{"id":24023,"date":"2024-11-21T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/?p=24023"},"modified":"2024-11-21T11:32:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T10:32:25","slug":"chronic-illness-and-kayaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/chronic-illness-and-kayaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness and Kayaking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kayaking is such a diverse sport; wherever you find paddlers, you\u2019ll find groups of people with a variety of backgrounds, whether that\u2019s the discipline of paddle sports they do, where they\u2019re from, what they do for work, or even health and disability.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In my case, I have a chronic illness called Ulcerative Colitis, which is a long-term condition where the colon and large intestines get inflamed, causing symptoms of fatigue, stomach pain and diarrhoea during flare-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As anyone with health conditions will find, it affects all aspects of life, and kayaking is no different. I\u2019ve had to abandon kayaking plans and trips affected by flare-ups and had to deal with anxiety about flare-ups while I am travelling. On the flip side, kayaking has positively influenced my health condition and how I see it.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I started kayaking in January 2022, a month after an initial diagnosis. The reason I started was that while in the waiting room or recovering in bed I ended up watching a lot of videos from the Send crew. I had dabbled in the kayaking world before the Covid lockdowns. I\u2019d been taught a few basics and went on a few trips, but due to being under 18 and not having much money, I wasn\u2019t able to pursue it as much as I\u2019d like. After the COVID lockdown restrictions eased and after my health got better, I had the drive to go out and give kayaking a proper try. After a lot of time and effort, I went from beatering at Hurley Weir to throwing down some tricks on big waves in Uganda and travelling to the Alps to coach and safety a university kayaking trip.<\/p>\n\n\n

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To a degree, what I\u2019ve achieved in kayaking has happened despite having a chronic illness, but also, kayaking in itself has helped me overcome the chronic illness. Whether that\u2019s physically providing an avenue to keep me healthy or psychologically giving me the drive to get through the tough times and get back on the water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kayaking is a diverse sport attracting individuals from various backgrounds. The author, diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, shares how this chronic illness affects their kayaking journey. Despite challenges like flare-ups and anxiety, kayaking began in January 2022, ultimately aiding in their recovery and providing a sense of accomplishment and purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9000,"featured_media":24031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[1725,1724],"class_list":["post-24023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paddler-lifestyle-articles","tag-kayaking-with-chronic-illness","tag-kayaking-with-ulcerative-colitis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/IMG_2246-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9tk9G-6ft","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24023"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24041,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24023\/revisions\/24041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}