This Former News Anchor Gets Candid About Living With Crohn’s Disease
The first time I started noticing something was off with my health was during my second semester of my senior year of college. I was making more trips to the bathroom and getting abdominal pain after meals.
I chalked it up to eating too many tacos with my roommates and didn’t think much more about it. But the symptoms came back months later, shortly after my college graduation in May 2005.
I could barely eat anything without feeling excruciating pain in my abdomen, and that made it difficult to sit or stand up straight. It also caused me to lose a lot of weight. I started randomly having fevers of up to 105 degrees and was going to the bathroom around the clock. I was also struggling with fatigue. Even going up the 13 stairs in my parent’s home was tough. I had always been a very athletic person, so this was unusual.
After two months of debilitating symptoms, my doctor still wasn’t sure what was going on.
I had ultrasounds and scans to check my gallbladder, and then my appendix. But the results kept coming back fine.
Then, in July of 2005, the lethargy and other symptoms took a turn for the worse. So, I went to the emergency room where I was given a CT scan of my abdomen, along with a rectal exam. The tests showed I was bleeding in my colon, so I was admitted to the hospital for a week. During my stay, I got a colonoscopy that confirmed I had Crohn’s disease. I was overwhelmed and saddened by the diagnosis, but grateful for an answer as to why I was feeling so sick.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I later learned that Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes chronic inflammation of the GI tract. Crohn’s disease is marked by periods of flares when you have symptoms, and remission when you feel fine. People with Crohn’s disease can struggle with symptoms like constant diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal cramps, loss of appetite, low energy, and an urgent feeling that you have to go No.2, per the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation.
Seemingly overnight I went from being a 21-year-old ready to start my career as a TV news reporter, to someone with an incurable disease taking 22 pills a day. It was a devastating turn of events in my life.
My boyfriend at the time never visited me in the hospital and broke up with me the day I went home. At that moment, I worried that I would never find a man who would love me and it felt like my future was flashing before my eyes. I suddenly felt very different than other people my age. But I didn’t want to be treated differently by my family or my peers. I internalized a lot of the struggle by putting on a smile, even though I was crying on the inside.
Over the course of my patient journey, I’ve faced several setbacks and hospitalizations.
Three years after I was diagnosed, I developed an abscess the size of a tennis ball in my small intestine. It’s not clear why this happened; my condition just worsened. Crohn’s is often random like that. To shrink the infected mass and better manage my condition, my doctors put me on Humira, a biologic drug made from living cells that interrupt immune system signals that cause the inflammation related to Crohn’s disease.
I’ve also had several bowel obstructions, which is when digested material can’t move through your bowel the way it should, including three between 2014 and 2015. Because of the recurring obstructions, I needed to get 18 inches of my small intestine removed via a bowel resection. I also had my appendix removed, which I later learned is not unusual in inflammatory bowel disease patients—it’s one less organ that can get inflamed or have issues.
That operation, which took place on August 1, 2015, along with the pre-surgery flare I had been struggling with, kept me out of work for over two months. It was a rough recovery at first, but ultimately it was the absolute best step I’ve ever taken for my health.
I was engaged at the time and planning a wedding—that was a welcome distraction. My husband Bobby and I were able to get pregnant the following July with our firstborn, Reid. We had our daughter Sophia two years after our son, and I’m now pregnant with my third child.
I’ve channeled my experience with Crohn’s into advocacy work.
I worked as a morning news anchor at ABC-affiliated television stations for seven years. But I decided to leave the industry in 2014 to have a more normal lifestyle. My boyfriend—now husband—and I had been long-distance and we wanted to be together. By leaving TV, I was able to have a more regular schedule. At the time, my doctor believed my hospitalizations leading up to that point had something to do with my odd hours and the stress level associated with live TV.
I knew it was time to take my love of storytelling and become the voice I so desperately needed to hear to help others. So, in July 2016, on the 11-year anniversary of my diagnosis, I launched my blog, Lights, Camera, Crohn’s: An Unobstructed View. There, I’ve shared fresh content each week about living with Crohn’s disease.
I’ve also done advocacy work with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, which has been a wonderful resource and community to be part of through the years. I’ve participated in the organization’s Take Steps Walk several times and I’ve also been part of a nationwide physician and patient advocate presentation.
I’m not cured or completely free of symptoms. But I have a lot more good days than bad.
Every now and then I still get abdominal pain, but it’s not often. I still use the bathroom about three to five times a day, since the bowel resection surgery removed my ileocecal valve, which is what allows you to hold it.
I’m still on medication to help manage my disease: I take Humira injections every other week, and take vitamin D, folic acid, and a prescription prenatal vitamin, even when I’m not pregnant. With Crohn’s disease, the majority of patients have difficulty absorbing nutrients from food, making supplements so important.
I don’t follow a specific diet, but I stay away from triggers and I’m always mindful of what I’m eating. I limit myself to one cup of coffee a day, I rarely drink alcohol since it always causes me pain, and I don’t eat popcorn or a lot of nuts, which I’ve found to be troublesome.
Even in remission, Crohn’s is on my mind every hour of every day. One wrong decision can send things into a tailspin. But, now that it’s been part of my life for nearly 16 years, I feel a lot more in control. I’ve learned that having an inflammatory bowel disease doesn't mean I can’t follow my dreams.
I also know how to read my body, and I know how to help myself if I’m struggling. It’s taken a long time to get to this place, but I’m grateful for the perspective and strength this disease has given me.
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