Suzanne Hellums — an Artist Managing Crohn’s

Suzanne Hellums, 49, nonetheless remembers the primary artwork lesson she ever took. She was 10 years outdated, filled with vitality and curiosity. An excellent scholar, notably in math and science, Hellums was wanting to strive her hand at one thing new.

When Hellums arrived at her first lesson, her trainer, a lady from her church close to Memphis, Tennessee, requested her to attract a black-and-white image of Benjamin Franklin — the other way up.

“She stated, ‘I don’t need you to suppose along with your left mind,’” Hellums stated. “She wished me to imitate the curves and the shading.” When she completed, Hellums turned the image round and examined it. “It was fairly shut,” she recalled.

Hellums realized quite a bit about artwork over the following few years, together with sketch and use watercolor pencils. However about three years later, her interest was placed on maintain. That’s when the primary main indicators of Crohn’s illness began to seem.

A Crohn’s Prognosis

Simply as Hellums, then 14 years outdated, and her mother and father had been transferring to a brand new house in northern Mississippi, she got here down with what she thought was the abdomen flu. The worst of it subsided after two weeks, however even after recovering, she nonetheless had some occasional signs, comparable to abdomen ache. Her physician instructed her that she simply had meals poisoning or a “nervous abdomen,” which confused Hellums, since she wasn’t a nervous particular person.

“My mother and father didn’t perceive what was happening with me,” she says. “I couldn’t appear to maintain on any weight. I used to be actually skinny and pale. My abdomen was extraordinarily distended at occasions.” At one level, she misplaced a lot weight that when she carried her books on her hips, bruises would seem.

Then someday, when she was 17, Hellums went again to the pediatrician’s workplace. The physician took one take a look at her, she says, and despatched her to the native emergency room. The docs on the ER then despatched her to a hospital in Memphis, which was two hours away.

On the time, Hellums was puzzled. Her signs had been dismissed for years, however now, she abruptly wanted to get to a hospital instantly. After she was admitted and the docs ran exams on her, she realized why: Hellums had extreme intestinal bleeding, and her blood platelets had been so excessive that the docs thought she had leukemia.

Hellums remained within the hospital for 2 weeks. Throughout that point, docs and residents got here out and in of her room, taking measurements, doing blood attracts, and operating exams. As soon as they did an endoscopy, the docs came upon what was mistaken: Hellums had Crohn’s illness, a power autoimmune situation characterised by irritation within the intestine. (She’d seemingly been dwelling with it for years earlier than it was lastly recognized.)

“I didn’t know what Crohn’s illness was,” Hellums says. “I simply requested, ‘Is there a remedy?’ Once they stated, ‘No, there’s no remedy,’ that was the half that broke my coronary heart.”

Wanting again, she realizes that the docs had been attempting to handle her expectations. Regardless of being within the hospital, Hellums, who was a junior in highschool, was attempting to make amends for her schoolwork and schedule make-up exams.

“I feel they in all probability noticed that and thought, ‘She must decelerate,’” she says.

Discovering a Profession … and a Manner Again to Artwork

After being discharged, Hellums managed her situation with corticosteroids — a go-to treatment for autoimmune situations on the time. The remedy labored, and Hellums was in a position to regain some weight and return to high school. After commencement, she met her future husband at school, the place she majored in scientific laboratory science. The diploma would assist her land her first job doing medical lab work.

Her expertise with Crohn’s influenced her determination to get a level that may enable her to pursue her love of science whereas additionally serving to others. “I at all times wished to know why one thing occurs,” she says.

Whereas working within the lab, Hellums additionally went to graduate college, the place she did analysis in biochemistry and graduated three years later. However her Crohn’s would often flare up, and he or she was later recognized with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), an inflammatory illness that may trigger the bones within the backbone to fuse. (About 2 to three % of individuals with inflammatory bowel illness — extra typically Crohn’s illness than ulcerative colitis — even have AS, based on the Crohn’s & Colitis Basis.)

The situations took their toll, and finally, Hellums might not work full-time. “I wasn’t able to doing a complete lot,” she says, throughout that point.

In 1999, Hellums and her husband moved to Alaska. Her love of artwork had at all times remained, so she put her abilities to make use of by portray and transforming her home. Years later, after her son was born and grew older, she painted an summary image of the planet Tatooine, from Star Wars, on his bed room wall.

“That was a bit a lot,” Hellums says, “however after that, I believed I might do some smaller issues.”

She began portray small photos for individuals as presents: landscapes, pets, buildings. “Folks stated they preferred it,” Hellums says, “however in my thoughts, I didn’t know if it was advantageous artwork or not.”

Ultimately, individuals started asking her if she was “with a gallery.” The expression perplexed Hellums on the time. “I believed, Is that one thing you’re imagined to do?” she says. She started researching galleries, however she nonetheless felt intimidated about portray a “large” image, particularly as a result of her Tatooine portray had been so labor intensive.

In October 2017, Hellums emailed ArtLifting, an internet gallery that sells paintings by artists with power situations or housing insecurity. After viewing her work, the corporate responded with a proposal of illustration, and Hellums has been creating paintings for them ever since.