La Grange resident Debra Weiss has lent her voice to the world of podcasting in the “Crohn’s Casts: Speaking from the Gut” series.

An interview with the Crohn’s disease patient will be featured in “Episode 4: Coping with Crohn’s,” which debuts Wednesday, Sept. 3.

According to www.crohnsonline.com, which hosts the podcast, Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract with symptoms such as rectal bleeding, persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and fatigue.

Most people experience periods of flareups, followed by periods of remission. There is no known cause or cure for the disease but the symptoms can be treated.

Weiss said she was first diagnosed with Crohn’s when she was 16 but probably had it since she was 14, when she first started suffering from the symptoms such as rectal bleeding.

Weiss said she knew nothing of the disease before she was diagnosed and was shocked by her doctor’s solution.

“The doctor said ‘I want you to avoid dairy products, I don’t want you to have alcohol and don’t have any kids, and you’ll be fine.’”

She has not had any children, but she enjoys a drink occasionally and loves ice cream.

The disease kept her out of school so much that she had to get a GED to finish high school.
Just as painful for her was that she missed out on all the social experiences of being in high school.

“The only photos I have from high school is of my first colonoscopy,” she said. “Try scrapbooking that.”

Her Crohn’s went into remission when she was in her 20s but came back in 2000.

She was in the hospital off-and-on until May 2006, when she started a new medicine that put her in remission once again.

Weiss said that, during that last bout with the disease, the toughest part was dealing with her depression, caused by the medications she was taking and dealing with the disease.

This is the topic she covers during the podcast, talking about how she dealt with her sadness and frustration.

Dr. David Rubin, codirector of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the University of Chicago and Weiss’ doctor, was the one who suggested she participate in the podcast.

A contributor the podcast himself, he said he was trying to find a way to relate to the patients.

“One of the best ways is to hear it from another patient,” he said.

Rubin said it can be hard to find someone willing to speak about and be a role model for

Crohn’s because of the embarrassing nature of the symptoms.

“In general, people are shy about talking about bowel problems for obvious reasons,” he said.

Weiss is glad to be able to share her experience.

“I felt like if I did it and I was able to help somebody, what I went through would have meant something,” she said.

Doing the podcast has also been therapeutic to her, she said, because it has made her confront the issues she dealt with while sick and how it affected her family.

“When someone in the family gets sick, not only do they suffer but everyone around that person suffers.”

Weiss remembers one day in the hospital when her parents were visiting.

When her father came over to reassure her after she started crying, she noticed there were tears in his eyes. She said that was the first time she had ever seen him cry.

Since her Crohn’s went into remission, she has regained the confidence to go back into the workplace, rejoining the animal shelter she worked at before she got sick.

During that six-year period, she said she dropped everything she was involved with because she did not think she could hold down a full-time job.

“When you’re that sick, dealing with your illness is a full-time job.”

In a recent role reversal, Weiss had to visit her father in Indiana, who had become terminally ill.
Because she would not have been able to make the trip when she was sick, she said she feels privileged to be able to take care of her father after he spent many years taking care of her.