Taking back her life

By Jade Sexton
jade@fillmorecountyjournal.com

Fri, Feb 8th, 2013
Posted in Chatfield Health & Wellness

Comment(1)

Brandy Allen of Chatfield changed her life to recover from Crohn’s Disease. Photo submitted

Brandy Allen found out she had Crohn’s Disease in 2008, but she had been suffering long before then. She had been experiencing crippling stomach pains and had been in and out of emergency rooms and hospitals.

“It felt like somebody was stabbing me,” Brandy described.

Doctors ran multiple tests and gave her antibiotics, trying to get her to feel better. Eventually she was referred to a doctor at the Mayo Clinic who diagnosed her with Crohn’s.

Crohn’s Disease is inflammation, and affects the entire digestive system, from mouth to anus. This inflammation can cause a lot of misery, including pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and damage. It is caused when the body’s immune system fights the digestive system for some reason. Most people have problems with their intestines.

The doctor gave her medication to suppress her immune system and to try to get any bacteria under control so her body would stop fighting itself. The meds didn’t help her a lot at first.

Brandy graduated from Fillmore Central High School in 2005. While in college at the University of Minnesota, she had serious problems with acid reflux, which could have been from the Crohn’s.

“They don’t know why people get it,” said Brandy. “They know it’s heredity, but in my case there is nobody that I can trace it back to. It’s partially environmental. Also, when stress levels are higher the disease gets worse.”

After her intitial diagnosis, Brandy went on with her life, but she was still far from normal. Her pain got significantly worse, and she was put on IV’s to control it. In January of 2009, she awoke in the middle of the night and collapsed from the pain. She told her husband Andrew that she needed to go to the hospital. She was there for more than 12 hours, in and out of consciousness from the pain, before they finally admitted her. It turned out the disease had eaten through her intestines, and she would have to have surgery.

Brandy said they first thought they could do the surgery laporoscopically, but the damage was too extensive. She now has a huge scar on her abdomen from when they removed two feet of her intestine.

The ileum was removed as part of the surgery, the part between the small and large intestine that detoxifies and absorbs nutrients. Since she no longer has this part, she had to take multivitamins and change the way she ate. [Read the Rest]

“Help Our Neighbors” helps senior citizens in the their homes

By Barb Jeffers
barb@fillmorecountyjournal.com

Fri, Dec 28th, 2012
Posted in Chatfield Health & Wellness

Comments

An organization called Help Our Neighbors can be the key to helping Senior Citizens stay in their homes and active in the community by providing services they need to stay independent. The services that the Help Our Neighbors organization assists wi .....
[Read the Rest]

1