Healthline Blogs
Planetary Progression of IBD
Thinking about the progression of an inflammatory flare-up, the process bears some similarity to the progression of planets… from the sun to the outer reaches of the solar system.
Sun: A seemingly infinite source of flares. They
all start here…
Mercury: A small planet, hard to notice, lost in
the everyday illumination of normal life, making itself visible only in
occasional circumstances. Like the first inklings of inflammation… is it there,
or not?
Venus: Next comes the planet with an atmosphere
of toxic, sulfurey gasses—and a history of volcanic eruptions. Sounding like a
flare-up yet?
Earth: The watery planet, and lots of it. Three-quarters
water to be specific. It also has a gassy atmosphere… and lava flows too. Well
on our way to symptomatic evidence.
Mars: The red planet, the full blossoming of
inflammation.
Jupiter: What IBD looks like on the TV screen
during a colonoscopy... white ulcerations, bloody streaks, and that giant round
polyp.
Saturn: A welcome sight at this point in
the progression, the planet with a toilet seat around it. Ahh, finally some
relief.
Uranus: Well, self explanatory, except that it
looks less like a planet and more like a star.
Neptune: The cold blue planet, far from the heat of solar
flares. The dwindling of inflammation, a cool-down. It may seem light years
away but it’s still within sight.
Pluto: What all of us want our disease to be
like. One day it exists…then one day suddenly it doesn’t.
Or so we hope. Godspeed.
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