Dean's Journey

Hi my name is Dean Elliott and this is my story of how I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and Pyoderma Gangrenosum.

In the space of 5 short months I went from the the provider of the household to losing over 40kg and being bed ridden for nearly a year.

It all began July of 2018, I was healthy for my entire life until one day I noticed a few spots of blood after passing a bowel motion. I thought nothing of this, maybe just haemorrhoids until the bleeding got rapidly worse. I tried to stick it out at work for a few more weeks because money was tight until one day it got too much.

In August 2018 I went into Palmerston North Hospital and within the week I was admitted with my entire body broke out in ulcerations and severe internal bleeding. A camera was used to do a flexible sigmoidoscopy and it showed severe colitis with gigantic Pseudopolyp growths. The ulcers all over my body began eating away at my skin. The immense pain meant I wasn't able to eat, that mixed with being bed ridden I rapidly lost over 40kg in the first 2 months.

I spent a total of 8 months in hospital alone with depression. So when I got to go home and got be with my wife and kids - words can't describe how this felt.

I tried to apply for ACC but was declined as this isn't an accident. I tried WINZ for assistance but due to my wife working full time as a Care Assistant at a rest home we were over the threshold by 3%.. so times have been tough.

Since then I've been trying to get back into work, however it's been unsuccessful. Every time I try, I sacrifice my recovery and another flare up occurs.

Now what I want to do is help spread awareness around my experience so that someone else might be able to avoid what I've gone through. I hope that some day soon I can get back to my normality and be the provider that I want to be.