A detail can sometimes change your life. For Sofia Maughan, it was a digestive boredom which it simply attributed to a small passenger virus. It was not.
Allergensions to the incessant toilet
Gastro, Sofia knows and at the beginning, her symptoms did not seem serious … but quickly, her condition deteriorates. The back and forth to the toilet become incessant-up to 35 times a day evokes. Then come the pain, violent, cyclical, followed by blood loss.
“I felt that something was wrong, but no one had prepared me for that”she confides in Mirror.
The examinations reveal a dazzling intestinal inflammation. Coloscopy confirms the diagnosis: at 26 years old the young woman discovers that she is suffering from Crohn’s disease. A shock, but also a relief. Put a name on this gnawing evil. Sofia then discovered an illness that she did not know – and above all, a daily life that she did not imagine.
Understanding Crohn’s disease
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine (IBD). It manifests itself by inflammation of the intestinal wall, often located in the ileon (the last section of the small intestine), but being able to reach any part of the digestive tract.
It generally begins between 20 and 30 years old, but can also appear earlier or later. Its exact cause remains unknown, but genetic, immune and environmental factors are involved. Tobacco, in particular, worsens the disease and increases the frequency of thrusts.
Various symptoms on the whole body
Inflammation inevitably causes typical digestive symptoms which must lead to a consultation:
- Persistent abdominal pain;
- Chronic diarrhea without infection;
- False desires to defecate;
- Bleeding or flows if the rectum or the perineum.
But the disease is not limited to the intestines. In Sofia, the whole body is suffering: joint pain, legs marbled by poor circulation, hypersensitivity to light forcing to wear sunglasses indoors, extreme fatigue.“I felt like my whole body was broken. Inflammation hammered me.” And there is also what we see less: mental fog, or Brain Fog. “”Sometimes I can’t even drive. I’m not there anymore. “
Living with Crohn: a daily newspaper to rebuild
Today, under treatment, Sofia continues to live with the disease, out of thrusts and remissions. But that is not simple. She has lost jobs because of her absences. His job as a waitress, incompatible with chronic fatigue, had to be abandoned. Now a real estate agent, she has found an understanding employer. “”It’s not that I don’t want to come to work, it’s that I can’t. And that, few people understand it “she regrets.
His social life and love was also upset. Some meetings have shot short due to food restrictions or a lack of listening. And yet Sofia refuses to be silent. On her Tiktok page, @Sofiamaughan, she shares her daily life, her pains, her tips, but above all a message of hope. More than 658,000 likes testify to the echo met.
To raise awareness, his solution to no longer be alone
Faced with the lack of support when you learn the disease, “A simple brochure, some leaflets” Indicates the young woman. The latter has taken the mission of filling the void. “”The number of girls who write to me by telling me that their doctors do not listen to them is heartbreaking. ” Through her videos, she breaks today taboo around an invisible disease, often misunderstood, and too often stigmatized. She gives a voice to those we do not hear, and recalls an essential truth: we can live with Crohn’s disease.
In France, the association of patients François Aupetit (www.afa.asso.fr) offers a lot of information to patients.