Have you ever felt that something was not quite right with your body, but everyone else said you’re fine or they try to tell you it’s not what you think it is? Well, that happened to Melodie Narain Blackwell, a wife, mother and former working professional.
Melodie suffers with Crohn’s, an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and initially, before her official diagnosis, she felt pain in her joints. She was told it was rheumatoid arthritis, but she felt it was something more than that.
“I had debilitating arthritis they kept writing it off as gout. It got so bad that my joints were literally stuck, and I was crawling on the floor,” explains Melodie. “I began doing my own research because I realized something else was going on with me.”
Besides the arthritic joint pain, Melodie was losing her hair and had regular eye infections. Eventually, she began to bleed from her colon. She finally had an MRI and doctors could see something was going on with her immune system but weren’t sure exactly what.
After constantly being misdiagnosed, she became seriously ill and required surgery. After her second surgery, she finally received a correct diagnosis. She had an autoimmune disease (AD) called Crohn’s.
Nearly 24 million Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases. Crohn’s is one of the autoimmune diseases that affects more African Americans and especially African-American women. The average age for Crohn’s diagnosis is 15 to 35 years old.
Not knowing anything about autoimmune diseases, Melodie soon discovered having one is when your immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells, tissue and organs. Autoimmune diseases can attack almost any part of your body and some may affect more than one part of the body. The cause of autoimmune diseases is not known and there are no cures, but some are treated with immunosuppressive medication and corticosteroids which helps to reduce the immune system’s hyperactivity.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which affects the lining of the intestine, is one of the more than 80 chronic illnesses that fall under autoimmune diseases. The two main forms of IBD are Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.
Crohn’s Disease
This inflammatory bowel disease causes inflammation and ulcers in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It can cause bloody diarrhea, anemia, weight loss, abdominal pain and fatigue. Some people may live symptom-free while others, like Melodie, have severe chronic symptoms.
Melodie is such a fierce advocate for people with Crohn’s and IBD, especially people of color, that she created a nonprofit called Color of Crohn’s and Chronic Illinois (COCCI). She educates minority communities about this often-misdiagnosed illness, especially with women of color. She petitions to have African Americans included in large clinical trials for the disease because of low representation.
What started as a Facebook group of chronic illness sufferers grew to over 100 people. From that group she realized there is a lot of information that people don’t know. Her goal in creating the nonprofit is to make sure patients are informed. “One of the things that some members didn’t know was about the arthritis,” states Melodie.
Melodie has dealt with the effects of Crohn’s disease since 2014. Her illness is not in remission, but manageable and, because of the consequences of the disease, she cannot work outside of the home. She is very candid about her condition and the effects it has, like the drains she has in her rectum because of constant bleeding. Because of the bleeding, she must bathe regularly to prevent clouting, which keeps her homebound.
During this pandemic, Melodie is always home, except to go to her or her husband’s doctor’s appointment. She has no immune system and is pregnant with her second child that is due in the summer. Because of her disease, she will have a C-section so as not to traumatize the drains in her rectum or the fistulas in her colon.
Melodie understands how important being healthy is to her survival. Having as strong an immune system as possible, getting her rest, exercise and her relationship with God are the keys to her successful existence with an autoimmune disease.
For ways foods that will help you stay healthy and boost your immune system, especially during this time of coronavirus, click the link below.
By subscribing, you consent to receive emails from BlackDoctor.com. You may unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy & Terms of Service.
