REGINA – A brave local teenager is sharing his story about a life-changing disease in hopes of helping other children suffering from similar symptoms.
Dylan Stinson looks and acts like any other 14-year-old boy, but that wasn’t the case just one year ago.
Back then, he was lying in a bed at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, awaiting a major surgery.
“Dylan was very sick leading up to his surgery. He was 63 pounds and nearly 14 years old. He looked like a skeleton,” said his mom, Natasja Barlow.
For years, doctors told the family Dylan was nervous, or that he had irritable bowel syndrome. But his parents thought it was something more. At age 9, Dylan was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
But the worst was still to come. Dylan’s constant stomach pains and trips to the washroom raised concerns and he was sent to see a specialist in Calgary.
“I was going to the bathroom a lot, and cramping,” he said.
At just 13-years-old, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. “It’s an inflammatory bowel disease where you kinda really have to watch what you eat.”
“It affects everything from your mouth to your bottom. And there are ulcers from every point there. It’s horrible. It’s a lot of pain,” said Barlow.
Dylan was forced into a liquid diet using a feeding tube before undergoing surgery to remove part of his colon and almost a ruler’s worth of squished intestine.
It changed his life.
“He has gained over 40 pounds since December, when he had his surgery. He is finally starting to grow. He hasn’t done any of that in over 4 years,” said his mom.
Now, for the first time ever, Dylan is going to summer camp.
Run by Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, “Camp Got 2 Go” is hosting 15 kids from across western Canada at a facility near Bragg Creek, Alberta.
All week long, the children have been taking part in activities like white-water rafting and canoeing, all while getting to know others suffering from the same disease.
“It’s an opportunity for Dylan just to be Dylan and not to be embarrassed that he has to go to the washroom,” said Barlow.
An opportunity he never would have had without a doctor’s diagnosis.
“They saved Dylan’s life, and they gave him a chance to live like a normal kid again.”