Interlude: Diseased Traveller

I remember when I first told my dad, two years ago, I wanted to do a big backpacking trip through Eastern Europe, he was hesitant. He kept emphasising “yeah, there are some beautiful places in Europe, like Spain, Italy, south of France...” and so on, i.e. Western Europe. And then when I had changed my destination to Argentina, he was all like “But what happened to Europe? I thought you were going to study Spanish in Spain?”

My dad is a wonderful loving father, but he definitely gets more excited about the things I want to do when they coincide with 1) what he’s interested in, and B) being safe.

I’ve had Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, for about 13 years now, most of my life. And although it’s been a pain-in-the-ass (heh, pun), it’s never really stopped me from adventuring. I was able to visit Argentina and South America for two and a half months, I was able to study film in Denmark for a year, and I’ve been able to place on a number of sports teams over the years. I’m still a pretty good long distance runner.

Still, whenever I go off to do something big, I have to plan and always be careful - make sure I eat healthy food, print off the contact info for all the local international traveller hospitals, organise all the pills I’ll need for the entire trip (plus extras), and so on. Plus special traveller’s diarrhea medication, vitamins in case the local cuisine lacks it, all that shit (heh, more pun). And it’s annoying, but I guess it’s worth it.

The thing is, after a while I get tired of it all. Obviously, I am grateful for the financial capability to see the world and the fact that I don’t have a more crippling condition (only 2 bowel resection surgeries thus far). It, of course, could be much worse. But I feel like I’m a smart guy and I stay healthy (I say this while eating Belgian chocolate - don’t worry, Mom, it’s dark!), so I don’t think it should be cause for too much actual concern.

So when I go somewhere, I’m gonna take the necessary precautions. I’m gonna make sure I have all my health forms and medications in order, I’m not gonna walk around holding my wallet and passport in plain view saying “Speak English?” and I’m gonna make sure I am ready for emergencies. I just don’t want to waste my time actually thinking about it. Because human bodies are pretty strong and every individual is capable of a magnitude of shit. So I “don’t worry, be happy”, and just mellow out, man. I’ll be prepared if shit goes down (heh heh heh). I just, y’know...

I do what I need to do and then enjoy. :D