IBDanswers

Thursday October 16, 2003
By Julie Landry Laviolette
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau

A year ago, Amanda Bourquard was a typical college freshman with typical, mundane problems.

Then a lengthy illness, which led to a lengthy hospital stay and a diagnosis of Crohn's disease, set Amanda's world on edge.

Crohn's affects the intestines and lower bowel system, causing ulcers and bleeding.

Now 19 and in remission, Amanda is back in school and getting her life back together.

Amanda will be one of two "Young Shining Stars" to be honored Friday at a banquet to benefit the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. The event is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New Orleans. Tickets are $65 and can be bought by calling 888-1135.

Amanda said she remembers being sick throughout October last year and not knowing why. Feeling weak, and with diarrhea and blood in her stool, Amanda said she went to the hospital twice to be checked out and twice was given medication and sent home.

On Oct. 25, she was maid of honor in her sister Danielle's wedding. She was so weak she felt like she was going to pass out during the ceremony, and later spent the reception vomiting in the restroom.

The next day, Amanda was checked into Children's Hospital. She remained there until Dec. 3.

"For about the first two weeks, they were trying to find out what was wrong with me," Amanda said. "Then I was diagnosed, and I was so medicated I didn't know where I was."

Amanda said she is grateful for the support she received from friends and family during that difficult time.

"When I was in the hospital, I was extremely sick and I was praying a lot," she said.

During that time, friends from Southeastern Louisiana University, where she was enrolled, and members from her church, Adullum Christian Fellowship, each sponsored blood drives.

When Amanda was discharged, she went home with an IV and needed to be fed intravenously with a tube that went from her nose to her stomach. She couldn't make it to her second-story bedroom, so her parents, Rene and Connie Bourquard, converted a first-floor office into a makeshift room for her.

"My kids are my life, and it was an unbelievable chain of events, the way it took place," Connie Bourquard said. "I never want to go through that again. It was a really rough time."

Every two hours, Amanda needed medicine and her food bag refilled, and her parents, sister and new brother-in-law, Nick Elsensohn, took turns providing the necessary round-the-clock care.

"I had lost 30 pounds, I had no muscle tissue and I couldn't make it up the stairs," Amanda said. "I couldn't even open the medicine containers. I was 19 years old, and I couldn't give myself my own medicine."

Slowly, Amanda regained her strength, and amazingly, she returned to Southeastern for the spring semester.

"When I went back, I was still taking steroids, and my face was swollen, and I was taking 16 pills a day," she said.

Now in remission, Amanda takes eight medications and two or three vitamins a day.

"I'll have to take medicine for the rest of my life," she said. "There's no cure yet."

Amanda said one thing the experience has taught her is not to ignore what her body is telling her.

"If anybody has signs and they think something is wrong, tell somebody," she said. "I waited a really long time, and even when I told my parents I said it was no big deal. I waited so long and I think that's why it was as bad as it was."

Today, Amanda said she feels back to her old self, except for some occasional stomach cramps. She watches her diet and takes her medications. And she is grateful for the outpouring of love and support she has experienced.

"If it weren't for everybody's prayers, I don't think I would be here today," she said.