Day 1: Rose tinted glasses

As I woke up this morning and walked to the fridge for breakfast, I had three tantalising options. Summer Fruits elemental, Grapefruit elemental or Orange & Pineapple elemental. On face value, that doesn’t sound too bad does it? A delicious fruity drink to start the day…
Unfortunately, I have remembered these shakes with complete rose tinted glasses. They are vile. I mean, they really are disgusting.

These are the things they are not:

• Not like a juice
• Not like a milkshake
• Not like a smoothie
• Not like squash
• Not an enjoyable beverage
• Not enjoyable full stop.

Because this isn’t the first time I have been on a exclusive liquid diet. Twelve years ago I featured in the very cool (!) teen mag, Mizz. The headline was extremely dramatic and I was interviewed at home with a friend from school.

Back then, it was harder still, as I was required to drink even more of the shakes to aid my body through puberty. The volume of liquid I had to consume was so large, I had to have half of it passed straight into my stomach, via a nasogastric tube. This is a tube that is inserted up your nose, down your throat and into your stomach. In the photo above, I was 10 years old. I had to keep the tube in constantly and it tickled my throat. During the time I had the tube, I remember watching CBBC and some exciting S Club 7 news (they were my fave) came on the television. I leaped up in so much excitement, the tube completely slipped out of my nose. We went straight to A&E to have it reinserted.
Luckily this isn’t on the cards this time around. Now I’m a responsible adult (ha!), I am able to consume all the required shakes – 9 250ml cartons a day. *Gulp*…
People said to me at school, ‘why did you decide to write in and tell your story?’ I remember distinctively staring at them like it was completely obvious. ‘I’m miserable and hungry! I may as well make some money out of it!’ I wish I could remember what I spent the £150 on (probably more Mizz magazines), but it was hugely exciting.
Raising awareness of Crohns Disease and IBD is extremely important to me. Every 30 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with Crohns or Colitis. 1 in 4 of these people are under 16. A diagnosis of this kind is life changing. If you want to learn more about Crohns, Colitis or IBD in general, you can find more information on the Crohns and Colitis UK website here – All about IBD.
To find out more about my Crohns story, click here.
End of day 1 and I’m hungry… no surprises there. I’m going to leave you with something one of my oldest friends said to me today.

‘Remember, solids are for chumps’. Katharine, April 2016