That is my partner, Crohn's.

That is my partner, Crohn’s.

By Selan Lee from the United Kingdom

Hello, we haven’t yet been introduced,

My name is Selan and that over there is my partner - confused?

Many do get a little surprised at our coupling,

But once you make the acquaintance of Crohn’s - they tend to cling.

How did we meet? Well, I can’t quite remember,

It might have been in a GP office, an A&E cubicle or before all of that in December,

You see, it is quite difficult to pinpoint when we exactly made our first encounter,

But whenever it was, I definitely floundered,

I couldn’t go to school or even sit down without Crohn’s interrupting,

It seemed my body, my energy, and my mind were all suffering.

I’m not going to say the beginning was fun and joyful,

Our relationship back then was awful, painful and stressful,

It took an incredibly long time to find myself in this partnership and I’m definitely not the same person I was before,

But now simply existing is no longer a chore,

No - now we have a rapport.

We’ve got our strange little milestones to mark our progress,

First concert without major toilet-related distress,

Was Harry Styles in Wembley with me wearing a blue dress,

The first fizzy drink to not cause a tummy gurgle,

An ice-cold Coke without a single audible burble,

Going on six years and passed our wood anniversary,

And I can say our partnership has mellowed considerably,

I can’t guarantee the future will be as smooth as we are now,

But knock on wood - I’ll manage that flare and its symptoms somehow,


Because that’s how I’ve made it thus far,

By looking forward and making light of the medically bizarre,

The fiery inferno of emotions Crohn’s once blazed,

I can say looking in the rear-view mirror of hindsight - is now a smoky haze,

Crohn’s will never leave, and I will never leave it,

As I said before - once it finds you it tends to stick,

But since the day our union was christened in that lone hospital room,

I’ve built the resilence, dark sense of humour and grit to see hope bloom,

So… allow me to reintroduce,

That is my partner Crohn’s disease who is a recluse,

We still occasionally squabble and argue on if we go out,

But I’m definitely in control - without a doubt.

Featured photo by Marcelo Chagas from Pexels.