John S Tonello

The Bruxism Proxy John S Tonello

When a casual summer evening rapidly dissolved into a hot mess, I knew something was wrong. I was no longer an immortal twenty-something, but the victim of a strange, incurable disease I'd never heard of that really wanted me dead. What started as embarrassing cramps and mad dashes to the bathroom turned out to be the onset of ulcerative colitis, a chronic and incurable irritable bowel disease. Over the course of six months I'd learn about this gastrointestinal (GI) disease, experience my first colonoscopy, spend time in the hospital, and grapple with what it meant to live life running from bathroom to bathroom. Not many people talk about irritable bowel diseases, perhaps because it's embarrassing or it hints at odd procedures and prodding below the belt. But with millions suffering from some kind of gastrointestinal disorder, it's time to lift the veil a bit. This is a sometimes funny, always intimate look at what ulcerative colitis can be like at its worst, how I dealt with the early unknowns, and how I managed to find humor in it all.