What’s Your Story? Meet Megan!

Megan’s (28) journey started in 2014 when she was pregnant with her now nearly 5 year old son, Caleb.

It started with having frequent bowel movements, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, mouth ulcers and weight loss. Megan’s midwife put it down to pregnancy and it left it at that. It wasn’t until caleb was born that things got really bad. When he was 2 weeks old Megan’s dad passed away after a short battle with bowel cancer. Then she was going to the toilet 40+ times a day and was losing a lot of blood in each movement. It got to the point where she hadn’t eaten in weeks and had lost so much weight, with her mouth being covered in ulcers and had really bad pain in her stomach. One time, after seeing a doctor, Megan was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis after a colonoscopy. Since then she has tried all of the medications available to gain remission such as Steroids, Humira, Infliximab and Azathioprine which are types of Chemotherapy drugs.

Despite her illness and feeling poorly, Megan got married on 16.7.16 to Keith and was very nervous that she was going to have an accident as nerves and IBD do not mix! “It was such an amazing day and we loved every minute of it.” They have a lovely family starting with Caleb (5), Willow the Jack Russell Cross (10), Chief the Podenco Orito (1) and their 2 rabbits Bunbun and Maple.

“We love our animals and I am sure willow and chief know when I’m really sore, they don’t leave my side.”

It was eventually decided that Megan would have surgery to have a temporary loop Ileostomy. The plan was that the stool would bypass the diseased part of bowel and the bowel would get a chance to heal. Megan was prepared for the operation and was happy with this decision. She had had enough of the pain from the Ulcerative Colitis and wanted to try anything to get some relief. In October 2017, Megan had her planned surgery for a loop Ileostomy. The Recovery for her was rough especially once she was in her own home and back to being a Mum and looking after Caleb whilst in pain from surgery! Unfortunately her bowel hasn’t healed from the surgery or medications and is still in lots of pain. Megan is thankful for her stoma as she has so much more freedom than before the stoma.

“I don’t always have to know where the toilet is anymore and I don’t have to worry about shitting myself!”

Fast forward to now (March) and Megan is now on a medication called mercaptopurine which is an immunosuppressant, waiting on further surgery to remove the rest of the disease in her large bowel and rectum to make the ileostomy bag permanent and have what we call a “Barbie Butt!”  Megan says ” I am Looking forward to this next surgery and to being on the road to recovery and hopefully a pain free life! Life is still a struggle but my family, friends and the online ibd community keeps me going.”