IBDanswers

By Julie Phinney
Le Provocateur
Worcester, MA
Issue: 3/19/04

When most people suffer from a serious illness, they lock themselves in their room, but Assumption English Professor James Lang took a different approach. Lang has recently published a book, Learning Sickness: A Year with Crohn's Disease, which explores his battle with Crohn's Disease through various aspects of his life. Each chapter is devoted to a lesson he learned while living with the disease.

"It was a perfect opportunity for me to make sense of my experience for myself," Lang said.

Since eighth grade, Lang has been intrigued by writing, and has had a desire to follow a career. His diagnosis with Crohn's Disease seemed to be the most logical reason for him to publish a book.

"We can make sense of things by writing," said Lang.

On Thursday, February 26th, Lang hosted a reading and book signing event which many students and faculty members attended. Assumption English Professor Rachael Ramsey introduced Lang. Ramsey was honored to introduce Lang, and stated that his book is, "moving, tender, and funny." Lang read the first four paragraphs of the preface as well as the first chapter of his book, which he claims contains one of his two favorite sentences.

Junior Katie Burke, a History major, attended the event.

"While I was attending Professor Lang's class freshman year, it was almost hard to believe all that he had been going through," Burke said. "Hearing him tell his story was very inspiring, and it helped the people in the audience to understand his struggle and the struggles of many others who suffer from Crohn's Disease."

Lang was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes malfunctions of the digestive tract, in 1955. The most serious symptoms include internal bleeding, weight loss, fatigue, and stomach pains. In his book, Lang informs his readers how he would try to beat the diarrhea by not eating or drinking. He wrote, "One day I can recollect eating a single apple in the morning, and still having to make a dozen trips to the bathroom before going to bed that night."

During the first few months of living with Crohn's Disease, Lang grew wearisome and spent most of his time lying on the couch. He isolated himself from his wife, children, and friends. His daughter, Madeleine, preferred to spend time with her mother, over her father, because Lang was never in the mood to interact with her. Lang wrote, "In my interactions with her, I felt more like an uncle who occasionally visits from afar than a father who lives with her."

But Lang wasn't her uncle: he was her one and only father, who wanted to form a strong bond with his daughter.

"I started doing daily art projects with Madeleine," Lang said. "We would go outside and pick acorns and glue them to paper.". Over the next few months, Lang and Madeline began to rebuild a strong father-daughter relationship.

Since being a supportive father is important to Lang, he has devoted an entire chapter expressing his belief in the use of imagination when raising children. In his book, he wrote, "As a writer I have probably always been aware that the greatest gifts I can offer to my children is the imagination and a full appreciation of the satisfaction that comes from artistic creation of any sort."

The best piece of advice Lang offers to those who suffer from Crohns's Disease would be to "learn as much as possible about your body.".He learned a lot about his body, health, and illness by educating himself on Crohn's Disease. Doctors may know about the fundamental aspects of the disease, "but no one knows your body better than you do," said Lang.

Lang hopes that his book does not just touch the lives of people who suffer from Crohn's Disease, but also those who can apply his methods of dealing with his illness to everyday life. One of the greatest lessons he learned over the course of his battle with his illness was to live life to the fullest.

"It taught me how to understand how to live as intensely as possible." said Lang.

This is a motto that James Lang has learned to center his life around. No longer will he put things off in life, because he never knows when his health could backfire. Currently, he is in the process of planning a trip to Ireland with his daughter. He has begun to find joy in the things that once intrigued him before his diagnosis, such as writing, traveling and playing in the backyard with his daughters.

Learning Sickness: A Year With Crohn's Disease is now available in local bookstores.