Meet April Michelle

My Story:

I live in a small college town in Missouri, USA with my hubby of 11 years. We love to travel, we love to volunteer, and we love to serve and share what we have with others. (Proverbs 11:25 - The generous person will prosper, And whoever refreshes others will himself be refreshed.)

I was diagnosed with Severe Ulcerative Colitis when I was 20 years old... At the time, I literally thought my life was OVER. I thought that there was no way I could ever reach any of my goals because I was officially 'broken'. I felt like an emotional and financial burden on my household.

I pushed and pushed myself because I was determined not to let anything hold me back. It was only after going 100 miles an hour in a million different directions and unsuccessfully trying to balance and manage my health, my career, my family responsibilities and my faith, that I realized something had to change.

The physical and emotional stress that comes with living with a chronic illness can be overwhelming in itself.

Add to that the added financial stress of co-pays, medications, hospitalizations, specialists, functional medicine or holistic treatments which are often not covered by insurance, and it’s the perfect recipe for chronic, stress induced flares.

Autoimmune disease is a multi-layered problem that requires a multi-layered solution to being able to successfully manage it. Care for chronic autoimmune illness includes not just managing the physical symptoms of the disease, but also our emotional health and personal happiness – all of which take a hit when we are diagnosed with a chronic illness.

A few years ago, I was in one of the worst Ulcerative Colitis flares I had experienced since I had been diagnosed.

Bathroom trips every 10 minutes. Embarrassing symptoms and accidents. Prednisone induced insomnia and an emotional wreck. Brain fog. Secretly dealing with major anxiety, depression, and approaching a full blown burnout of my physical and emotional health.

It was rough.

Someone asked me at the time, "April, how do you not let your illness define you?"

My response was, "Well, actually it does".

My IBD affects every single aspect of my life. So of course it 'defines' me. But myself and other IBD warriors are actively changing the definition of what it means to live with a chronic illness by the way we show up daily.

This is one of the many reasons I decided to write this book.

Telling these stories is my way of helping to remove the stigma of living with IBD and help others to understanding that the 'definition' of being chronically ill is changing.

We may be chronically ill, but we are no less worthy, no less lovable, no less valuable, and no less human. If anything, it makes us MORE of those things.

So if you (or someone you love) poops their pants, then please know that you aren't alone.

Although the journey to Acceptance may be difficult, it can still be beautiful. It all depends on the types of seeds we plant along the way.

For me, I've decided to plant seeds of love, resilience, determination, and humor. This book is one of those seeds.