Our Interview October series continues with our next guest, Jenni Lock. Let’s meet her now:
Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you…
My name is Jenni Lock. I’m 43 years old and hail from Ohio. I created Jenni’s Guts blog in 2008 and write about my journey with intestinal nonsense and other health issues. My sense of humor and sarcasm are all part of my charm. I have a deep love for animals, learning about everything, socializing from a far, and my beautiful daughter.
Chronic illness(es)/disabilities I have…
Crohn’s disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Bile Acid Malabsorption, chronic nausea and diarrhea mainly. However, I also suffer from Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia and struggle with a touch of PTSD.
My symptoms/condition began…
I started having health problems in roughly 1990, though I wasn’t officially diagnosed with Crohn’s until 1995. Everything else wrong with me just snowballed over the years after that.
My diagnosis process was…
Difficult. I suffered from a lot of stomach pain, back pain, joint pain and lost about 15 pounds due to running to the restroom about 15-20 times a day. My family doctor told me I was depressed and needed Prozac. That didn’t help so I went to a specialist. The specialist told me I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome and needed to eat more fiber and scheduled me for a sigmoidoscopy, but everything came back normal so I was, again, told to eat more fiber and decrease my stress. I quickly found out fiber made things worse and I continued to get sicker and sicker. I went to a different specialist who did many more tests but everything came back normal except for one blood test. It showed an inflammation/infection rate of seven times the normal rate. I exhausted all the testing options so I was scheduled for surgery to figure out what was happening inside me. During surgery they found I had about 3 1/2 feet of severely inflamed small intestine and the final diagnosis was Crohn’s disease. The whole diagnosis process took about 2 years.
The hardest part of living with my illness/disabilities is…
My inability to do things with my family and friends because of being tied to a restroom and not feeling well enough. Especially not being able to travel and go to fun events. I’m not able to do a lot of things with my daughter because of this and it is really hard for me to continually have to say, “No, I’m sorry but I’m too sick” or “I can’t because of the bathroom situation.”
A typical day for me involves…
After an exhausting night of not sleeping well, or even at all, the mornings are usually met with many trips to the restroom which continues throughout the day but most of the time tapers off at least a little throughout the day. I watch a lot of movies and television, read and research, or put on music and draw. I’m unable to work so I mainly just try to keep myself from going stir crazy.
The one thing I cannot live without is…
Laughter.
Being ill/disabled has taught me…
I can be a person with a disability (or many actually) but it doesn’t define who I am. I’m so much more than just someone with medical problems. And it has taken struggling with so many things wrong with me to actually figure that out.
What advice would I give someone recently diagnosed…
This diagnosis isn’t the end of you. Study and learn as much as you can about your illness from every source you can get your hands on (except WebMD!!). You have an inner strength that you never knew you had so use it to fight for proper health care and proper treatments and don’t ever, EVER settle for less – not from your doctors, healthcare professionals, or anyone else. You’re worth it!
My support system is…
My family and friends. And a furry little friend or two always make things better! (Shoutout to all the pets I have had along the way – I miss you guys!)
If I had one day symptom/disability-free I would…
Grab my daughter, get in the car and just drive. We would go to all the places she always wanted to go and do all the things she wanted to do that I couldn’t because traveling, for me, is so difficult.
One positive of having a chronic illness/disability is…
All the communities out there that have allowed me the opportunity to meet people and learn about their stories. I’m so fortunate that my blog has reached so many people and we all get to help each other cope. I think it is so important to have a community of people who understand, even if they are hundreds of miles away from you and you never physically meet each other.
My link is:
JennisGuts.blogspot.com
