3. The Adventure Begins

Period: October 2010 - November 2010

Although symptoms were severe by this time, I was too caught it in living my dreams to allow my body to hold me back. Some people might read that and think it is admirable to carry on as normal. Personally I feel like an idiot for not taking it seriously! Nevertheless, the following months were some of the most incredible moments of my life and I don't regret it =)

Therefore, trying to convince myself I had IBS, upon arriving in New Zealand I immediately embarked on a high fibre diet. The two friends with me were great, eating whatever I had to - and on an extremely tight budget. Shortly after arriving we popped in to the nearby supermarket, a New World, and asked an assistant if they had whole-wheat pasta. He just stared at us like we were aliens. With the exception of Auckland perhaps, NZ is not an ideal place if you have special dietary requirements!

One of the most frustrating aspects of Crohn's Disease for me has been the association with diet. In the earlier stages I obsessed that there was a certain component of my diet causing the symptoms, but everything I consumed made me ill. Now that I am better informed, I am aware that in most cases a high fibre diet is incompatible with Crohn's Disease. It certainly was for me! Having spent a few weeks relaxing on the beach, we embarked on what was supposed to be a camping tour of the Coromandel region, but turned in to a hospital stay and surgery.

Our departure was initially delayed by a day as I was feeling unwell and vomiting more than usual. However, not wanting to hold my friends back we eventually set off, however when we arrived to set up camp, I was genuinely concerned. It's strange to think that throughout it all I had just accepted my symptoms as normal, but at least I finally recognised the seriousness of the situation. When I started vomiting, instead of camping in the middle of nowhere as planned we set off to find a campsite, to be near some form of civilisation should anything serious happen. I will be forever grateful to those two friends for taking such amazing care of me.

From what I can remember, that night was pure hell. In a tent with two other people, crippling stomach pains and getting up frequently to vomit outside. Mercifully the pooping eased off somewhat, but during my time in New Zealand I did have to poop in the wild a fair few times. When you are walking in some remote parts of NZ with active Crohn's, there really is no other choice! But I tried to be as discrete as possible...