In Early 2025 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Before that I just knew something was wrong and nobody could tell me what.
The time that followed was rough. Five rounds of infusions. My first medication didn’t work, so I was dealing with basically every symptom at once — mouth pain so bad I couldn’t eat, joint pain, brain fog, night sweats, no appetite. I went from 167 pounds to 125. I had to fight to get back to normal life — the gym, jiu-jitsu, just being able to focus at work.
Eventually I switched medications and it actually worked. I felt like myself again for the first time in longer than I realized. Now I get infusions every 6 weeks — that’s for life. This disease doesn’t go away, it just gets managed.
The medicine I’m on exists because of research the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation helped fund — they’ve had a hand in every IBD drug that’s come to market in the last decade. They’ve also put over $500 million into research since the 1960s, work that’s led to things like identifying the genes tied to this disease in the first place. That’s not just history, it’s the reason I get to feel normal again. I think about what another 20 years of that funding could mean — fewer infusions, more comfort, maybe even a cure.
For my birthday this year, I’m asking for donations to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation instead of gifts. It’s going toward something that’s actually changed my life and will keep changing it for others.
