Outside his window, Josh watched, enamored, the colors of the sunset shifting, turning the sky orange, and then pink, and finally a bruised purple.
He could almost forget where he was–at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, in a room all of his own.
Josh had a condition known as ulcerative colitis, a chronic disease where the lining of the colon becomes chronically inflamed. I use the past test here because this was before he had his colon surgically removed.
You’d think that would cure all of his symptoms, right? Wrong.
Now, Josh is living with Crohn’s disease, a disease very similar in symptoms to colitis but with different areas affected.
While ulcerative colitis solely affects the large intestine, Crohn’s targets the bottom of the small bowel and the start of the colon. As you’d expect, both diseases cause severe abdominal cramping.
For Josh, his medical team has made all the difference.
Josh’s positivity is through the roof. He’s “one of those” guys, but that’s not a bad thing! He goes so far as to say in his blog post that he’s “incredibly happy” with his life! What an outlook, am I right? Such inspiration!
Josh spent the majority of his teen years in the hospital, and he makes it sound as if he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
He shared birthdays with the nurses, celebrated the Phillies 2008 World Series win jumping up and down in the hospital hallway, and sang karaoke with other patients, jamming out to Alicia Keys.
Crohn’s can be a very painful disease, but it sounds like Josh had enough love and support to cancel to help him through.
Josh is now in college studying psychology and enjoying the life of a young man. And he knows he wouldn’t be where he is without his dedicated medical team.
