Latest / Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast / Episode 34 - With Lauren Wood

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Episode 34 - With Lauren Wood · Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast

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Speaker 1: You are listening to Tom's Hirshprung's Podcast, where I provide
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Speaker 1: a look into the remarkable experiences of the most inspiring
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Speaker 1: people around Hirshprung's disease and sports. Hello and welcome to
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Speaker 1: episode thirty four of Tom's Hirshprung's Podcast. I have another
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Speaker 1: special Hirshprung's guest with me this morning. I have Lauren
0:48
Speaker 1: Wood with me. She's going to talk about her Hirshbrung's diagnosis.
0:52
Speaker 1: We're going to have a lovely chat about dogs as
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Speaker 1: well coming up. Welcome Lauren to the podcast.
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Speaker 2: Hi, Yeah, thank you for having me.
1:00
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you so much for coming on.
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Speaker 1: As I, as I often say, it is tricky to
1:07
Speaker 1: find people with Hirshbrungs with it being such a rare condition,
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Speaker 1: and even trickier to find people in England with Oh sorry,
1:16
Speaker 1: in Belfast, I guess we're close enough, close enough to
1:21
Speaker 1: find people with hirshbrung So thank you so so much
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Speaker 1: for coming on. Now, as we spoke about a little
1:27
Speaker 1: bit beforehand, we are going to talk about your Hirshbrung's
1:32
Speaker 1: diagnosis and how you really want to raise awareness for
1:38
Speaker 1: invisible disabilities and illnesses, which I think is fantastic because
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Speaker 1: it's it's something that's not still not hugely talked about really,
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Speaker 1: and I know that you do a lot of advocacy
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Speaker 1: work on your Instagram timeline, But if you'd like to
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Speaker 1: just kick us off really with sort of we'll start
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Speaker 1: from the beginning. So obviously her Sprungs being diagnosed very
2:03
Speaker 1: early on, like most people really within So how soon
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Speaker 1: were you were you diagnosed with Hirshprungs?
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Speaker 3: For me personally, I wasn't diagnosed. I was diagnosed quite late. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: diagnosed until I was about nineteen or twenty years old.
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Speaker 1: Oh, I misread that life, Yes.
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Speaker 2: I don't know if incorrectly.
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Speaker 3: I thought it was very hard to write in and
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Speaker 3: I was trying to read it. No, basically, originally they
2:34
Speaker 3: thought I had Chrome's disease, which is something they're actually
2:39
Speaker 3: thinking I have now, so I'm waiting for diagnosis of
2:42
Speaker 3: that pretty much. Basically, I had like a colonoscopy done
2:49
Speaker 3: while I was I was I was in hospital basically,
2:52
Speaker 3: and it started with sort of like symptoms of excessive bloating,
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Speaker 3: not being able to open my bow.
3:01
Speaker 2: Excruciating pain.
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Speaker 3: I was just in and out of hospital constantly, and
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Speaker 3: I was waiting to have the columnsk could be done
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Speaker 3: as an impatient, which kept getting canceled basically, and then
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Speaker 3: I decided regrettably to discharge myself and have it done
3:16
Speaker 3: as an outpatient. And when I went to have it done,
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Speaker 3: they basically said that there was nothing they could see
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Speaker 3: that was causing the symptoms, but they were so sure
3:25
Speaker 3: that it was Crone's disease before that and said there's
3:29
Speaker 3: not much else we can do and sort of palmed
3:30
Speaker 3: it off as constipation. And I wasn't happy with that
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Speaker 3: because first of all, they obviously thought it was Crone's
3:37
Speaker 3: disease and they were so sure. So I eventually got
3:40
Speaker 3: a referral to St Mark's hospitals, like especially As Hospital
3:44
Speaker 3: in London, and at this stage, like my bow was
3:48
Speaker 3: so compacted it was like on the brink of sort
3:50
Speaker 3: of I don't even know, like exploding or like bursting
3:54
Speaker 3: or whatever. Yeah, yeah, that's the right term, perforating. And
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Speaker 3: they did tests there that showed that I had Hirshbung's disease,
4:03
Speaker 3: and within I think it was about a year, I
4:05
Speaker 3: was quite an into stema surgery to have my stema fitted,
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Speaker 3: and they thought that that would be the best bet
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Speaker 3: to help me out.
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Speaker 2: My symptoms at that time basically.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, that's so sort of not necessarily the
4:22
Speaker 1: classic classic diagnosis then so some and that is very rare.
4:29
Speaker 1: I mean, it's rare to have a rare condition, but
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Speaker 1: also rare to be diagnosed. In my apologies, I think
4:36
Speaker 1: I misread your form, so sorry about that, but very
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Speaker 1: rare to be diagnosed with hirshbrungs. So sort of later
4:46
Speaker 1: in life, I guess, at nineteen twenty years old, So
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Speaker 1: I guess growing up you must have had I don't know,
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Speaker 1: I must have had sort of symptoms of hirsh things
5:00
Speaker 1: growing up. Would that be right? Or did this sort
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Speaker 1: of come on later?
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Speaker 3: When I was sort of like born, I had a
5:06
Speaker 3: lot of problems with like not keeping my food down.
5:09
Speaker 3: I would project a whole vomit a lot, and sort
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Speaker 3: of like not opening my bowels, but they weren't really
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Speaker 3: there was nothing like as such flagged up that was
5:19
Speaker 3: serious for me to be like in hospital. And then
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Speaker 3: sort of when I got to sort of the age
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Speaker 3: of when I can remember as such, like six, I
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Speaker 3: think I was and I had this really bad pain
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Speaker 3: and I went into hospital and they were actually going
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Speaker 3: to remove my appendix at that time, and I got
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Speaker 3: so frightened.
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Speaker 2: I turned around and said my pain had gone and
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Speaker 2: it yeah.
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Speaker 3: So then it's sort of like I came out of
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Speaker 3: hospital after that, and things sort of like what up
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Speaker 3: and down I'd have like flare ups as such. It
5:47
Speaker 3: was a way of putting it like where I'd have
5:49
Speaker 3: like being pain and not being able to open my bowels.
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Speaker 3: And then it sort of got into sort of my
5:54
Speaker 3: teens at secondary school and I started getting like more
5:58
Speaker 3: frequent flare ups and then my powels just.
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Speaker 2: Won't open at all.
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Speaker 3: And it was the maxim I've gone is five months
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Speaker 3: with no bowel movements.
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Speaker 1: Good lord, Wow.
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Speaker 2: I looked so so bloated. It was like I was.
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Speaker 3: It almost looked like I was six months pregnant at times, brendous.
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Speaker 3: I had a lot of different symptoms like that, and
6:22
Speaker 3: it just kept getting palmed off as oh, you've just
6:25
Speaker 3: got constipation, just take some laxatiffs and that will sort it.
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Speaker 1: And they presumably didn't do the trick.
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Speaker 2: No.
6:32
Speaker 3: I was on a lot of lax TIFFs like every
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Speaker 3: like oral back passage, everything, the horrible ones, the weaker ones,
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Speaker 3: I think help I.
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Speaker 1: Can see slightly how they would diagnose as chrones because
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Speaker 1: if it was just sort of because crones. And again
6:53
Speaker 1: the research I've done and the people that I've talked
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Speaker 1: to do have flare ups occasionally and they go right,
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Speaker 1: I'll have a flare up, they'll go back to then
7:00
Speaker 1: flare up and go back down. So I guess just
7:04
Speaker 1: looking at it from the outside that you can sort
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Speaker 1: of see why they just thought, oh, it's chrons. But
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Speaker 1: were you sort of officially diagnosed with chrones or did
7:12
Speaker 1: they just think.
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Speaker 3: It was basically I got rushed in again. I had
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Speaker 3: appendicitis and had my appendix out when I was twenty No,
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Speaker 3: I was a bit younger than that. I think it
7:23
Speaker 3: was about seventeen actually when I had my appendix out,
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Speaker 3: and that's when they woke.
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Speaker 2: Me up and said, we've removed your appendix.
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Speaker 3: Your colon is extremely ulcerated and not in a good way,
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Speaker 3: and we're almost sure that you have chromees or ocerated clitis.
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Speaker 3: And that's those are the way they said it to me.
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Speaker 3: It was like, you were almost sure. We need to
7:43
Speaker 3: do a colonoscopy to get the biopsy to make sure
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Speaker 3: that what we're saying is true. And then, like I said,
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Speaker 3: I regrettably had to wait so long and discharge myself
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Speaker 3: and had it done as an outpatient and then never
7:55
Speaker 3: got an official diagnosis.
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Speaker 1: Wow wow, And that took sook a lot longer. Yeah,
8:06
Speaker 1: So I was also having a look at your other
8:09
Speaker 1: medical conditions as well, and I think again the box
8:12
Speaker 1: I provided probably wasn't big enough. I think I probably
8:15
Speaker 1: need to extend that box a little bit for some people.
8:20
Speaker 1: But just a list of various conditions like mega colon
8:28
Speaker 1: as well would and slow transit and COLONAQ inertia. Were
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Speaker 1: these all diagnosed at the same time or did you
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Speaker 1: have to wait for sort of each one to be
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Speaker 1: diagnosed separately.
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Speaker 3: All of those were sort of diagnosed around the same
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Speaker 3: time as Hirshprung's because I was like undergoing a lot
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Speaker 3: of different tests like the blue not the back passage
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Speaker 3: and the biopsy and all different things like that scans
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Speaker 3: and I had to take like a capsule and it
8:51
Speaker 3: they had to do a scan to check where it
8:53
Speaker 3: was in my digestive system after a certain amount of time,
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Speaker 3: and those around that time that I was diagnosed with
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Speaker 3: all of those conditions, and then that's when we decided
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Speaker 3: that the best way going forward was to give me
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Speaker 3: a stoma.
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Speaker 1: Yea. And what age was this where you had the stoma?
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Speaker 2: I was twenty one.
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Speaker 1: Twenty one, okay, so sort a few few years ago now,
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Speaker 1: and that's sort of normal ost to me with sort
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Speaker 1: of bag and everything.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, with my nearly ost to me so fantastic.
9:24
Speaker 1: And and when you obviously when I had my stoma,
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Speaker 1: I was a lot younger, and probably I know we
9:32
Speaker 1: were talking sort of off air, and I don't think
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Speaker 1: I've sort of realized that what it sort of meant,
9:39
Speaker 1: I guess having a stoma, and I just had it,
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Speaker 1: you know, And I do often wonder what it would
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Speaker 1: be like if I'd had it when I was older.
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Speaker 1: How did you I don't want to we'll use the
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Speaker 1: word cope with having a stoma, but sort of how
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Speaker 1: did you adapt, I guess, to life with a stomach
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Speaker 1: or was it just sort of like I've got this
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Speaker 1: and carry on? How did that work?
10:04
Speaker 2: At the start?
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Speaker 3: I'll be honest, I did struggle a lot compared to now,
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Speaker 3: like I'm completely different. Okay, Yeah, I have my hard
10:12
Speaker 3: days and I have things still going on with my
10:14
Speaker 3: health and I'm still taking a lot of vcation and
10:16
Speaker 3: in pain and stuff, but I see it as part
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Speaker 3: of me now. But at the beginning it was quite difficult.
10:23
Speaker 3: I was not expecting. I had emergency surgery, which I
10:27
Speaker 3: didn't cover in my other chat. Basically I had a
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Speaker 3: twisted bow and what's it called a paristome or hernia?
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Speaker 3: Is that the right way of putting it. It was
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Speaker 3: behind the stoma. Basically I'm not sure how I even
10:43
Speaker 3: got hernia because it was five days after I had
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Speaker 3: my stonma surgery, so I just spent the time laying
10:47
Speaker 3: in a bed.
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Speaker 2: So I'm not quite sure how I got a hernia,
10:51
Speaker 2: but I did.
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Speaker 3: And obviously my bow twisted as well, and I had
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Speaker 3: to do emergency surgery and I was lucky to come
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Speaker 3: through that, So like that hindered my recovery a lot.
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Speaker 3: And hoping with the bag, i'd almost just like just
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Speaker 3: got used to looking it, and then I was being
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Speaker 3: rushed back in and having it like refashioned slightly, and
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Speaker 3: because of all the problems I had, and I had
11:14
Speaker 3: to like start all over again, and mentally it was
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Speaker 3: quite tough. I couldn't empty it, I couldn't even look
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Speaker 3: at it. I couldn't leave the house.
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Speaker 2: I couldn't.
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Speaker 3: There was a lot of things I couldn't do at
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Speaker 3: the start. Now it's like I look back on that
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Speaker 3: and I'm like, was that even me? Did I Have
11:32
Speaker 3: I come that far? I can leave the house, I
11:34
Speaker 3: can empty it myself. Fucking look at it. It's like
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Speaker 3: I couldn't even let somebody else clean it or touch
11:40
Speaker 3: it now because it would be a bit funny.
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Speaker 2: Back then, it was most like the opposite.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, fantastic, and well done you for that, because
11:48
Speaker 1: that is it's something I see quite often with people
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Speaker 1: who had new stomas, and it's that possible social anxiety
11:57
Speaker 1: and sort of getting over that that initial fear and
12:01
Speaker 1: that that could take a while. And it's different for everybody.
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Speaker 1: You know. Some people just have it and go right,
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Speaker 1: it's part of me and get on with it. Some
12:07
Speaker 1: some it takes, you know, a few months, some it
12:09
Speaker 1: takes a few years.
12:10
Speaker 3: You know.
12:11
Speaker 1: It's but but really, well done you for that, because
12:16
Speaker 1: obviously a lot of your your Instagram stuff and having
12:21
Speaker 1: that stona is is is tough, you know, and especially
12:24
Speaker 1: early on because it's something completely new to get to
12:27
Speaker 1: get used to that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, well as well, that I was sort of like
12:32
Speaker 3: twenty one, you sort of want to go out of
12:33
Speaker 3: your friends, you want to have fun. And I spent
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Speaker 3: a lot of it quite unwell and trying to survive
12:40
Speaker 3: almost so, but I got through it, and that's what matters.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly, And I think that's a great inspiration
12:50
Speaker 1: for anybody who's either prepping for stona surgery or has
12:54
Speaker 1: just had stonemas surgery, or might have even had it
12:57
Speaker 1: for a few years and still feels a little bit
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Speaker 1: sort of uncomfortable for it. And I think the more
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Speaker 1: awareness that's raised for people like you and your Instagram account,
13:09
Speaker 1: I think for the better. And just on Instagram, I
13:13
Speaker 1: guess because you do share a lot of medical info
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Speaker 1: on there. What made you think sort of, right, I
13:19
Speaker 1: really want to share my story.
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Speaker 3: I think at the start, when I first got my
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Speaker 3: stoma't I wasn't on socials really, I didn't openly speak
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Speaker 3: about it, and I didn't really know anyone, and I
13:32
Speaker 3: didn't sort of speak to anyone for support.
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Speaker 2: Really, I felt quite alone.
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Speaker 3: And when I sort of started going into the world
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Speaker 3: of Instagram and suddenly seeing sort of like young people
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Speaker 3: with stomas living life, going on holiday spending time with friends,
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Speaker 3: whatever it is, what they were doing, it made me
13:50
Speaker 3: sort of want to join in on that and tell
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Speaker 3: my journey and maybe telling my journey might help someone else.
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Speaker 1: That's fantastic. That's brilliant. And how old were you when
14:01
Speaker 1: you started that sort of Instagram account?
14:05
Speaker 2: I think I started during COVID.
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Speaker 3: Actually, yeah, so it wasn't like it's quite a while
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Speaker 3: into my journey in my bag, what ten years now,
14:13
Speaker 3: So it was do it before I did. But the
14:17
Speaker 3: fact that I've done it is I'm speaking to other
14:20
Speaker 3: people desire. Every day I speak to people and I
14:22
Speaker 3: help other people, and I enjoy doing that.
14:25
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. That's brilliant because there's another reason why I
14:28
Speaker 1: really want to talk to you, because I think we
14:30
Speaker 1: come from that similar, similar outlook in terms of we
14:34
Speaker 1: want to you know, we're not here to give medical advice.
14:37
Speaker 1: You know, we're not doctors. I'm certainly not bright enough
14:41
Speaker 1: to be a doctor, so with our doctors. But at
14:47
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, if we can share our stories,
14:50
Speaker 1: then more better. And you're a lot braver than I
14:54
Speaker 1: am because you shared your story in your early twenties.
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Speaker 1: It took me till I was thirty one to only
15:01
Speaker 1: set this up last year, sosically, yeah, a long time
15:05
Speaker 1: for me to actually think, you know, I can probably
15:09
Speaker 1: feel comfortable in sharing my story now. So yes, kudos
15:12
Speaker 1: to you, because you're a lot, a lot brave than
15:14
Speaker 1: I am at twenty one. But I'd love to sort
15:19
Speaker 1: of switch tack slightly if I may. And we were
15:23
Speaker 1: talking about at the start that you do have quite
15:26
Speaker 1: a few hobbies interests, and one of the main parts
15:33
Speaker 1: of this podcast, one of the main themes or features,
15:36
Speaker 1: is that I want people to know that even though
15:39
Speaker 1: they have Hirshbrung's in our case or in another chronic illness,
15:43
Speaker 1: when I interview other people, that it shouldn't necessarily stop
15:48
Speaker 1: you from doing things that you want to do. Yes,
15:52
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not I'm not going to sort of
15:55
Speaker 1: gloss over some of the facts that you know, sometimes
15:58
Speaker 1: times are difficult, and you know, healthwise, some things are tricky,
16:02
Speaker 1: But there are so many people out there like you
16:06
Speaker 1: who do so many great things and do so many
16:09
Speaker 1: wonderful hobbies that you know, your your Hirshprungs doesn't stop
16:12
Speaker 1: you doing. And one of oursel's shared passions I guess
16:15
Speaker 1: is dogs would you like to talk a little about it.
16:21
Speaker 1: Let me get this right as well, A snorky. Have
16:25
Speaker 1: I got that right? Lovely pronounced it correctly? Would you
16:29
Speaker 1: like me to Would you like to tell me a
16:31
Speaker 1: little bit about your snorky.
16:33
Speaker 2: Well, she's a mini Schnauzer and your key mixed together.
16:39
Speaker 2: She's eleven.
16:42
Speaker 3: Basically, long story. She's technically she's technically not mine. She's
16:48
Speaker 3: in laws, but she now she now stays with us
16:51
Speaker 3: more because of the fact that my mom, mum in
16:53
Speaker 3: law's not well, so I look after her.
16:56
Speaker 2: She's like my best friend.
16:57
Speaker 3: I absolutely adore her, literally, like I'll spend all my time.
17:01
Speaker 2: With the dog. But yeah, I love her to bits.
17:08
Speaker 1: Brilliant. She did you have any sort of traits or
17:12
Speaker 1: features which make her interesting?
17:15
Speaker 3: She when she wants like belly rubs, she'll do this
17:19
Speaker 3: weird like it's hard to explain. She like puts a
17:22
Speaker 3: bomb up in the air and sort of like moves
17:24
Speaker 3: it around her legs, like as if you say, like,
17:30
Speaker 3: come on, belly rubs.
17:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I get on with.
17:33
Speaker 2: It all as well. Like playing the balls so.
17:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, nice, we mean tennis balls there, It's all good.
17:49
Speaker 1: Just just just so, just so clear and I don't
17:53
Speaker 1: get off commed. We're clear exactly exactly, so why dog?
18:00
Speaker 1: Actually she loves a tennis ball, absolutely loves a tennis ball.
18:05
Speaker 1: So you said, Snorky's your Snorky's eleven still very energetic
18:11
Speaker 1: at eleven?
18:13
Speaker 3: Yeah she is, Yeah, she is. She has got a
18:16
Speaker 3: problem with her spine. I don't exactly know what it's called,
18:19
Speaker 3: which has like a spinal condition. So sure, when she's
18:22
Speaker 3: running around, she'll run around on three legs.
18:25
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, it seems to work for her at the moment.
18:29
Speaker 3: But I don't know whether when she gets a little
18:31
Speaker 3: bit older, whether it will start becoming a hindrance.
18:34
Speaker 2: But she seems full of beans running around.
18:39
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Oh that's really good to hear. And and your
18:43
Speaker 1: other passions as well, dancing and music, how beneficial have
18:49
Speaker 1: they been in sort of coping post surgery?
18:56
Speaker 3: Music was a big thing for me. I wouldn't say
18:58
Speaker 3: dancing post surgery, because it took a while for me
19:00
Speaker 3: to obviously physically be able to, but when it comes
19:05
Speaker 3: to music, it was almost like saved me. There was
19:10
Speaker 3: a particular song that I listened to when I had
19:13
Speaker 3: my stoma surgery and I was home and I was discharged,
19:15
Speaker 3: and I used to listen to it repeatedly, used to
19:17
Speaker 3: help me get to sleep. It used to help me
19:20
Speaker 3: just like think and feel clear and calm. It was
19:26
Speaker 3: a song by Miley Cyrus actually word Adore You. Nothing
19:33
Speaker 3: in particular that she says that was related to what
19:36
Speaker 3: I was enduring, But it was just that particular song.
19:39
Speaker 2: I don't know.
19:40
Speaker 3: It just had something that made me feel calm at
19:42
Speaker 3: that moment when I was recovering.
19:45
Speaker 1: Nothing in particular with lyrics or tune or anything, but
19:48
Speaker 1: just not.
19:49
Speaker 3: Really if I thinking back to the song, maybe if
19:52
Speaker 3: you think about it, it might have been deep down thinking
19:55
Speaker 3: about myself, like learning to love myself.
19:58
Speaker 2: I don't know.
20:00
Speaker 1: That's interesting because I can't think of the song off
20:03
Speaker 1: the top of my head at all, so I wasn't
20:07
Speaker 1: going to ask you to sing it. It's okay, it's
20:09
Speaker 1: all right now. I can't think of the song at all.
20:14
Speaker 1: But yeah, if anybody, if anybody knows, please please let
20:17
Speaker 1: me know. And just talking just another part as well
20:23
Speaker 1: about surgeries. You said you've had thirteen surgeries. Sound lucky
20:30
Speaker 1: number to have surgeries on Did you not get the
20:33
Speaker 1: feeling to think, oh, just have one more get off thirteen,
20:36
Speaker 1: you know.
20:37
Speaker 3: Share Actually it was in February, so it's typical that
20:42
Speaker 3: it was like recently that it made it at thirteen.
20:47
Speaker 1: Not that keep going for a fourteenth just just to
20:49
Speaker 1: get off that thirteen number.
20:51
Speaker 2: It was quite not.
20:54
Speaker 1: No, there's good to see. And you also pointed out
20:59
Speaker 1: as well that the ostome that you were that you
21:03
Speaker 1: were given saved your life as well. Did you expand
21:08
Speaker 1: a little bit more on that.
21:09
Speaker 3: It was more of the fact that, like my bow
21:12
Speaker 3: was so compacted and so like not functioning basically that
21:19
Speaker 3: I genuinely don't think I would have lasted much longer
21:22
Speaker 3: with not having the surgery to intervene and give me
21:26
Speaker 3: better quality of life. Okay, Yes, like I said, I
21:29
Speaker 3: am still in pain and I have to take a
21:31
Speaker 3: lot of medication, but the fact that I'm living and
21:37
Speaker 3: my bag Okay, yes, I still suffer with blockages and stuff,
21:41
Speaker 3: but my bowels are opening a lot more than what
21:43
Speaker 3: they did before my stomach, so for that, I'm thankful.
21:47
Speaker 2: For being able to carry on living pretty much.
21:52
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, that's fantastic, and I'm really glad that that
21:57
Speaker 1: that's happened for you as well. And just as we
22:00
Speaker 1: sort of go towards the end. In terms of future
22:06
Speaker 1: for you, again, feel free to share as much or
22:10
Speaker 1: as little as you like. But in terms of future
22:14
Speaker 1: for you health wise, what do you think that sort
22:18
Speaker 1: of looks like even given any idea.
22:21
Speaker 2: For me at the moment where I'm dealing with quite
22:23
Speaker 2: a lot of.
22:24
Speaker 3: Symptoms on a daily basis and I'm waiting for like
22:27
Speaker 3: an urgent colonoscopy and they're saying that it might be chromes. Again, Obviously,
22:32
Speaker 3: at the minute, I'm feeling a bit anxious about sort
22:35
Speaker 3: of like what's coming. But if I'm able to get
22:39
Speaker 3: that diagnosis of chromes, which I genuinely think I've had
22:41
Speaker 3: this whole time, there may be my quality of life.
22:45
Speaker 3: I might be able to come off more thing and
22:47
Speaker 3: be pain free. That's like my goal. I'm trying to
22:51
Speaker 3: think that a lot. Obviously, I want to be a
22:52
Speaker 3: mum as well, and I'm trying to go down that route.
22:57
Speaker 3: So I'm hoping that pushing them to help me out
23:01
Speaker 3: with these symptoms and getting this done, that my future
23:04
Speaker 3: will be a bit more.
23:06
Speaker 1: Bright, fantastic. And in terms of the sort of hobbies
23:12
Speaker 1: wise and your Instagram account, what would you like that
23:16
Speaker 1: to look like in the future.
23:20
Speaker 3: Obviously, we all like to have more followers on there
23:23
Speaker 3: so that more people in what you're doing, because it's
23:26
Speaker 3: sometimes you're doing it and you're like, is this a
23:28
Speaker 3: waste of times? Is not reaching enough people? But if
23:31
Speaker 3: it reaches one ten people, that's enough. That's enough people
23:35
Speaker 3: for me to know that what I'm doing is good enough.
23:40
Speaker 3: But obviously I would like to. I'd love to see
23:43
Speaker 3: myself on a billboard with my stonema out scream for me.
23:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would like to. I'd like to meet people
23:51
Speaker 2: in person.
23:52
Speaker 3: I've not actually met any owestimates in person yet, and yeah,
23:56
Speaker 3: in ten years, I haven't, So I'd like to push
24:00
Speaker 3: myself to go and meet people like face to face.
24:03
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I think that's fantastic. And I think I
24:06
Speaker 1: echoed that as well, because and I've said this a
24:09
Speaker 1: couple of times before in other episodes, but I never
24:12
Speaker 1: knew anyone with hirshprungs growing up. I mean I did
24:17
Speaker 1: teach somebody with hirshprungs, so I was a teacher for
24:22
Speaker 1: a decade, So I did teach one person, but that
24:25
Speaker 1: was the only person I ever knew. So thankful to
24:28
Speaker 1: Instagram for people like you, but everybody's podcast who has Hirshprungs,
24:35
Speaker 1: because I've learned so much just about the condition that
24:39
Speaker 1: I never knew. Is it a similar thing for you?
24:43
Speaker 1: Have you learned quite a lot from sort of not
24:45
Speaker 1: meeting other people but kind of online meeting For I
24:50
Speaker 1: guess it's hard.
24:52
Speaker 3: It's hard because, like like you said, there's not that
24:54
Speaker 3: many people with hirshrun online. It's like a couple of
24:58
Speaker 3: people I know, not even say a handful. I'm not
25:01
Speaker 3: even going to say two handful to people. It's more
25:04
Speaker 3: obviously the more attention is IBD. A lot of that
25:07
Speaker 3: you see it is yeah, good obviously, but like it's
25:11
Speaker 3: good to sometimes see those people talking about rare disease
25:14
Speaker 3: and things that are not as common.
25:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And that's that's when I wanted to start
25:22
Speaker 1: this really and try and get as many Hirshprungs people
25:24
Speaker 1: as as possible because I saw that nobody, see nobody
25:27
Speaker 1: had ever had ever started a Hirshbrung's podcast before because.
25:31
Speaker 2: It is so rare that not so well done too.
25:35
Speaker 1: It's it's it's something that isn't talked about as much
25:39
Speaker 1: because as you said, not many people have it, so
25:42
Speaker 1: I think, you know, and I think around I mean,
25:45
Speaker 1: this is the thirty fourth episode. It's something around sixty percent,
25:49
Speaker 1: maybe slightly higher than that's sixty two sixty three percent
25:52
Speaker 1: of people who've been on here have hirshprungs from all
25:56
Speaker 1: over the world. So hopefully now there is a a
26:00
Speaker 1: bank of experiences. So if you ever, you know, if
26:04
Speaker 1: anybody is ever thinking, oh, but what's it like at
26:07
Speaker 1: this age or that age, you know, we can give
26:09
Speaker 1: a We can't we can't tell you exactly what's going
26:11
Speaker 1: to happen, obviously, but we can give a rough idea
26:15
Speaker 1: of what it's like to live with for some people.
26:19
Speaker 1: So hopefully, hopefully it does does a bit of good.
26:23
Speaker 1: But I just want to say thank you, thank you
26:25
Speaker 1: so much for coming on, for sharing your story. Oh
26:29
Speaker 1: absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on, for
26:33
Speaker 1: sharing your story, for being so open as well as
26:36
Speaker 1: like I said, at twenty one twenty one, you're twenty one. Yeah,
26:43
Speaker 1: I don't think I would be as open as you are,
26:48
Speaker 1: so hats off to you for that. I think that's fantastic.
26:52
Speaker 1: And just lastly, where can people find you and follow
26:56
Speaker 1: your story?
26:58
Speaker 2: Oh?
26:58
Speaker 3: My Instagram is known as stomachick. So what was dot
27:03
Speaker 3: under dot X and I can't even remember what it
27:05
Speaker 3: is now a bit stomachick.
27:07
Speaker 2: Dot X, underscore X or something. I can't even remember
27:10
Speaker 2: what it is. I'm terrible. I don't even know my
27:12
Speaker 2: own social media handle.
27:16
Speaker 1: You can find Lauren at stomachick dot X underscore X.
27:22
Speaker 1: That's it, I promise I've remember that off by heart
27:26
Speaker 1: and haven't just checked my phone whilst we've been recording.
27:30
Speaker 1: But that's where you can find Laura. You can find
27:34
Speaker 1: up to date with stories, how to get on, et cetera.
27:38
Speaker 1: So again, from me, thank you so much for coming
27:41
Speaker 1: on and I wish you all the luck with health, stoma,
27:47
Speaker 1: hirshprungs and everything in the future. Thank you so.
27:49
Speaker 2: Much, Thanks so much.
27:55
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the podcast. Find us on
27:58
Speaker 1: Instagram Tom's Underscore, Hirschbrung's Underscore podcast. Listen to previous episodes
28:03
Speaker 1: on Spotify by searching Tom's Hirshbrong's podcast. H