My Story: Beats, Rhymes, and Inspiration

Here Mychelle Lee story about Crohn's. For 24-year-old Mychelle Lee, music has been her dream since her childhood. At a young age, Lee fell in love with the hip-hop culture-from the Dj’s to graffiti art- as a youth growing up in Washington D.C. “I come from a musical family, so many of my family members are in the entertainment industry. I was always surrounded by it,” says Lee. Lee was so committed to her childhood dream that upon high school graduation, she purchased her own recording equipment with high hopes of finally realizing her aspirations. But right when she began recording her first studio project, her health began declining…fast. “I had a couple different things happening with me. For a year, I had several different tests. (Doctors) thought I had pancreatitis, so they had to run several different tests to rule out everything. Since I was so young, they wanted to rule out cancer,” says Lee. Over the course of two months, Lee lost nearly 60 pounds, and was stricken with severe fatigue and nausea. It wasn’t until she saw a specialist that she learned she Crohn’s at just 19 years old. She soon had her gallbladder removed, just months after her diagnosis. “I was in the hospital for a month, and they needed to put me on TPN (total parenteral nutrition) but my insurance wouldn’t cover it. They had to put me in a nursing home, and I had to stay there for another month.” “Being the youngest person in a nursing home and not really understanding why you’re there puts you in crazy mind set,” explains Lee. While she was in the nursing home, Lee said she still kept writing and working on her music. Soon she had her resection surgery, releasing two mixtapes just one week later. After four challenging years, Lee is now in remission and ready to focus all her energy on creating more music. “I had to stop doing music all together and I am just picking it back up now. It has been a constant rebuilding process of getting back into performing and writing and figuring out what I want to do. It is not easy, but I am happy.” Her latest video, “Spaceship,” talks about her obstacles as an IBD patient and her hope for others in her same position. “The whole premise of my video (Spaceship) is to raise awareness for Crohn’s disease and inspire people. Even if you don’t have Crohn’s, the purpose of my music is to inspire people to keep fighting.” Watch Mychelle’s video “Spaceship” and visit her website www.MychelleLee.com . Mychelle Lee-Spaceship