Your Health
| SECRET MILLIONAIRE |  | | | VIEW FROM THE HILL | | | | YOUR HEALTH | | |
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Tummy trouble
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| David and Diane Martin, chairman and vice-chair of the Dorset Area Group of NACCD, with son, Robert who has Crohn's. |
LOOKING back, Diane Martin thinks her son Robert was already showing signs of inflammatory bowel disease when he was in his final year at primary school in Bournemouth.
"He was off two or three times with tummy aches. They suspected appendicitis, but it wasn't. The pain went away, he was sent home and nothing was done," she recalled.
"Once he was at secondary school, he lost a tremendous amount of weight. He got really tall and thin and he did not look right. The doctors said he's growing', the usual sort of thing, but he looked like something out of a refugee camp."
That year, the family went to Majorca, and when Diane looked at the holiday photographs, she was shocked.
"He looked awful. We got an appointment to see a consultant at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Robert had a colonoscopy.
"He went in the day after his 14th birthday. They called me in the day afterwards and said they had found something. We were told not to worry and to go home and have a good Christmas and New Year."
Robert was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the wall of the intestinal wall. The disease is becoming more common, and most cases start between the ages of 14 and 24.
The cause is unknown, although recent research has suggested it might be an organism called mycobacterium paratuberculosis, or MAP, which causes similar symptoms to Crohn's in cattle and sheep and could be passed on through milk or water systems.
The most common early signs of Crohn's are diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, pain, fever and loss of appetite. Complications can include inflamed joints, anaemia and slow growth in children; gallstones, eye problems, mouth and skin sores.
Some people only have one attack in the small intestine, but usually, the disease flares up repeatedly during a patient's life.
There is no cure, but treatment can relieve the symptoms.
Robert was put on to medication. "He seemed quite good for a while but where he had lost so much weight he developed pneumothoraxes (collapsed lungs). That didn't help," said Diane.
"The first couple of years he managed quite well. He had a couple of short spells in hospital. One year, he went to school about nine days between Christmas and Easter.
"He's very brave. Over the years, he's been in and out of hospital. Generally you get a good spell then a really bad spell. Three years ago, he had a really bad spell. He had internal bleeding and was very poorly. It was touch and go for a while."
But 24-year-old graphic designer Robert has learnt to live with the condition. "He likes to do the same as all his friends," said Diane. "As he's got older, he's got stronger, but I don't think I'll ever stop worrying about it. I always know if he's not well because he comes home and says: Can I have chicken soup tonight?'."
Diane is the vice-chairman of the Dorset branch of the National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease (NACC) and her husband David is chairman. The organisation - which estimates there are more than 400 people in Bournemouth alone with one or other of the diseases - recently launched a Parent to Parent service.
The idea is to support worried and frightened parents by providing them with the listening ear of a parent who has weathered similar experiences. The confidential service operates through NACC helpline 0845 130 2233 and is backed by BBC Fame Academy voice coach and Crohn's sufferer Carrie Grant.
To contact NACC Dorset, ring 0845 434 8529, email Dorset@groups.nacc.org.uk, or write to PO Box 6959, Bournemouth BH11 ODP.
10:34am Wednesday 30th July 2008
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