Maggie's Story

My name is Kim Cook. My husband and I live in Morristown, TN. We have 3 children (19, 15, and 13). Our middle child was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease at age 10. She was in pretty bad shape and was hospitalized for 30 days when first diagnosed. Her first two years were very rough and we were in and out of the hospital several times. Her doctors have found some medicines that have been a wonderful help and she is now very active and healthy.

I was fortunate to make some new friends while she was in the hospital. They were the moms of other Crohn’s patients. Having someone that I could talk to about this crazy new disease was a huge blessing. I heard things that were scary and things that gave me great encouragement. More than anything, I did not feel alone.

I want others to have the same kind of help. There is so much information to process that it is very overwhelming. Having someone listen to me and answer some basic questions was amazing. They couldn’t SOLVE her problems, but together we encouraged each other. I learned from them and am willing to help any way that I can.