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My name is Shayne, I'm a 23 year old girl. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in January 2010 after seeing specialists in London at St.Thomas' and Guys for most of my life (since I was 4-5 years old). I have had many different trial and errors but for 15 years I was told it was IBS and that laxatives would solve all of my problems. Oh, how wrong they were! When I was 8 years old, I was taken into Guys for minor surgery to look inside my bowel as no other methods were getting any answers. They threw out the idea of IBS but didn't come up with a new one. 

This continued for many more years. Then in late 2009, I became very unwell. Every little thing I ate made me vomit and in the end, so did any liquids. Then just the thought of eating or drinking made me vomit - but that got put down as an eating disorder. The abdominal pains were so excruciatingly painful that I would often be at the doctors begging for help, any kind of pain relief, just something to take it away. As it turns out after numerous tests (that lasted until January 2010) I actually had #Crohns disease and I had done all along! That's when the glorious steroids began. Two years of attempting every drug that they threw at me proved pointless as none of them made me any better, if anything I just got worse. 

So in March 2013 I had my first surgery; a resection. This was supposed to have put me in remission, or so they say. I spent a week before the surgery hooked up to TPN (basically every nutrient a body needs to prepare my body for the surgery, so I had a better chance of a good recovery and so my body could handle the procedure) and a week after to recover enough to leave and manage myself at home. Well since the surgery I have got gradually worse and had no relief. I was admitted a few times over Christmas 2014 as a flare up hit me like a ton of bricks with obstructions etc. Since then I have been plodding along just trying to make do with the pain relief that I have and hope that my IBD team at the hospital will start to listen to me soon.

The day to day life of Crohn's is a painful, tiresome and lonely one and no amount of words, diagrams or pictures could ever get someone who does not suffer to truly understand. I would not wish this disease on my worst enemy but I would love to see more of those who do not have this illness become more supportive, to help us fight for this research and to find us a cure for IBD (Ulcerative Colitis, as well as Crohn's Disease).

Without the help of Crohn's and Colitis UK and the all of the fellow bellies at GetYourBellyOut I don't think I would've had the strength to write this and to open up about how this has affected me. The campaign has given me a new lease on life, it has given me friendships that I know will last a lifetime and shown me that I'm not alone. There will always be someone who understands just a quick message away. I owe everything to them.

#ChallengeYourself2016 #GetYourBellyOut