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Rob Nunnery (0:06)

My saving grace was picking up the phone and calling a friend.

And not even anything he said, it was just the fact that he was there and he's just like, man, I had no idea that what you're going through is where you're at right now. And it's what I needed to hear in that moment because he just acknowledged where I was and feeling very alone in this kind of thing. You don't know how you're going to get out of it, but the lesson for myself is that I can't try to carry this alone. I have to share what I'm going through.

Cynthia McFadden (0:37)

This is Eating, Interrupted. We dig into the real stories in science behind how food can interrupt everyday life from the very first bite to the complex journey that follows. I'm your host, Cynthia McFadden.

We often think digestive diseases are all about food, and of course, food is a big part of it. But talk to someone living with a chronic GI condition, and they'll tell you it's about so much more. Because digestive diseases are often invisible, and when people can't see what you're going through, it can be hard to explain it and even harder to open up about it.

But today, we're breaking the silence. On this episode, we'll be sitting down with Rob Nunnery, a professional pickleball player living with Crohn's disease. And after years of pain and treatments and surgeries, Rob eventually had a permanent colostomy. But instead of hiding that part of his story, he decided to share it publicly online. The response? Millions showed their support. And I think that reaction tells us something important. People are ready to have these conversations. They just need a place to start. But before we talk with Rob, let's kick things off with our go-to doc, Dr. Mark Pimentel.

Well, hello there, Dr. Pimentel. Great to have you back with us again.

Mark Pimentel (2:04)

It's always good to be on your show. I'm so excited about this episode.

Cynthia McFadden (2:08)

I feel like it's our show.

Mark Pimentel (2:12)

I'll take a small piece of that, sure.

But I'm looking forward to this show. It's such an interesting topic, so let's see what we got.

Cynthia McFadden (2:21)

Today's episode is really about the social burden of digestive diseases. Is that something that you hear from patients about almost as much as the physical symptoms?

Mark Pimentel (2:32)

Well, it depends on patients because some people really like to talk about their bowels, but mostly people don't.

It's their secret because they don't want to discuss it. But it becomes a socially isolating condition, these GI disorders, because they don't want to talk about it. They don't want to burden people with it, and they feel others won't respect their story. Because there are many stories about people on airplanes where they can't make it to the bathroom and patients experience that. If they're in a social setting at a person's house and they need to use the restroom suddenly, there's an embarrassment of that, as you can imagine. So they don't want to talk about it, and this affects their social life, for sure.

Cynthia McFadden (3:16)

Yeah, I have a friend with Crohn's disease who basically gave all of her luggage away. She said, I'm just not going to travel anymore. It's just too hard. So, I mean, it can be a real burden to the rest of someone's life.

Mark Pimentel (3:27)

Everybody experiences diarrhea when they travel, at least once in their life. Imagine that's your life all the time. And so, you know, they say, well, it ruined my trip, but imagine it ruining your life all the time.

So, I think people have to relate and understand what these patients are going through.

Cynthia McFadden (3:44)

Well, how common are chronic GI diseases overall?

Mark Pimentel (3:48)

So, chronic GI diseases are extremely common, and they can affect up to 20% of the population, but some studies say even higher. So, it's extremely common that people walking on the street, at least one in five, are suffering.

Cynthia McFadden (4:03)

Well, we have someone today's guest who is willing to talk about it, Rob Nunnery, who I share a diagnosis with. We both have Crohn's disease, but his experience is quite different from mine. Can you just give us in a nutshell what Crohn's disease is? I mean, what is it?

Mark Pimentel (4:19)

So, Crohn's disease is what we categorize as an inflammatory bowel disease. So, it means that your body has decided to produce a lot of inflammation in the gut. That's what we call a full thickness inflammation. The entire wall of the intestine is thickened.