Agata Młynarska talks about her illness: it’s really hardcore

Can you imagine not making it to the toilet during your date? Tiring and unexpected diarrhea, embarrassing sounds and smells are ailments of inflammatory bowel diseases. They can affect your intimate life. However, it all depends on the approach to the disease and the partner relationship, and Agata Młynarska, a journalist and TV presenter who is struggling with Crohn’s disease, decided to tell about it in a clear way. In order to give other patients self-confidence.

1. Journalist Agata Młynarska has been suffering from Crohn’s disease for years
2. Before hearing the diagnosis, she had been struggling with ailments for many years. She thought she had a “delicate stomach”, and she often met with misunderstanding of other people
3. In order to break the taboo and raise awareness about the disease, Młynarska often talks about her ailments and about living with Leśniowski-Crohn
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

Agata Młynarska has Crohn’s disease

Crohn’s disease is a disease belonging to the group of inflammatory bowel diseases. Not only are these conditions that can ruin your health at many levels. They are associated with overwhelming ailments that can also ruin the feeling of attractiveness: flatulence, gas, belching, vomiting, diarrhea. Agata Młynarska – a well-known journalist – made a bold decision to tell during the webinar “Inflammatory bowel diseases – I want to know. Patient Empowerment Academy – sexuality in IBD ”, how this type of disease can affect your intimate life and what is its way to lead a satisfying family life.

Tip one: notice and appreciate there are episodes of flare-ups and remissions

– I have learned to think of myself as a healthy person who experiences episodes of disease. I live normally between them – he says about the first method.

Like many patients suffering from Crohn’s disease, the symptoms in her case do not only concern the digestive system.

– It is not only what happens in the intestines, i.e. diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, but also skin manifestations, itching, pyoderma gangrenosum. And at the same time, asthma as a comorbid disease, shortness of breath, allergy, sneezing. Recently, there have been terrible joint pains. When all of this comes down on your head and when there is an exacerbation, then – believe me – thinking about being sexually attractive is completely out of reach – says the presenter.

It was not easy, however. She admits that the most difficult thing for her was to discover her attractiveness in general, to build a new will to live, to think: “I will still be able to surprise someone”.

Tip two: distance and slack help. It is achievable

Its diagnostic pathway was similar to that experienced by many others with IBD. Often, patients wait a long time for a diagnosis. For many years, Agata Młynarska’s disease made itself felt in various ways: frequent diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. She told herself that she had a “delicate stomach” or that she was poisonedlike on a weekend in Rome.

– It was the first trip with my future husband. It was supposed to be very romantic, so a seafood dinner, then a walk to the Di Trevi Fountain. However, as soon as I left the restaurant, I started vomiting. I puked all over the street! The police approached us at the fountain to check what was going on. And my future husband was standing next to me, holding my hand. Of course, it was not pleasant for him – he went with his fiancée to Rome and he wanted it to be a great weekend. Meanwhile, because of my illness, which I did not know about then, everything was completely different. Our only goal was to organize help for me, get to the hotel and make it to the morning. That was a nightmare. Today I know that this is how a typical departure of a patient with Crohn’s disease may look like – says Młynarska.

It’s hard not to worry that this kind of unpleasant experience may affect your romantic relationship. However, it can also be an important test for your partner and other relatives.

– It’s about how your loved ones: husband, children, friends react to your illness. In addition to the fact that they love you very much, can they distance themselves from it? This is a disease in which it is very difficult without lightness and a sense of humor. Because how do you go through a situation where, for example, you suddenly make you go to bed? It happened to me and believe me – if you don’t have people around you who support you – it’s hard to survive – admits Agata Młynarska.

He consciously uses blunt words, because he believes that the way you talk about it – calling things straightforward, even ugly – shortens the distance, makes it easier to bear. Although it was not easy at first, she decided to speak openly and loudly about her disease in order to socially tame this problem and show solidarity with other patients. As he admits, he wants to reach those who bite their nails in their nerves, not knowing how to say that they just can’t get up from the chair because there is a stain on it.

In her opinion, it is necessary to approach it with a sense of humor and honestly.

– When I say: “I think I shit myself”, the most common reaction is laughter, the air descends and it gets lighter – he explains.

And she emphasizes that she is lucky, because her husband has a lot of distance and ease with this disease, and this kind of experience helps to build closeness.

“He knows something like this could happen to me, and he doesn’t act like an immature kid.” He doesn’t make silly faces or make me embarrassed. I am very grateful to him for that. It may sound strange, but the intimacy and cordiality that is created then cement the steam and allows it not to break down. The way you see yourself in the eyes of another person allows you to have faith that you can look at yourself more kindly, although it can be very difficult – says Agata Młynarska.

Tip three: don’t get dominated by disease

She estimates that despite many terrible situations, the disease treated her quite gently – she has no stoma, she has not had extreme surgeries, although after two others, also difficult, she does not control belching “like from under a beer booth”. It is worth remembering that the stoma does not have to ruin your intimate life either.

Over time, however, she has learned to treat herself as a healthy person who has some disease episodes. She emphasizes that you cannot make yourself a victim of this disease, because only then can you lead a normal life.

– Well, sometimes unpleasant things happen to me, but over the years I have learned to observe myself and I can already catch the moment when something is approaching. Which doesn’t mean I’m delighted to be sick. I have been boxing with this disease for a really long time. I get pissed off when it gets me, when I have a shit or when I vomit, and when I go to the toilet I have to stick to the frame because of the pain. I have tears in my eyes when I crush a bit of carrots, shaking in my hand, and wash them down with warm water, because I know that without food it will be even worse. Lack of strength takes away all perspective and hope for the future, it is terrible. But then I come to my senses step by step. I think that all patients know what I am talking about – admits the journalist.

He emphasizes that you also have to be prepared that Crohn’s disease is tricky and surprising.

– One day I woke up in pain, I couldn’t move, changing my position in bed was an effort for me. When I got better, my husband said to me, “You know, I don’t have great expectations, I’m glad you are walking.” I thought then that it was wonderful to have such a man by my side, but I have higher expectations of myself. However, it is not that simple. Because when you take tons of drugs that make you swell, your body doesn’t look like it used to, everything hurts and you don’t have the strength to think not only about sex, but about anything other than pain at all. But then I thought to myself: “It’s all in my head, we have become slaves of a certain type of beauty and sexuality promoted by the media,” she explains.

Tip four: accept what is happening

– Maybe 30 years ago I looked attractive, I was slim, I had amazingly long legs and when I put on a tight dress in front of my knees, I looked like a million dollars. Now I can’t do it anymore because I have been run over by a disease. I can not help it. But I’m alive and that’s great! As part of this life, I have space within me to enjoy – although I will sometimes get diarrhea or make unwanted sounds – shares my way of dealing with the disease.

Many specialists agree with Agata Młynarska: success in life with a chronic disease occurs when the patient does not allow it to have a decisive influence on how they perceive themselves.

Proper self-esteem is formed from the earliest childhood. If anyone experiences her disorder, experiences anxiety, feels bad in her body, it’s better to try to work on it – perhaps with a psychotherapist. Not everyone will struggle with Crohn’s disease, but everyone will experience aging.

Sexuality and attractiveness happen in the head, so it’s worth figuring out. Try not to compare yourself to others, accept the fact that everyone is different, look for what is attractive in yourself. Otherwise you will not be able to cope with such a disease as Leśniowski-Crohn, or at least it will be very difficult for you, because it is really “hardcore” – advises Młynarska.

Tip five: don’t worry about insensitive people

It is not easy to deal with this disease, especially since there is often no understanding for it also in the patient’s environment. After all, Młynarska, who is a well-known person, admits that she has often met her illness being underestimated by others.

Today she tries to be prepared for situations when she will need help – also in a hospital in situations where the direct cause of her stay is not an intestinal disease. In order not to have to explain what it was, she printed it out and translated it into English from the hospital. As he explains, this significantly shortens the path to help and greatly facilitates communication also with medical professionals in fields other than gastrology or internal medicine.

– I missed a holistic view of my disease. I have had hundreds of visits to dermatologists, pulmonologists, rheumatologists and gastroenterologists. Until it turned out that the gastroenterologist should be my head doctor, because he sees all the symptoms that may happen to me due to this disease. It is, unfortunately, extremely rare for a doctor to have such a horizon, he says.

She admits that her problems were underestimated by some of her work colleagues and people from the environment who told her that she “freaked out” that she was bringing boxes to work because she wanted to lose weight, that her ailments were just a temporary indigestion. When she explained that it was not like that, they accused her of being hysterical, that it was another fad.

– Today I know that you just shouldn’t listen to it – he assesses.

Tip six: the disease will turn life upside down, but it has its benefits

Agata Młynarska says that the greatest exacerbation of the disease took place right after the wedding. As a result, he says, the newly wedded husband practically moved to the hospital with her. Here they found out together what was going on, together they learned about this disease. It turns out that even in the hospital there is a place and time for nice meetings and a festive atmosphere.

“One Saturday night my husband brought candles and lit them in the hospital room. When the doctor came, his eyes widened. He asked if it was a tryst house or a gastroenterology ward? Then I said: ‘Home for trysts in the gastroenterological ward!’ We all laughed, and the doctor even stayed with us for a while. It was very important to us, because patients like me spend weeks in the gastroenterology ward. We laugh that we already have our bathrobes and cabinets here. But we cannot live only with disease and drip drip, so even in such a place it is worth taking care of a nice atmosphere. What is the problem from time to time to light a scented candle in the ward to bring a little positive mood? It depends on us what our life will be like. Whether with the disease or without it – emphasizes the journalist.

Author: Monika Wysocka, Zdrowie.pap.pl / Serwis Zdrowie

This may interest you:

1. Celebrities who have had colon cancer
2. Products that stay in the intestines the longest – even several hours
3. Seven foods that harm the intestines. Watch out for them!

The webinar took place on February 19, 2021

The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website. Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl, where you will get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving your home.Now you can use e-consultation also free of charge under the National Health Fund.