Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it. -Confucious

Hey all! Welcome to "No Guts" and All the Glory, a blog dedicated to fashion, boosting self-esteem, making women feel sexy in their skin (again), and raising IBD (Ulcerative colitis, Colitis, Crohn's disease) and ostomy awareness. I can't wait for the journey to begin...

Let me introduce myself, I am Amber. I am going to school for Nursing, hoping to get my Master's and specialize in the IBD field. Currently, I will be able to sit for my Phlebotomy certification after July, and I'll, also, find out if I've been accepted into the the Nursing program at the local community college. I'm very impatient; so I'm praying these next few months fly by.

My IBD story:

In December of 2004, I had a knee surgery to remove arthritis and torn cartilage from the inside of my right knee cap. Silly, I know, I was only 16 and already having problems with arthritis. Little did I know, that would just be the beginning of an eight year fight for my life. After surgery, I started having bowel problems. I was going to the bathroom upwards of 30-40 times a day, and each bowel movement was excruciatingly painful and bloody.



High school graduation, 2006

 It took over eight months to get a definitive diagnosis because my PCP thought that I had just strained a muscle trying to poop after being on narcotics for 2 weeks. After seeing a specialist, I had a colonoscopy, only to discover that I have Crohn's disease. That was in August of 2005, about two weeks before my Senior year of high school.

I made it through Senior year, graduating in the top 5% of my class and with honors even though I missed a lot of school. My first hospitalization wasn't until after I had graduated and celebrated with an open house. I was admitted to the hospital due to liver and pancreatic failure. After a week, I was discharged because the doctor was able to get my body back to homeostasis with medications.



2 months after starting prednisone

 I had a pretty uneventful first year of college due to being sick very often, and my disease took a turn for the worst my Sophomore year, Fall of 2007, when I was almost 3 hours away from my home and specialist. Unfortunately, I've been in the hospital off and on since Thanksgiving of that year.

I've had near death experiences, addictions to pain medications, bowel obstructions, hallucinations due to drugs, and 3 surgeries (one of which was Crohn's related but not bowel related).

In October of 2010, I had no choice but to have a total proctocolonectomy with end ileostomy. My surgeon removed my rectum, colon, a foot of my terminal ileum, and my appendix. Unfortunately, surgery didn't go as planned, and I was on the table five hours longer than anticipated, developing hepatic deep vein thrombosis and an infected hematoma that later developed into MRSA.



8 weeks post-op, first surgery

 Determined to get my life back, I was back to school eight weeks post-op, and the stress of school landed me back in the hospital over Spring Break, the beginning of my second journey to the operating room. My Crohn's disease had returned and fistulized. After a complete bowel obstruction in July of 2011, my GI at the University of Chicago decided a second surgery was necessary. In November of 2011, the day after my birthday, I had my second surgery, a small bowel resection of 6 inches and a stoma revision.

In February of this year, an ileoscopy confirmed that my Crohn's has returned. I am currently on Humira for the second time to ease my Crohn's into remission. (I should probably mention that my body hasn't responded to any drugs that are available for Crohn's disease; so we're hoping giving Humira a second try will help.)

Through all of this, I've never given up hope, and I want to offer the same thing to you. I've decided to start this blog in the hopes of raising awareness for IBD and ostomies, along with restoring the self-esteem of women who are fighting UC and CD who have also had to resort to surgery for some relief.



6 months post-op, second surgery

 However, you don't have to have an ostomy to participate in this blog. If you have UC or CD or have had an ostomy, feel free to contribute. We all know what it's like to not feel pretty, not feel sexy, and not feel comfortable in our skin because of what UC or CD has done to our bodies.

We often wonder what to wear to conceal weight gain from steroids or how to conceal our appliance from the public. This is where you'll learn to feel beautiful with yourself, regardless of weight gain, medicinal side effects, or an ostomy.

Remember...

Beauty is only skin deep, it's what is inside that matters.

However...

It's also important to love yourself despite your battles; you're stronger because of them.

Welcome, ladies, let's begin the journey to self love and feeling sexy about ourselves again!