Eighteen year-old  Jessica Terry had been suffering from stomach and digestive problems for almost half of her life, despite the fact that none of her physicians could diagnose her ongoing issue. And you know what they say, right? If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. So Jessica did. After looking at her own intestinal tissues on pathology slides in a high school AP science class — slides her pathologist had said were completely normal — she found what was called a granuloma, a clear indicator of Crohn’s disease.

Crohn’s disease is an affliction of the digestive tract and is also a type of inflammatory bowel disease.  The main symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, appetite suppression and weight loss, amongst many more symptoms.  In extreme cases that go untreated, the patient can sometimes end up with a colostomy bag, which is, for lack of a better term, an external “poop bag.”

Despite learning of the potentially tough news, this bump in the road didn’t get Jessica Terry down.  To the contrary, it inspired her to write a book on Crohn’s Disease in order to educate children on the condition.  Jessica hopes to see it published in the near future.  She graduated this Spring from Eastside Catholic School in Washington state and plans on attending nursing school this Fall.  I wonder if this girl’s future plans could entail medical school, possibly.  She’s the type of person that should be a doctor, unlike some of the halfwits out there that slap a diagnosis on you and write a ’script simply for the insurance payment.

It’s completely appalling that a child’s complaints could go overlooked for eight years and chalked up to simple chronic stomach pain.  There’s nothing simple about chronic stomach pain.  Hell, there’s nothing simple about chronic anything.  There are entirely too many Dr. Cretins floating around in the medical world and far too many of them shouldn’t be licensed to drive, let alone licensed to practice medicine.

However, let us be inspired by this forthcoming generation that Jessica Terry belongs to and may her diligence in finding the right answers be an encouragement to us all.