Something you might not know about me is a terrible ulcerative colitis flare forced me to drop out of college. In this blog post, I share the symptoms of this life-changing flare and why dropping my classes surprisingly turned out to be the best thing for me.
Flaring at the Beginning of Grad School
In 2016 I graduated with a degree in business management, but my several years in recruiting and HR left me unfulfilled. So, in June of 2018, I quit my HR job to go back to school to pursue a second degree. I had plans to pursue nutrition to become a registered dietitian: my dream job. Or so I thought.
But, just a few weeks after I began, I fell into a flare.
Symptoms from the Ulcerative Colitis Flare
For a few weeks, I was able to push past the symptoms. But after a while, I finally admitted to myself that they’d become too much.
Abdominal Pain
The abdominal pain was excruciating in the mornings and slowly became bearable later in the day. But it was so bad in the mornings that I couldn’t leave my apartment until the afternoon. I was chained to the toilet.
I was lucky that my classes didn’t start until noon, so I was able to barely make it on time each day.
Brain Fog
But on top of the pain was the brain fog. I literally couldn’t remember anything we learned in class. I’d stare at my homework, lost, confused, and feeling as though I never learned about it.
And then it happened. I got my first F on an exam. This had NEVER happened before. I graduated summa cum laude in business school, so I knew my terrible scores were my disease and not me.
I didn’t want to give up. This was my dream job. Somehow, I powered through several more weeks. I stayed up late studying and got up early, trying to teach myself what I didn’t understand in the classroom. I did all of this without coffee because the caffeine made me run to the bathroom even more.
But no matter how hard I tried, I kept getting Ds and Fs on quizzes and exams.
The Moment of Realization
Once, during chemistry lab, I had to tear off my coat and goggles and run to the bathroom. I barely made it on time.
And at that point I knew…I wasn’t going to pass my classes. The stress, the pain, and the brain fog were taking their toll. I knew I had to drop out of the courses.
I cried in my professor’s office when I explained to him why I had to quit. Having digestive issues of his own, he was very understanding and encouraging. He reassured me that I was doing the right thing.
But letting go of your dream job rarely feels like the right thing. I felt like my ulcerative colitis was a puppet master, making my major life decisions for me. I was devastated.
Finding a New Dream Job
But then, something amazing happened. These months between jobs were filled with rest, self-care, and gaining back my strength—something that would have been significantly harder if I was working.
Then, around February 2019, I was approached by someone I had met at a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation event a year before. She introduced the company Gali Health and asked if I wanted to become an ambassador for this AI-powered app for the IBD community.
I immediately said yes, excited that I could be involved directly with the IBD community. After about six months, I applied for Gali Health’s social media position and landed the job as their social media manager!
Closing the door to dietetics opened the door for social media management within the chronic illness community. I was still able to help people with health and disease management—just from a non-clinical side!
And this made me realize that social media management in the chronic illness community was my dream job. I’ve always been a writer, and that’s truly what makes me happy.
Finding this career path was quite untraditional. But without that timely flare to make me drop out of school and change career paths, I’d have never fallen into social media management.
An Invisible Disease
The point of all this is that IBD is much more than an intestinal disease. There’s SO much more going on than sassy bowels. IBD is an invisible illness with sneaky, stealthy symptoms that no one would notice unless I decide to share them.
But I choose to share my story because
AWARENESS > FUNDING > RESEARCH > CURES