Finding Crohn's Support in North Dakota

I live in Bismarck, North Dakota, the capitol city of North Dakota and one of the four largest cities in the state. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 1983, when it was still an embarrassing secret that was not discussed in "polite company." Ten years ago, I moved back to my hometown of Bismarck from Nevada and found a Crohn's support group that met at Medcenter One, the largest of Bismarck's two hospitals, on the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m. It was a great relief for me to find and meet people with whom I could discuss my Crohn's condition without embarrassment and have presentations by numerous experts in the field of gastroenterology (the branch of medicine that treats inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) - Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis; irritable bowel syndrome, though it has a few of the same symptoms, is not considered an IBD). I learned so much about managing Crohn's and discovered so much information that I needed to know - information that anyone with a disease needs to know. Although the Crohn's support group stopped meeting last spring, I have stayed in touch with many of the people I met there, and if we can gather enough support, we may be able to start the support group up again. It was this Crohn's support group that introduced me to the two doctors who may have saved my life last year.