Let’s welcome this weeks warrior, Crystal!
Crystal McAfee, or GutsyStrong as she has become known, was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She now resides in Mississauga with her two sons.
She is the President of the Peel Chapter of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada and is a vocal IBD advocate who has been featured in articles, programs, podcasts and speaking events.
Crystal first became ill at the age of ten, however, it took nine years of misdiagnosis and a brush with death before she received a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease.
She spent decades struggling to manage her illness with medication and treatment. The severity of her condition made her dependent on high dose steroids; every attempt to down cycle resulted in hospitalization. Spending more than a decade on Prednisone, Imuran and Demerol left her body depleted, organ function compromised and emotionally exhausted.
At her lowest point, ill and broken, she decided to take a different approach to addressing her condition. She would focus on fortifying her overall health in order to manage her Crohn’s disease and achieve remission.
Finding her path to sustained remission was a lengthy process. It involved changing her diet to eliminate triggers, focusing on the consumption of whole foods, incorporating vitamins, probiotics and supplements into her care regimen, addressing the emotional components of living with chronic illness and incorporating strength training to address bone density loss.
Once she achieved remission, Crystal’s focus became recovery. Remission is the absence of active disease, but that is not the same as health. Her mantra became “recovery over remission” as she worked to improve her overall health. This involved eating to fuel her body, movement to strengthen it and working through the emotional trauma of living with chronic incurable disease.
Today, twenty-six years after diagnosis, Crystal is the healthiest and strongest she has ever been. Her goal is to support the IBD community. She is an outspoken advocate who raises awareness of the physical and mental health realities of living with IBD and has created the @gutsystrong community to support and celebrate IBD warriors. Crystal hopes to inspire the IBD warrior community to be unstoppable in the face of chronic incurable illness and to thrive with IBD.
Thank you so much for sharing your amazing and inspirational story Crystal! Be sure to give her a follow in IG @gutsystrong