My illness

So today I will be telling you about my illness like I said in my post last night. This was the first illness I got diagnosed with.

When I was around 5 years old, I was very ill and was having flare ups on my face. No doctors knew what was wrong with me and couldn’t give us an answer. Around 6 years old me and my mum were sitting in Morriston hospitals waiting room, when a doctor who has been studying a paper on Orofacial granulomatosis and sent us up to Cardiff hospital. Once we arrived to the hospital they then gave me a confirmed case of Orofacial granulomatosis.

When I got diagnosed there was a list that I wasn’t allowed, but I’ll give you a short list and there were pages and pages.

• chocolate

• tomatoes

• cinnamon

• benzoate

• nothing from E10 to E219

If I had any of the above I would have the worst flare up, my face and lips would swell up, my skin would flare up, it would look like I had cigarette burns all over me. I would get sores up my nose to the point it would bleed. The only way I could keep all of it under control was to avoid all of the above listed.

This was the first illness that I started with, but as I got older and continued avoiding all the list above, I improved and outgrew the first illness. 2 years later after the first illness, at the age of 8, I then got diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. In my next post, I will go into much more detail about my crohns as this is an illness I will have for LIFE.

I hope you‘ve enjoyed getting to know me a little bit more. More to come.

Love Rhiarn x