Welcome to the Daily Dump, the number one place to talk about number two. I'm Drew Hankenher host and I'm super excited to bring you another episode of this new podcast. This time we're joined by Adir friend of mine who just so happens to be single in New York City and she was recently diagnosed with colitis and will dive into what that story and experience has been like. I hope you enjoy.
Hi, good afternoon. Good afternoon. It's so good to see you and to be here. Who do we have today on the Daily Dump?
Shannon, Croy, 31, live in New York. Single. Single, what are we looking for? Are we looking to share a story and we find love our life today?
If there's something that listens to this and is open to it, then absolutely. Wow. Where do you live within New York? Where are you in?
I live in Brooklyn. I'm in Park Slip. Fun. What did you do this morning?
What did you get up to before meeting me to record it in this video today? Oh, friend and I came up to the Upper West Side and went and had some multiple soup and a rubin and then stopped at Zabars, got some pastries. The delicious morning. Oh my gosh, that sounds so delightful.
Welcome to the Upper West Side. I'm so excited to hear your story and what you have to share with all the listeners today. How did you hear of the Daily Dump? So I saw it posted, advertised on Instagram stories and happily responded because my life revolves around poop and gut health because I have colitis.
I've heard of colitis a little bit, but what exactly does that mean and how does that impact your life? Colitis is an autoimmune digestive disorder. So if you've heard of Crohn's, it's very similar. Crohn's impacts your entire colon or large intestine in different areas and colitis really starts in your colon at the very volume of your rectum and kind of will work its way upwards.
So depending on its severity, depends on how much your large intestine is impacted. So thankfully mine is pretty well maintained. I have also proctitis is the official name. What it means is day to day I just need to be more aware of what I'm eating, keeping my stress under control so that the colitis stays at bay.
It's nothing I can ever pure or get rid of, but I do take medication to keep my colitis under control. Is colitis something that you're born with or is it something that people acquire through their life or dramatically? How does one get colitis? You're born with it like other opinions, but it just might not show up until certain points in your life.
It might impact you right from birth or later on. I actually was hospitalized when I was two with bleeding ulcer in my stomach and I've just had tummy troubles since through the past 31 years of my life. So it's kind of always been an ongoing thing for me, but I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was 30 years old. Oh my gosh, what a medical journey I can't even begin to fathom what that was like.
Are there particular components of that journey that you'd like to share with yours today on maybe the early signs or symptoms of colitis that you were experiencing or what that path through navigating the medical system was like? It's been interesting because I had it for so long I thought so many of my symptoms were normal that it would be painful to have a bowel movement and I just thought that everybody experienced the same things and particularly gastroenterologists have not taken me seriously and would say, you know, more fiber go home. I actually went through three or four gastroenterologists before I had one that was willing to do a coloscopy and an endoscopy to diagnose that. So a lot of my life, I just kind of thought this is how it's supposed to be.
Wow, so you actually saw multiple medical professionals who like denied your case essentially or maybe misdiagnosed you with something. Can you share a little bit more about what that journey was like navigating the medical system before getting an actual diagnosis? Yeah, so I saw a few people in Brooklyn because I've always had, you know, stomach pains or other issues but I thought it was normal until I started bleeding every time I would poop essentially and figured this is not normal and there's such a rise in colon cancer right now for people in their 30s and 40s which is very uncommon so I've wanted it to be taken seriously and still a few gastroenterologists told me to eat more fiber go home and give me a list of foods to eat until I found one that said, you know, this is really serious. You've had ongoing medical history so let's do a colonoscopy and an endoscopy for you.
Those, I always been denied and medical professionals had to do it. It's too invasive at your age, you know, you really don't need it so that led to a lot of the being misdiagnosed or undiagnosed because of their unwillingness to do it even though I was very willing to. It sounds like you finally found like a great medical provider that was willing to explore a little bit more and figure out what that's like. I'm not sure how many listeners have actually gone through those medical procedures.
What is the prep time like for that and what was your experience like as you're prepping for this procedure? So the colonoscopy itself takes maybe 10 minutes but kind of the large portion of it is the prep and you need to clear out your bowels and that involves fasting for an entire day and just having large quantities of laxatives to help you clear it all out. Which everyone is so uncomfortable talking about but it's just a part of the procedure. For me it was quite interesting.
Two days before I was supposed to have it done, I went out to a concert with some friends. I actually met up with you at the ends of the night and we had martinis and french fries and that was my last meal before going in and getting my colonoscopy. So the next day, you know, I sent drinking gatorade and the laxative liquid and tied to my bathroom. It wasn't unpleasant, honestly.
It was, you know, just a little bit of human nature and I think I was excited more than anything that I was going to get an answer. So I was so willing. And then the day of the colonoscopy, I just took train up to Tribeca, went to my gastroenterologist's office, they put you under and explained the whole procedure and you get out 15 minutes later, honestly, it's very, very quick and to show you your results immediately. So within an hour of entering the office, I came out and had my diagnosis.
I was just so excited to know what was going on and how we could solve it. And I asked my doctor, is there anything I can't eat? What can I not do? And she's like, how did everyone want?
So I immediately left him out of bagel. A bagel, you didn't return to martinis and french fries in a proper New York style? I did not. I did the opposite.
I did the morning version of New York. We got bagel with some cream cheese and locks. I was very, very happy. Without the idea of dietary restrictions that some people may assume that go into it, how else has your life changed or what is maybe the control factor that colitis has as you navigate life living without diagnosis?
No. I think I'm so much more open to talking to people about the trouble that I have. You know, some days I'll have a glipless layer up and I have to tell my boss, you know, hey, I usually don't say go into extreme detail, but I will say, hey, I'm having a glipless layer up and I'm not ashamed at all of it. And it's taken so much more seriously than just saying, you know, I have a stomach ache, I'm not feeling well.
There's a real painful reason behind it. So I feel so much more validated anytime something happens, which has been such a breath of fresh air. Even on this podcast, you know, I'm so much more open to talking about poop and your gut health and how important it is because after I got my diagnosis, after I went on medication to control it, my energy got better, my immunity got better. I was getting sick constantly to the point where my friends actually said something where they're like, are you okay?
Because I was getting wildly sick so often. So now I'm just like feeling better. I am so much more confident and willing to tell everyone about it because there's that expression, hot girls have tummy issues or hot girls have stomach issues, but it's such a real thing when it's a medical issue that impacts your life. And one more plug, Shannon is single.
If there's someone willing to date someone living with colitis and you two could have a hot colitis girlfriend. Yeah, we're amazing. We're not shy about anything. It's great.
I think I became so much more comfortable and after my colonoscopy screen, I did have to use the positories for almost three months to really heal the area because it was so badly damaged and was causing a lot of issues. So I just called them little booty vitamins because why have you ashamed of it? Could you explain what that is to like a like five-year-old for people that may not know that they're not going to all do? Sure.
A suppository is basically like a pill that you would take orally except you have to put it up your booty hole and it's there and the it's kind of like putting you know, a lotion on a wound or an antibacterial wound, but it's for internal purposes. So I was just healing myself from the inside out, which is great. That is super eye-opening for someone. Personally, it was not experience that, but hopefully some listeners will take something away from this as well.
And maybe if they're having uncomfortable bowel movements or maybe there's blood in their stool that they will also embody some confidence that you've expressed to kind of seek medical care and find right doctor to give them a right diagnosis for their needs. Yeah, absolutely. I hope I've inspired somebody to take action and feel better. Through your journey with colitis, what is the weirdest or most intriguing fact about poop that you've learned?
Oh, I think the most interesting thing I've learned is that most people are actually constipated on the day-to-day basis. That the time between you eat and the bowel movement should be like a few hours, but so many people don't actually poop out what they ate until like a day or two later and that's another version of constipation that people are just so unaware of. So just the healthy like amount and time that you should be going. And what's the most like unexpected place that you've found that you've had to use the restroom?
It is a little nerve-racking to go in someone's house after date, of course. I think everyone shares that fear. But that might be the only place I'm shy. You are here with a friend who's going to be on episode three.
Could you give us a quick teaser to tee up what the next episode is going to be about? Yes, Marissa is one of my best friends and honestly our group chat probably talks about poop more than once a week at least. So we openly share our stories and I have to tell you Marissa's got a great story from the pandemic which I believe is maybe the first time that she shared herself in 20 years. A pandemic, Poopy.
I cannot wait to hear. It has been such a joy and pleasure to have you. I have learned so much about colitis and I hope many of our listeners have learned a lot about colitis as well. Thank you for sharing your story and your experience as navigating the medical system in order to get a correct diagnosis.
Any last few words from you Shannon before we call her out? Oh thank you so much for having me on the daily dump. This has been amazing and probably out there. Eat your fiber and get your booty checked.
If you felt inspired by what you heard today and want to share a story or perhaps have someone to mind the story for us feel free to reach out to us at info at dailydump.media again that's info at dailydump.media. We also just launched an Instagram account and that can be found at Daily Dump Media and as we continue to set on this venture it would mean the world to us if you could like, subscribe, follow, do that thing on whatever podcast platform you listen to on today. We appreciate all of your continued support. Thanks until next time.