Yahoo Style

What it’s really like to live with Crohn’s disease

When Ta’lana Watt Madu runs an errand, she plans her route carefully. Not based on traffic or short cuts, but on access to bathrooms. Like 250,000 other Canadians — among the highest rate in the world — Madu has inflammatory bowel disease, specifically Crohn’s disease, which interferes with her body’s ability to properly digest the food coming in and the resulting waste going out. The need to go can come on suddenly, urgently and frequently, hence her finely tuned radar for the closest bathroom.