我想我当时不明白溃疡性结肠炎是什么意思。我明白这不是一个短暂的问题。但我认为，特别是当你年轻的时候，很难理解你余生的时间概念。
我在15岁零8个月的时候被诊断出患有溃疡性结肠炎。我之所以记得这一点，是因为我刚刚在马里兰州拿到了驾照。我当时在上高中，高二。我有剧烈的疼痛，你知道，在胸部和腹部。我当时便秘了大概一个星期。然后我就开始大便带血。一开始我不太明白。所以我隐瞒了几天。最后，当我感到非常痛苦的时候，我把它告诉了我爸爸。当然，他马上就带我去看医生。 They actually kept me in a hospital for 28 days after revealing that. I don’t think I understood at the time what ulcerative colitis meant. I mean, I understood that the pain and I, I understood that this was not a transient problem, but it’s hard I think when you’re younger, in particular, to understand the concept of, of time for the rest of your life. At first, being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, I felt almost special, which is odd. I felt that this was something that was me, that other people didn’t have. It was a way that differentiated myself more from, from others maybe. When you start experiencing some of the problems, it was difficult. There was times where I would be with friends and I would have to be very conscious of my surroundings. Early on in my diagnosis, when I would have to go to the bathroom, I would have to go to the bathroom within a couple minutes. Like I had to get to a bathroom regardless of where I was. I remember one time, in one class, and the bathroom was just down the hall from the class, but I, I couldn’t make it from my chair to the bathroom.
幸运的是，我进了浴室，但我只记得进了浴室，没能及时脱裤子，基本上就是，你知道，拉了自己。剩下的时间我都待在浴室里。我的意思是，这种情况还发生过很多次。有一次我上学迟到了。我自己开车去学校，没能及时赶到学校。所以，我最终只是开车回家，没有进去。在此之前，我是一个很好的学生。这件事发生后，我发现自己很难集中注意力，无法保持对学习更多知识的兴趣。我参加过童子军。基本上，我不再去背包旅行了。 I was playing baseball very competitively year-round and I essentially stopped completely playing baseball. And then going out just with friends on, on a Friday night, became difficult because if I ate anything, I’d have to be aware of where the restroom was.
这是一个尴尬的现实，没有别的办法。我对任何正在经历这一切的青少年的建议是，这很艰难，但你会发现你是谁。你会学会欣赏那些善良的人，你会学会理解其他人可能正在为你看不到的事情而挣扎。它会帮助你理解什么才是真正重要的。你可能会变得不那么关心一些肤浅的事情，并意识到它们并不像以前看起来那么重要。你会有一段时间觉得自己不舒服，但希望之后你会觉得自己更舒服。
