Hi! I’m Tim, better known around here as “Bad Gut Tim.” I live with my dog Calvin and girlfriend Kylie, in Milwaukee, WI.
“Bad Gut Tim” officially began when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease at the age of 14. For the better part of two decades, I have been navigating the ups and downs of life with Crohn’s. I’ve dealt with it all, periods of remission, periods of flares, and periods where a 4-hour bathroom stint was a staple of my workweek. I’ve dated, joined a fraternity, graduated from college, and I was able to assimilate into corporate America all with Crohn’s Disease in the back of my mind. I could fill a book with funny, scary, and downright embarrassing stories that happened because of Crohn’s Disease (in fact, I just might do that someday). Overall, my doctors and I were able to keep my symptoms manageable for the majority of those years.
In 2019, that all changed. I had spent the summer growing increasingly sick, I was losing weight at an alarming rate, and every time I left the house, I risked shitting my pants. Finally, I was admitted to the hospital and forced to live out my greatest fear. On November 22nd, 2019, I went into surgery and woke up with an ostomy. That was a real mental and physical hurdle for me, but I’m doing alright now. I’ve learned to accept and be at peace with the bag (full disclosure, it may be reversed in the future).
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Great, another chronic illness blogger telling their sad story.” You might be right, but I hope that you’re not. I hope to shake things up in the chronic illness blogosphere. I’m brash, crude, and slightly off-color. I always call it how I see it, and there’s a good chance I’ll offend someone somewhere down the line. My intention is to make my readers think, make them smile, and sometimes move them to tears.
Crohn’s and Colitis are cruel diseases. If you’re battling one of these diseases, I feel for you, and I want you to know that you’re not alone. With Bad Gut Tim, I hope to show the world that it’s possible to live a happy and meaningful life with IBD and that no one should ever be shy about their bad guts.