NFL QB Hits Crohn's Disease

There's a great story by Jason Wilde about Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard who has Crohn's disease in the State Journal this morning. [Jacksonville's playing the Pack this week.]

Crohn's disease is a mysterious, chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive or gastrointestinal tract, with symptoms ranging from the severe to the mild.

"I go in every year and have a wonderful colonoscopy," (Garrard) said Wednesday, during a conference call with Wisconsin reporters as he prepared for Sunday's game against the Green Bay Packers. "That's very exciting."

Writes Wilde:

Garrard stars in a TV public service announcement that often airs during NFL games and has a Web site, Crohnsinthezone.com, that tracks his stats and raises $10,000 for every touchdown he scores, running or passing.
'I think I've been blessed with this disease so that I can put the word out on it. Not a lot of people know about Crohn's Disease or what it does or what it is or how many people are affected by it,' Garrard said. 'Over 500,000 people in America are affected by it, (and) a lot of them are kids -- that's who really get sick with it the most. Anything that I can do to try and get the word out, I really feel like that's what I've been called to do and I'm going to do that.'

I know somebody who has Crohn's Disease. No kind of fun for her, but she does get to see the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital and Clinic's colorful gastroenterologist, Mark Reichelderfer, MD, the brilliant and whacky doctor whom she loves.

One wonders what could be achieved if we took the money that we spend on the bullshit Iraq War in one month and use it to research Crohn's. Let's hope president-elect Obama radically changes the course of scientific research.

At least for now we have people like Garrard and Reichelderfer on the case who work with humor and determination that is truly inspiring.