As you all know, multiple symptoms can be caused by IBDs. lot of them appear in people who suffer from Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, while some of them aren't as frequent and vary from person to person.

I went through multiple physical changes caused by my disease, medications and surgery. Hopefully, all of those changes are now behind me.

One of the first changes I went through when I was sick was weight loss. I was trying to eat normally, without starving. But because of the changes in my intestinal transit, the food I ate wasn't absorbed properly. I started to lose weight very quickly, until I was only weighting 100 lbs. I didn't fit in my pants anymore, and when I decided to buy new ones, I needed to buy three sizes under what I was wearing previously.

After, my medication started taking its toll on me. When taking high doses of cortisone, my face became really round, and my ankles were are big as sausages. They were so swollen I couldn't tell the difference between them and my calves.

My pilosity also changed. Hair stopped growing in places where it had always grown, and dark hair started growing right under my nose!

My arms, my stomach and my thighs were covered in bruises because of all the blood tests and anticoagulant injections to reduce the risk of phlebitis. My pale skin was covered in beautiful colours!

And last but not least, hair loss! I didn't lose all of it, but my hair was half as thick as a dime, while before they were as thick as a toonie. This change was the hardest for me to deal with, and I really hoped my hair would grow back quickly. Back then, my hair was really long, and the hair that was growing back on the top of my head was really thick, but I literally could count the number of strands of hair that were reaching my shoulders. I couldn't really tie my hair, because the strands of hair that were growing back weren't long enough to reach my hair elastic. And when I didn't tie my hair, it looked like I did tie my hair, but forgot to tie a bunch of them.

What's sad about these changes is that they happen at the same time as the ostomy. A stoma can really lower your self-esteem, and all the changes happening can make it hard to accept yourself. What's nice however is that those changes disappear fairly quickly, leaving you with only your ostomy to deal with. Meanwhile, you learn to feel better about yourself, to find yourself prettier and to understand that your ostomy is there to contribute to your well-being.

These physical changes helped me see how my surgery allowed me to return to my normal life. I noticed that I was getting better and that I was gaining the weight that I had lost. I was learning how to feel good about myself and accept myself as I am.

Andréanne

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