Linda - Interview 13

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Linda was hospitalised when she was 15 and eventually diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. She was put on medication and has managed to largely control any flare ups through bed rest and the occasional course of steroids. For Linda, Crohn’s hasn’t greatly affected her life but has always been a part of it and she wonders whether her decision to work from home in a self employed capacity is related to the difficulties Crohn’s can cause. Now she has reached her fifties, Linda is more accepting of her Crohn’s but also self aware of the possible side effects of the long term medication.
Linda was diagnosed with Crohn's as a young girl and contrary to what her mother had been told it...

Linda was diagnosed with Crohn's as a young girl and contrary to what her mother had been told it...
Yes, yes. Yes. I am. I’m a bit protective of him. But actually neither of us can cope with the way our lives are if we don’t talk about things. He has various health issues, different things. He says it’s not so serious. Perhaps he’s right, but we don’t look at it in terms, it’s a competition. So yes, I do talk about it. And because of the nature of my illness, he needs to know about it, because otherwise we couldn’t travel together, we couldn’t, you know, it would be shutting off a big part of life in a way. Even possibly, in the most extremely possibly meaning not sharing a bedroom even. So, I mean, not that there’s any real implications in that, but I could imagine, you know, a situation where you could feel so uncomfortable at night and perhaps getting up so often in the night, disturbing somebody else that that might have to, if you didn’t talk about the problem that could become a big issue.
Linda realises that she probably chose to be self-employed because it was safer in terms of...
Linda realises that she probably chose to be self-employed because it was safer in terms of...
I think that subconsciously the choice of work that I’ve done, low key, administrative business stuff, and then when the opportunity to work for myself at home came up 23, 24 years ago, it, that I’m sure that was part of my decision to do it, that it’s safer somehow. Working for myself, the thought of being ill and having to take regular time off from an employer, you know, the diffi… yes, I have worked outside the home and I’ve had full time employment, you know, but I think that running my own business where I have control over when I work was definitely part of having Crohn's Disease.
Lindas not convinced that the Jewish diet is a factor in Crohns disease.
Lindas not convinced that the Jewish diet is a factor in Crohns disease.
As a young adult, Linda found being unable to eat normally, chronic diarrhoea and weight loss...
As a young adult, Linda found being unable to eat normally, chronic diarrhoea and weight loss...
Linda doesnt like to think of herself as an ill person. Her Crohns is more under control these...
Linda doesnt like to think of herself as an ill person. Her Crohns is more under control these...
The real issue is the… needing to be near a toilet all the time. That is, that can be a problem. And there are other socially unacceptable symptoms, which, you know, at its worst means you really don’t feel much like going out. But it hasn’t happened to me like that for a long time, because the medication I take now, which is non steroidal, it seems to work. But if I did get a flare up I know, you know, that it’s just a case of popping some extra pills and within, as I say, a pretty short time, it’s, it would be back under control. So I might lose a day’s work, may be two.