Woman 'needed toilet almost immediately after eating anything' before diagnosis

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A woman has told how she returned from holiday and suddenly was going to the toilet immediately after eating, before receiving a shock diagnosis that changed her life.Selan Lee had just turned 18 and was waiting to sit her A Levels when she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a painful condition which affects the digestive tract.Selan, 23, was going to the toilet three to four times a day or almost immediately after eating anything, and her attendance at school suffered.She said: “I came back from a family holiday and noticed that there were increased trips to the toilet and I felt more lethargic than before."I believe that going so frequently with diarrhea and abdominal pain led to anxiety about going to the toilet.

Not knowing where the nearest toilet was, or the slightest stomach cramp would send my anxiety through the roof.“I think I had, like, 100 per cent attendance at school, and then I just didn’t turn up for a good two months.

That was a big warning.”Selan ended up in hospital where she was told that she had Crohn’s. The most common types of inflamatory bowel disease (IBS) are Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis, neither of which have a cure.With IBS conditions, the immune system attacks healthy tissue in the gut.

You can develop Inflammatory Bowel Disease at any age, although – like Selan – a quarter of people get their diagnosis before 30, reports Wales Online.It took Selan some time to come to terms with her diagnosis, with the Surrey native unable to start university when she had planned and having to curtail her social life, instead focusing on art.She said: “Initially I had no way of speaking about my illness and art has helped me massively with that."My friends had seen me before my diagnosis, so they could