I was in so much pain I wanted to rip my stomach open with a knife says Gogglebox star
CELEBRITY Gogglebox star Linda Clark revealed that she was in so much pain that she wanted to rip her stomach open with a knife.
The TV star - who stars in the celeb version of the Channel 4 show alongside her son Rylan - was diagnosed with Crohn’s when she was 30.
Crohn's is a condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system.
Over the years Linda, 69, has had three major bowel operations and now has stoma bag.
The reality favourite recently gave an update on her health as she reflected on the pain she used to be in.
Linda told OK! magazine: "I’m not well a lot of the time. I have nurses come round every morning and evening to give me a special feed.
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"I’ve had Crohn’s since I was 30 and used to be in so much pain I’d be crying all the time.
"It was unbearable – I felt like I wanted to get a knife and punch my stomach open. I’ve had three major bowel operations, and with the last one I got a stoma bag.
"Now I don’t have pain, which is a relief, but I’ve got to have nutrition put in me. I can eat, but everything goes straight through where I’ve hardly got any bowel left."
Linda now has 70cm of her bowel left and explained that if she drinks water she has to empty her stoma straight away.
Linda added: "My life is in the bathroom. I’ve got a line in me now – I don’t know how long it will be until the doctors can’t do any more.
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"There’s too much going on in there. I feel alright, but I get down because I can’t go out and I can’t do what I want to do."
Despite her health troubles, Linda is always there for her son Rylan, and has been over the past year.
What is Crohn's?
It is a condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system.
The inflammation is the body's reaction to injury or irritation, and can cause redness, swelling and pain.
It is often described as a chronic condition and although sufferers will have periods of good health, there are flare-ups where symptoms are more active.
It is one of the two main forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease - the other is a condition known as Ulcerative Colitis.
It can be caused by the genes a person has inherited, an abnormal reaction of the immune system and is probably triggered by something in the environment.
Rylan has had a difficult year after her split from husband Dan Neal.
Speaking about his mum, Rylan told OK!: "I couldn’t have got through the last year without my mum – she was there for me majorly.
"She was my entire support. If I was a puppet, she was the strings.
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"I didn’t think I was going to come back at all. At one point, I didn’t want to come back. I didn’t want to do this job anymore. I didn’t want to do anything."
After some time away, the mother son duo pair recently returned to our screens for the fourth series of Celebrity Gogglebox.
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