But her symptoms began to catch up with her. She would go to her work as a continuing care assistant , and work would send her home because she was dehydrated and exhausted. Trying to care for herself and her son, then in Grade 8, became impossible.
“He came downstairs and looked at my mouth and said, ‘Dear, you have bowel disease. It’s coming up through your mouth,'" she recalls. “What we do have are medical therapies that work pretty well at controlling the symptoms and allowing patients to feel well, get back to living their normal lives and functioning normally,” says Williams.
Donovan called her mother, who took a shuttle up from Cape Breton to stay for the weekend. Her mother called an ambulance when she arrived and ended up staying for three months. Donovan herself was back and forth to the emergency room several times in the next few weeks.