Episode 13: Jaime Hartman, Crohn’s, surgery, changes and recovery

Jaime Hartman was only 19 years old when she was first diagnosed with Crohn’s disease which is an autoimmune, inflammatory bowel disease.  At first, she was relieved because the diagnosis gave her an explanation for all of the pain and gut symptoms she had been experiencing for years.

Her Doctor was upbeat about it, focussing on the positives and Jaime got on with her life and her new career as a teacher, not speaking about it with anyone and managing as best she could.

Newly married, Jaime went into hospital feeling healthy and with energy to have surgery for a constriction in her intestine that was making in impossible for waste to move through a hole the size of a pin head. Unfortunately after the surgery, the bowel began to leak, caused it to become septic and Jaime had to have emergency surgery, be put in critical care and eventually left the hospital as a frail invalid with an ostomy bag, so every different to how she was before.

It was only noticing after being on intravenous nutrition, that she felt better when she wasn’t ingesting food by mouth that she began to wonder about the impact of diet on her symptoms and disease. This lead her to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, further dietary experimentation and eventually to a new career as a Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner.

The story of how Jaime began her recovery, took back control of her life and dealt with all of the challenges she and her husband faced along the way is inspiring.

If you have Crohn’s disease or know anyone who does, please make sure to share this episode with them. You can subscribe over on Apple iTunes or look for the Emotional Autoimmunity podcast on your favourite podcast app and find out more about Jaime at the links below.

Jaime Lubich Hartman, M.Ed., NTP is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, AIP Certified Coach, and Registered Yoga Teacher who believes that nurturing both the body and the mind is essential for living well. She began using AIP in 2013 to help manage the effects of severe post-surgical Crohn’s disease and chronic pain and now works one-on-one with clients who desire to find a better way to live and thrive through nutrition. Her blog is Gutsy By Nature, and you can learn how to work with her there.