Getting back into the swing of things: Jake ’s journey with Crohn’s disease

It was a cloudy, September day at the Country Club of Miami in South Florida. Jake Goodstat, a high school sophomore and varsity golf player, approached the ninth green. He walked up to his ball with putter in hand, took a deep breath and gently tapped the ball to make the putt. He says this was the hole where he cinched second place in the 2016 South Florida Junior Golf Tournament. “It was the greatest feeling in the world to know that I placed,” recalls Jake, a Florida teen who underwent surgery two months prior to treat his Crohn’s disease. “Before my surgery, I would register for a tournament, end up in the emergency room and be admitted to the hospital.” Jake’s journey with Crohn’s disease began in January of 2016. Unlike many adolescents and teens with Crohn’s, Jake’s symptoms didn’t include severe stomach pain or bloody stool. He simply didn’t feel well and was losing a lot of weight. “I knew something was wrong because I no longer had an appetite,” he says. “It got to a point where I felt like I couldn’t even look at food — a big red flag because I was always a pretty big eater.” Concerned about the continued weight loss, Jake went to see his local pediatrician who diagnosed him with a viral illness, mononucleosis. But as the weeks passed, his symptoms worsened. He was referred to a local infectious disease physician, who ordered initial diagnostic testing. “He had an ultrasound and a CT scan,” recalls Al...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Diseases & Conditions Our Patients’ Stories Athos Bousvaros Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Crohn's disease Robert Shamberger Source Type: news