The focus on this collection of stories–from nurses to patients to family members of patients–is much larger than her previous book, “I’d Like to Buy a Bowel Please.” The medical topics in this collection include cancer, babies and pregnancy, nursing, bedpans, breasts, and, of course, bowels. While the book is subtitled “Medical Stories of Humor and Inspiration” the majority of the stories in this collection definitely fall more on the inspirational side, especially the stories of watching loved ones pass into the next realm. And this is a good thing.

This book really shows that, despite horrible circumstances that people often find themselves in medically, there can be hope, peace, and joy. While many of you are probably in a bad place right now with your bowel struggles, if you examine your life hard enough you can probably find instances of profound goodness in your own life, especially considering the tender moments you’ve shared with your loved ones over the journey.

Rating: 4.5/5

Keep fighting,
~Dennis

A hairdresser at the time, Elsagher quickly had to come to terms with this embarrassing cancer as she prepared for massive surgery that left her with a permanent colostomy. After facing this life-changing situation, Elsagher decided to pursue dreams she had neglected, like becoming a comedian. Now, for the past decade or so, Elsagher has been speaking across the country to various medical and patient support groups.

This memoir is very honest and candid as Elsagher finds the light in her disease, and uses her experiences to help others. While most of my viewers are suffering with inflammatory bowel disease and not cancer, I still recommend this book to anybody dealing with disease of our pipes.

Rating: 5/5

Keep fighting,
~Dennis

Brenda Elsagher–comedian, national speaker, and ostomate–set out to find the humor in living with an ostomy. She’s included stories from herself and dozens of other ostomates about some of the funny situations they’ve found themselves in over the years with their ostomies.

For those who face the prospect of ostomy surgery and are worried sick about what life will be like, I strongly suggest you check out this book. Life isn’t all doom and gloom when you have an ostomy.

Rating: 4.5/5

Keep fighting,
~Dennis

Since this book is part of a “First Year” series of books on medical issues, the book’s format walks the reader through various information they need to know in their first year of having IBD. It starts with chapters for the first seven days, followed by the first four weeks, and finally each month thereafter until month 12. This book provides information on a large range of topics, including medicines, alternative treatments, complications, surgery options, coping with depression, dealing with pregnancy, and the role of nutrition. This book taught me a lot that I didn’t know and I occasionally go back to it as a reference when a viewer talks to me about some sort of treatment or medicine that I am not familiar with.

However, the “first year” format of the book is entirely pointless. The chances that somebody with IBD would start reading this book the first day they were diagnosed with IBD is slim at best, though the information contained in the first seven days chapters (the first third of the book) is valuable nonetheless.

Additionally, there is no reason to wait until a certain month into your disease to read a chapter that may be relevant for you. Example: Sex, fertility, and pregnancy issues are discussed in months 6 and 7, but chances are your first questions about this issues won’t come up exactly at that time. Additionally, information on traveling with IBD doesn’t come up until month 9, but what if you have to travel before then? Instead, one should either read the book through cover to cover in a week or keep it on the shelf as a reference.

And finally, this is nitpicking but throughout the book Sklar enhances her somewhat dry and technical prose with anecdotes from others who suffer from IBD. While the anecdotes on their face add something to the education, almost all of the people quoted are women. I made of list of all the people referenced in the text. On the women side we have stories from Sunni, Jenny, Lynn, Amy, Jerri, Michelle, Vickie, Rachel, Jacy, Emily, Karen, Peggy, Bonnie, and Lindsey.

On the men side we have stories from Tom and Mike.

Overall, if you want some objective and focused literature on different medicines, treatments, and technical aspects of IBD–information that I have a hard time presenting–check out this book.

Rating: 4/5

Keep fighting,
~Dennis

It’s written by Dr. Darryl Helems, a Crohn’s disease sufferer of over 20 years. Dr. Helems was diagnosed with Crohn’s as a teenager and has had many ups and downs with the disease, oscillating between periods of remission followed by flare-ups, most caused by his own poor management of his health. Dr. Helems doesn’t focus on medical treatments or terminology, but instead on the emotional aspects of living with the disease. As the title of the book suggests, Dr. Helems has had to set his pride aside as the disease constantly beat him down.

The book is mostly memoir with a few “strategies” listed towards the end about how to live with the disease. This section is relatively short and doesn’t offer much practical information, though his advice on keeping your family, friends, and faith close to heart is some of the best advice on dealing with the emotional aspects of inflammatory bowel disease.

The book is very short–less than 100 pages, nearly double-spaced. It could be more informative in spots, especially on how to manage the emotional aspects of the disease. You probably won’t find the book in stores, though it is available through Amazon.com. At the time of this writing it is nearly out of stock, though there may be more new copies along the way.

Others have already reviewed this book, and no doubt numerous other books on bowel diseases in the past. I plan on reading more books from others in this area so as I get through them I’ll let you know how good they are.

Rating: 3/5. Check out if you get a chance but don’t put in too much effort trying to find it.

Keep fighting,
~Dennis

One thing I wanted to call attention to is the children’s “Story and Colouring” book the site offers, Jeff Talks About Crohn’s Disease. The foundation will send a copy of the book free to anybody, even here in the US. Parents who have little kids with IBD’s might find the book useful.

The book tells the story of 6-year-old Jeff and how he discovered he has Crohn’s. The doctors do bloodwork, an endoscopy, and x-rays. Then he modifies his diet, meets with his doctors regularly, and stays active. The book is general enough that the same steps Jeff goes through could easily apply to a child with ulcerative colitis, the only difference being that a colitis kid would undergo a colonoscopy instead of an endoscopy.

I don’t know much about children’s education so I don’t know how helpful this book is. It’s very vague about what Crohn’s disease actually is. It makes zero mention of bowel movements or problems or pain, which I found interesting. There’s still value in it, though.

Keep fighting,

~Dennis

Question: If you have a little kid with an IBD, how do you explain the disease to him/her?