Ihsan Rashid Mbchb

Crohn's Disease Ihsan Rashid Mbchb

Can it really happen to a doctor? Well, it has happened to me, and I'm a doctor!



This is my unique and extraordinary real-life story. I share my journey and my battle for survival with severe, debilitating, complex Crohn's disease with major complications requiring repeated surgery. Before I knew it, I was gasping for breath and fighting for my life in the critical-care wards in hospital at the age of thirty-four, at a time when my wife was heavily pregnant and expecting our third child.



I share some unimaginable symptoms which I developed after starting medication, making my Crohn's extremely difficult to treat and control. My body even became allergic to water contact. Yes, that's right!



However, against all odds, I have managed to achieve a quality of life that has exceeded anybody's expectations. I even made it to the labour ward to witness the birth of my son, not long after being told in the hospital intensive-care ward that I could have died. Even medical professionals have been astounded and truly inspired by my story.



I had to find a way out, a way to survive, and achieve a better quality of life amidst extreme circumstances. I used years of my professional medical experience practising as a doctor as well as personal experience as a Crohn's sufferer, to devise a unique strategy that has helped pick me up from rock bottom and achieve my optimal quality of life, to the extent that an outsider would never know how ill I have been with Crohn's disease.



I realised that the road to recovery actually lay within the diagnosis itself, which is the inspiration behind my strategy.