that I was able to do a lot of research on my
own, especially social media helped me as well
with people sharing their stories and going,
hey, I'm dealing with the same thing. That helped
me along going, hey, I'm not alone on this. And
I started connecting with people to help get
me through it. Because when you're around your
own family and friends, if they don't have it,
they don't understand. They may be empathetic,
but they don't fully grasp the day in, day out
of what you actually deal with. And so when you
actually talk to someone that actually has dealt
with it, It feels like, oh my gosh, I'm home.
I have someone now that gets it. You know, you're
not alone. For sure. It's interesting that you
say this because you would expect that family
and close friends are really your main support
system. And of course, they can be in many ways
as you struggle with IBD. But I feel the same
way. It's like... For us, it's pretty obvious
what's going on. IBD is referred to as an invisible
illness for a reason. But then, you know, especially
close family members or even partners, you know,
they do see us suffer to a certain extent, right?
Whether it's fatigue, whether it's like just
hiding out in the bathroom or just wanting to
sort of isolate ourselves and dealing with the
pain in silence. But in your case... Did you
try to explain this to your close family members
or to your partner or husband? I don't know if
that was a husband at that point. And how did
you try to communicate? How did you try to explain
it? Because a lot of people seem to struggle
to like sort of find the right way to share what
we're going through with loved ones. Yeah. And
this is a funny story I'll share with you because
I felt like no matter what I said, it wouldn't.
come to like it didn't hold with people like
they didn't really understand or the grasp the
the the pain I'm more of a person who I think
rather than talk about it I'll have to show it
right so do I need to prove this to you fine
I will put myself in pain to prove to you that
I have this problem so my mother -in -law decided
She's going to make a chili, and she used six
different beans in it. I can't have that much
fiber, as I was explaining before. So I told
her, I can't eat your chili. She's like, oh,
it'll be fine, Janelle. You can have this. It'll
be fine. I said, you know what? You're right.
It will be fine, knowing it wouldn't, right?
But I was like, I'm at the point now where I
just want to prove to her that it's not. Within
an hour after eating, the chili was good, by
the way. But within an hour, I was running to
the bathroom. I was actually crying a little
bit in pain. And my mother -in -law came to me
and said, I am so sorry. I now understand what
you're going through. They don't get that until
they actually physically see it. And that's hard.
But I'm that kind of strong -willed mind person
who's like, all right, fine, let's just go do
this. I'll prove it to you. You gave them a front
row seat. I sure did. And they smelled it too.
So, I mean, let me say that's probably a quite
unconventional way of explaining what you're
going through. Right. But this is interesting
because I can tell that you have your own particular
sense of humor, right? Yes. And clearly, you
know, we use our sense of humor when we feel
good, but sometimes, you know, our sense of humor
then also helps us through some of the times
when we feel bad. Now, going back to the surgery.
you had the story, you know, that you joked about
like, hey, you know, your husband was the one
fainting and, you know, nurses took care of him
and stuff. So did you apply this mental approach,
like this sort of sense of humor as well, preparing
for surgery, going through surgery, or were you
scared? Were you not scared? Oh, gosh, all of
those, all of those, yes. Humor is one of the
things that has gotten me through all of this.
The poop jokes just get me through that because
there's a lot that you can just joke about. I
mean, even your podcast is like, let's just talk
about shit, right? I mean, this is what we deal
with, right? So was I scared? Absolutely. You
have a 50 -50 shot of making it or not making
it. But I felt comfortable knowing that I was
in good hands. things were to not go right, well,
then that was my time. When I woke up, I mean,
we were just laughing, you know, a lot, especially
when it came to my husband. And I actually had
to calm myself from laughing because, because
I, because it was painful. You know, I just had
all this, like, I've just been stabbed with tons
of stuff going on in my abdomen. And, you know,
so, and And as I went on my journey after the
surgery, you know, they come in, they want you
to walk right away to like get your blood flowing.
It makes you heal faster. I was out there every
day, three times a day, walking the halls. And
I had a nurse with me and I was like, I would
tell her, I'm like, I want to go again for a
walk. And she's like, wow, you're really pushing
yourself. And I said, no, it's because I want
to heal. I want to get better. I want to start
my life. And we would. make jokes as we would
walk. I'm not saying I was walking really fast,
but my surgeon came in and he told me, Janelle,
you are one of my stellar patients that I've
ever had. He's like, you're out there walking.
You take everything I tell you, you do it. And
I said, yeah, this is my body. This is my health.
If I don't do this, I don't want to, I don't.
I will be miserable just laying in a bed all
day becoming a vegetable. And going back to that
surgery, he didn't take out my rectum, my first
surgery when he did the ileostomy. So as I had
mentioned, you know, I have colitis. It starts
in your rectum. Guess what? I had issues. Six
months after my ileostomy, I started having a
lot of water. and mucus. I had two inches back
there, two inches. And I was having the muscle
spasms, you know, like you have to go. You know
how painful that is when you're still trying
to recover from surgery? So I actually had to
go back to the surgeon and I told him, I was
like, I told you to take out my rectum. And he
was like, yes, you were right. So after that
surgery, when I woke up, you know, now I don't
have a rectum. I don't fart. I, you know, I don't
have to worry about anything back there. It's
so wonderful. So I have to joke around. And so
my surgeon comes in and he's like, how you doing?
How you feeling today? And I was like, I have
to really ask you a serious question. Does this
mean I can't do anal beads anymore? He's just
sit there with a straight face because he's got
to be professional. And he goes, no, Janelle,
you don't have a butthole anymore. And I was
like, I'm just trying to make him laugh, you
know, because I'm trying to get through this
with making jokes. You know, there's times that
I would joke around with people at work that
I got a new office desk. chair for my my job
and I was like it's so great because there's
no farts on it you know I don't fart anymore
and then I'll tell him oh but then my husband's
down on it and then he farted on it now it's
ruined but you have to make jokes about some
of these things because it gets you through it
before I would be sitting on the toilet for hours
just hoping something would pass because it felt
like I either dealt with diarrhea or constipation
with colitis. It was always, every day was different
with colitis. I never knew what I was getting.
Now it's just, I can live my life again. You
know, yes, it might be an inconvenience at first
that you always have to empty this bag, but Your
life could be so much more worse if you didn't
have that. If you had a digestive disease that
caused you to go to the bathroom constantly with
a lot of pain, it caused you fatigue, it takes
away your malnutrition of your food at times,
you're dealing with anemia, just so many different
things that you're dealing with when you have
ulcerative colitis that you don't have to deal
with when you have an ostomy anymore. Absolutely.
You're absolutely right. And I'm really happy
to hear that humor served you well and that you
bring humor into your advocacy as well and your
awareness. So keep doing that because it's a
strength and not everybody has the strength to
relate on something like humor to get them through
an ordeal like this one. You touched as we segue
into the present and slowly inch towards the
closing and look into the future as well. You
mentioned it yourself. You talked about how you
are today. Seems to be going relatively well.
I can deduct for sure that you have your life
back. But just very bluntly, do you consider
yourself cured? I've asked that to my doctor,
actually, because now that I have no colon or
rectum, I don't have colitis. However, it is
an autoimmune disease. Because I had colitis
for over 10 years, once you have an autoimmune
disease for over 10 years, you start getting
other autoimmune diseases. So yes, my colitis
journey is over, but it's not over as far as
autoimmune diseases. I now have other autoimmune
diseases that I deal with. How are you dealing
with those? Let's say if we want to compare.
I'm assuming you're still better off than you
were before. Oh, absolutely. How are you feeling
just on a general basis than today? Yeah, so
as I've gotten older, I've matured as well. When
I was in my 20s and I had ulcerative colitis,
I thought, why me? Why do I have to deal with
this? But now it's like, oh, wow, I was given
that because now I can help someone else. And
I feel... I have more empathy. I have more compassion
towards others. If I didn't have this, would
I be that kind of person? I don't know. But it
has made me, in hindsight, I feel like a better
person in the end. Because I never wanted to
be a helpful person before, and now I want to
be helpful. Because I had those people who helped
me on my journey. I want to help someone else
on their journey now. And it's going to be a
bumpy road. I'm not going to lie. But speak up
for yourself. Be an advocate for yourself. Because
the only one who knows your body the best is
you. And if you don't like what your doctor is
saying, see another doctor if you can. Because
you can get different opinions from different
doctors. Well, you just answered about... three
questions in one answer, which is really great.
You know what that means? I can go straight to
my next one. Yes, yes. But thank you for sharing
that. Yes, absolutely. I was going to ask you
how it changed you as a person. You certainly
addressed that. And I always do like to ask,
you know, what kind of advice or word of advice
you have for people who are going through something
similar. Something else that I think a lot of
people struggle with, especially when it comes
to surgery, living with an ostomy, is body image.
How has colitis and also your surgery affected
your body image? Yeah, there were times I've
always felt dirty. You know, when you poop your
pants as an adult and you're like, oh, my God,
I'm a toddler and I have to take care of this.
You start to degrade yourself like, oh, man,
like my whole pants are ruined. I was always
thinner, so I felt like I was okay with the way
I looked, but I always felt that I was too thin.
So when I would actually put on a little weight,
I would get really, really excited. And I was
like, I'm finally being healthy. I'm finally
being healthy. I remember dancing around sometimes
like that when I put on two pounds. But as my
journey now, having an ostomy, I think I'm even
sexier now. Because I don't have anything holding
me back. And I have this cool little bag on my
belly that nobody else has. It's kind of like
another accessory that no one sees. You know,
I love to accessorize with glasses and fun, cool
things. But at the same time, I look at it as
like, this is my lifesaver. I think I look sexy
having a little ostomy bag. And, you know, not
using the clear one, obviously. But my husband
doesn't see it when we're together. He doesn't
say anything to me like, oh, that's disgusting.
Or, you know, he doesn't see it. He's like, I
see you. He doesn't faint anymore. No, no, he
doesn't faint. No. Oh, yeah. But, you know, he's
gotten used to it. And our intimacy has not changed
at all because of that. Because he loves me.
And when you're out there, if you're single and
you have an ostomy and you're feeling insecure
about yourself, you will find somebody who's
not going to find that that's gross or disgusting.
They're going to love you. And they're just going
to go, oh, well, that's just something that's
a part of you. You know, that's, it's like as
if we didn't have a leg, you know, you'd have
to have a prosthesis. So you just have to, there
are people who don't look at that as a problem.
They just don't. Yeah, it's all about your own
mind and keeping yourself strong -willed. I found
that easier later on in my life as I've matured.
And also, I should mention that I also did seek
a lot of therapy throughout this journey as well.
Very important. Very important and something
that I feel is often bypassed almost, especially
with IBD. I mean, I was lucky enough that my
specialist in the US when I was out in LA also
offered me to go see a therapist, actually a
therapist specializing in digestive diseases.
Think about that, a specialist, you know, a therapist,
especially in IBD. That's fantastic to have people
like this. Again, you know, I mean, it's one
thing to be seen by a therapist and work with
your therapist to work to whatever you're dealing
with. But again, to have somebody really focusing
on IBD and everything that's associated with
it, all these insecurities, the fears, the embarrassment,
it's important. And I think we don't stress this
enough that, you know, even though you might
be wanting to isolate yourself in the beginning,
Even though you might be embarrassed, therapy
can go a long ways. I mean, I can certainly speak
to that. You can speak to that, I'm sure, because
the way you're paying to me, you're open. You're
not embarrassed at all. So don't forget about
that aspect as well when it comes to the mental
health. You will deal with embarrassing moments.
dealing with ulcerative colitis or even Crohn's,
I'm sure. I can only tell you from my experience,
but there were one time that I lived in Atlanta,
Georgia for a while and the commute was horrendous.
There would be times I'd be in the car for up
to two hours just trying to get through traffic.
There was one time that I really had to go and
I wasn't near a bathroom. And I got to my place
of business and I parked in the parking structure
and I knew I would never make it to the bathroom.
I was like, I'm never going to make it. I'm not
going to make it. So I had brought my lunch in
a, you know, a grocery bag, you know, that you
would get. And I had a bunch of napkins in my
car console. just because of spills or whatever.
I always love to have napkins around. Well, I
ended up using those to defecate on and then
ended up carrying my lunch into work because
I had to dump all of that into the grocery bag.
I mean, these are those moments that you're like
so embarrassed about, but I'm like, did anyone
notice? No, there was nobody around, you know,
and I just threw it in the garbage. And I went
on about my day. And it's just like you would
be super embarrassed. And there's times that
I've I've had feces on the back of my pants and
someone's noticed and they're like, did you sit
in chocolate? No, I didn't. You know, so those
are those embarrassing moments. But when you
actually share with people like, oh, I actually
have a problem, you know, they they even if they
don't understand, they usually were. Like, oh,
OK, you know, like I probably shouldn't have
said anything or, you know, I didn't want to
make them feel bad, you know. But yeah, it's
those moments that you have to. look back at
the time it's embarrassing and yeah your face
is going to get red and you're going to be embarrassed
and you hope nobody sees you but at the end when
you look back you're like man I got through that
moment and I did it really with my head held
high right as much as it can be when you're dealing
with poop Yeah, so absolutely. I think sometimes
going through embarrassing experiences will help
us mature, will help us then eventually to kind
of get rid of that embarrassment and accept what
we're dealing with because we don't really have,
like you said, a choice, right? Right. So I always
like to end on a positive note. And I think your
story that you just mentioned and the outcome
of at least, you know, is definitely optimistic,
right? And filled with hope. I have a final question
for you. And that one is, if you could go back
in time, back to that 25 -year -old self, what
would you tell that person? And I know that you
probably would, whatever you would say, you would
probably say it with humor, having gotten to
know you a little bit. But what would be your
message to yourself at age 25? I think the first
thing I would do is hug myself and tell myself
everything's going to be okay and that I'm going
to get through it and it's going to make me become
stronger and that the journey is going to be
a bit bumpy and a bit shitty, actually. Literally.
But, you know. I would warn myself about some
of the things that I'm going to deal with so
that I don't fall into those mental lows that
I did get at the beginning. And sometimes throughout
the journey where I felt like suicide might be
better. And I'm glad that I never went through
with that because I did contact Suicide Hotline
and they did get me through it. So all of the
people that you talk to there are volunteers.
So they... are the most wonderful volunteers
I'd ever met. Just getting you through your struggle
and trying to understand what you're going through
and making you feel like you're a person. Because
that's where I didn't feel like throughout this
journey. Sometimes I was like, what is happening
to me? I don't feel like a person. But at the
end of this whole thing is I wouldn't change
anything about anything because it's... what
i knew like if i were diagnosed now i would probably
treat it a lot differently because of all the
knowledge that's out there but i didn't know
a lot of that stuff back then i got a lot of
books but they only tell you so much um they
don't tell you i don't talk to you about the
mental health part of all of this as well and
um dealing with relationships as well and how
to explain this to people so that they understand
and not make you feel like you're Because they
don't see it, they may think you're a hypochondriac.
And that's not the case. And that's why, you
know, I shared earlier that sometimes you just
have to prove it to people if that's what it
takes. But I don't recommend that. Don't recommend
that. No, no. And yet you did prove it. I did,
yes. Exactly. And the most important thing is
that you actually got through it, right? You
found your way. And you found yourself, you got
your life back. And I think that's what matters
most. And if you achieve that with the help of
humor, then so be it, right? More power to you.
So Janelle, don't lose that humor. For sure,
because I think it's very inspiring. First of
all, it helped you and I think it's helping other
people as well. I want to thank you so much for
taking the time to open up about your story today.
Very inspiring. And I'm going to leave you with
nothing but the best. I hope that you... Continue
to manage whatever sort of other autoimmune diseases
you're struggling with and that's going well.
And wishing nothing but the best for the future.
Thanks, Frank. And thanks so much for having
me and hope that my journey can help someone
else through theirs. That's it for today's episode
of Talking S***, presented by Colitis Unfiltered.
I'm Frank Tabering. And if this hit home or hit
your gut, do us a favor. Subscribe to the show.
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We'll see you soon for more inspiring stories
from the bathroom floor.