Matt’s Childhood with Crohn’s Disease

Here we are jump starting the New Year off with an Inspirational story about a young teen Living with Crohn's here is Matt story.Shari Capers remembers the moment she knew her son, Matt, was sick. “He was lined up with his friends in Kindergarten. Next to everyone else in his class, he was really pale. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right,” she says. Within a few weeks, they learned he had Crohn’s disease. Shortly after the diagnosis, Matt developed perianal disease, which required surgery. One day, he even had to be airlifted to the hospital after a particular Crohn’s medication impacted his heart. He was in the ICU for 8 days. After Matt’s heart scare, he began taking another medication that helped him grow a few inches, and his perianal disease healed up. This was a lot for a kid to go through—and Matt hadn’t even reached his tenth birthday yet. Now a freshman in high school, Matt (pictured with his family) still struggles with Crohn’s disease. As he says, “Well, you can't really push it out of the way. It's always walking behind you.” He hasn't had any more issues with perianal disease. Now it's just general inflammation in his intestines. He gets a shot every two weeks to help with that, and he also had surgery to remove some of his intestines. Matt still experiences complications from the medicine he takes. Some of them work for a while and then they stop. With all that uncertainty, Shari says it has been nice to have CCFA out there as a resource for their family. For her, the research aspect of CCFA is the most valuable—knowing new drugs are in the pipeline. Matt has found comfort in Camp Oasis, where he can feel normal with other kids going through the same thing. As a family, the Capers stay involved with Team Challenge and Take Steps. They even went go the Georgia Dome as part of CCFA’s Touch of Football event. Together, they are doing everything they can to support research for new treatments and cures. They lent their story to CCFA this holiday to help raise money for pediatric research. If you’d like to join them in supporting this important work, please click here.