Both a Disney adult and a woman who has faced crohns since I was a small child, I loved you and your videos before I ever knew you faced the same things that I did and then, I love you even more. I couldn’t be more thrilled that you are making content again. Thank you for everything you put out into the world, it is a dream to read and it heals us chronically sick people more than you know. 😊
This made me tear up. I am so appreciative you've been following along the way. If there's anything else you'd like to read about in the 'I've had Crohn's for-fucking-ever' realm, please do let me know!!!
Not a Disney adult, but another chronically sick person. All this is too relatable unfortch. Not always grateful and usually feeling guilty from whatever magical thinking leads me to believe that X behavior caused Y symptom. Happy to follow along as you go from zero to 1 or from sad lunch du jour to a hot dog with so much relish.
I have read all 17 comments currently posted and just wanted to take a moment to highlight how eloquently everyone has responded and how deeply kind each comment is in the most genuine way. I am sorry to hear that so many people can personally relate to Tess's stories but thank you for sharing publicly as well and being as brave and strong as Tess, even when you may not feel like it. It is amazing to witness everyone come together and support each other - most of us are strangers and yet it doesn't read or feel like that. I am impressed by all and glad to be along the start of this new journey that Tess started only a few weeks ago....what a lovely community has already blossomed here (and was already in existence before this following the one and only, Tess)! Sincerely, a long time friend of Tess and a 30 something year old who has morphed into a very emotional human the last few years who just really appreciates and enjoys nice, good people :) oh, and I am here for the raw, witty writing as well as the YOUTUBE videos...the people need them (i am the people, we are the people...). LET'S GO TESS!
Calling out the Disney adults is really why I’m here. I did watch all of your park content during the lockdown and I kinda just loved how much you groused at everything, even when you LOVED it. I liked how you clearly loved the parks but for the reasons the parks can’t simulate. Just like a funny little grouch, shrugging her way through Dollywood, licking only half the ice cream off each spoonful and avoiding rides. I often respond to your posts on IG and I’m like: I know we don’t know each other but this person is so easy to support and show love to and out of nowhere, I suddenly care very much about the health of a woman who I once saw eat a turkey leg the size of a supersoaker. I’m here for it, Tess. Thanks for be willing to share all this stuff about your life. ❤️
I’m also a chronically ill person with PTSD from near-death hospitalizations & a 2 year old. My sister is a Disney adult and showed me some of your videos before we went to Disney back before the pandemic, but I actually started following you during the pandemic because of your cathartic rants about chronic illness and pandemic-life.
I have the same anger, resentment, and guilt inside of me that you so articulately described here. This part of me often feels unheard and misunderstood and shameful, but when I read this, this part of me felt like it was screaming “yes!!!! See!!!! That’s it!!! She gets it!!!”
Your writing is meaningful, brilliant, funny, and cathartic as fuck. Thanks for writing this. To be cheesy, the angry and resentful voice inside of us deserves to be heard, and your writing helps me listen to this voice without feeling shame.
I saw this come into my inbox, squeed (do people still squee?) and very consciously closed my laptop, making the courageous decision to enjoy this sugar-free "treat" when I could give it the proper attention it deserved. And I was not disappointed! I'm so sorry you have to channel Switzerland vibes during this phase of recovery. Neutrality isn't easy when all you want to do is fucking rage and fucking eat little treats every four hours because you deserve it (and because you're a survivor!). I really try to live by the "this is temporary" mantra. It's temporary that I'm going through an adult acne break-out right now. It's temporary that every other word out of my twins' mouths is butt, butt crack and poop. It's temporary that you took a not-brief hiatus but are now about to grace us with your presence on YouTube!!!!!! Temporary is vague in that it can be long or short, but there is a FINALITY about temporary. xo
As a Disney Adult who had a stroke at 34 in 2022 and that became a brain surgery for a rare malformation in 2023 and still has to hear my own mother use the phrase "but they fixed you" any time I mention my chronic health issues, I honestly don't know how to express how much this newsletter means to me. I get a LOT of internal and external pressure to just "be grateful" that the AVM didn't just kill me outright without a lot of space to process how much chronic illness fucking sucks. The New Jersey of my personality (and probably the brain damage) does not allow for playacting appropriate "gratitude" for the people that want it. Thank you for the steps in this edition, they are genuinely helpful!
Absolutely a Disney adult with nostalgia for 2018 Internet times! Grateful (truly) that you’re sharing these parts of yourself and your journey with us in both humor and raw reality🩷 Signed, Someone Who Also Has a Bad Habit of Making Light of Hard Situations!!!
A friend put me onto your content in the early days of the Pandemic. I was so mad at everyone who continued life as normal while I stayed in a bubble with my husband, dog and cat. My own brother made a “it’s okay to weed out the weak, let me go to the gym” remark. So, sad lunch, zooms in on husband’s totally benign but somehow murderous behavior and mullet in full glory was exactly what I needed. Until I landed in the hospital, septic with dozens of small leaks throughout the little intestines I had left. 3 months inpatient with guest restrictions (1/day from 12-2pm) was only remotely manageable because I was so sick and so drugged I have full days(weeks) I don’t have any memory of.
This perfectly sums up the juxtaposition between the feeling of freedom when they decide you are well enough to go home but not even close to life as you know it… and the bombardment of all of your people telling you how grateful you should be to have survived and be home.
As for thanksgiving, I would have lost it during pre-meal snacks- kudos
We enjoy all your content no matter what form it takes because you’re always authentic even when it’s joyful, even when it’s self deprecating, even when it’s pissed as hell. I love, “you get what you see and you see what you get.”
The fact that you were reading Harold McGee on the weekends is🤌🏻 I’m a chef but also have IBS and some other chronically lame health things and your content just keeps getting progressively more dialed in to my exact niche ver the years lol i love it
I’ve followed you since your Delish videos, which I loved by the way and watched them over and over. You’re quite sassy which I also love 😜. Crohn’s disease is one miserable and hideous disease. My mom is 86 and has been dealing with this disease since her early 30’s, over 50 years!! I realize you have suffered with this since you were quite young and I know you have an extreme form of this disease. I remember growing up, my mom making dinner and soon as it was over, she was in the bathroom for a half hour, our ONE bathroom to share with 6 other people. She ate what she wanted and drank coffee all day long (even though that was the worse thing for her to drink). Twenty five years into the disease, my mother went into the hospital and had a benign tumor removed from her small intestine and I also think a portion of her stomach was removed as well. She had an ileostomy bag for 6 weeks and then had a reversal of that operation and learned to poop again. Well, she went right back to her old habits of eating whatever she wanted and smoking too. The stomach aches and diarrhea continued another 20 years and my mom is still here. She never leaves the house because she likes to be near her own bathroom. You my dear are a true warrior. My mom should take some clear lessons from you but you know you won’t be changing an 86 year old’s way of thinking. Keep on fighting the good fight and know there are people that care and understand (not fully, but we try).
Both a Disney adult and a woman who has faced crohns since I was a small child, I loved you and your videos before I ever knew you faced the same things that I did and then, I love you even more. I couldn’t be more thrilled that you are making content again. Thank you for everything you put out into the world, it is a dream to read and it heals us chronically sick people more than you know. 😊
This made me tear up. I am so appreciative you've been following along the way. If there's anything else you'd like to read about in the 'I've had Crohn's for-fucking-ever' realm, please do let me know!!!
Not a Disney adult, but another chronically sick person. All this is too relatable unfortch. Not always grateful and usually feeling guilty from whatever magical thinking leads me to believe that X behavior caused Y symptom. Happy to follow along as you go from zero to 1 or from sad lunch du jour to a hot dog with so much relish.
I so appreciate this. Really, truly.
I get so happy when this hits my inbox, teetering between "i hope she gets better" and "i hope she never changes" <3 <3 <3
MEANS THE WORLD COMING FROM YOU!
I have read all 17 comments currently posted and just wanted to take a moment to highlight how eloquently everyone has responded and how deeply kind each comment is in the most genuine way. I am sorry to hear that so many people can personally relate to Tess's stories but thank you for sharing publicly as well and being as brave and strong as Tess, even when you may not feel like it. It is amazing to witness everyone come together and support each other - most of us are strangers and yet it doesn't read or feel like that. I am impressed by all and glad to be along the start of this new journey that Tess started only a few weeks ago....what a lovely community has already blossomed here (and was already in existence before this following the one and only, Tess)! Sincerely, a long time friend of Tess and a 30 something year old who has morphed into a very emotional human the last few years who just really appreciates and enjoys nice, good people :) oh, and I am here for the raw, witty writing as well as the YOUTUBE videos...the people need them (i am the people, we are the people...). LET'S GO TESS!
Calling out the Disney adults is really why I’m here. I did watch all of your park content during the lockdown and I kinda just loved how much you groused at everything, even when you LOVED it. I liked how you clearly loved the parks but for the reasons the parks can’t simulate. Just like a funny little grouch, shrugging her way through Dollywood, licking only half the ice cream off each spoonful and avoiding rides. I often respond to your posts on IG and I’m like: I know we don’t know each other but this person is so easy to support and show love to and out of nowhere, I suddenly care very much about the health of a woman who I once saw eat a turkey leg the size of a supersoaker. I’m here for it, Tess. Thanks for be willing to share all this stuff about your life. ❤️
I’m also a chronically ill person with PTSD from near-death hospitalizations & a 2 year old. My sister is a Disney adult and showed me some of your videos before we went to Disney back before the pandemic, but I actually started following you during the pandemic because of your cathartic rants about chronic illness and pandemic-life.
I have the same anger, resentment, and guilt inside of me that you so articulately described here. This part of me often feels unheard and misunderstood and shameful, but when I read this, this part of me felt like it was screaming “yes!!!! See!!!! That’s it!!! She gets it!!!”
Your writing is meaningful, brilliant, funny, and cathartic as fuck. Thanks for writing this. To be cheesy, the angry and resentful voice inside of us deserves to be heard, and your writing helps me listen to this voice without feeling shame.
I saw this come into my inbox, squeed (do people still squee?) and very consciously closed my laptop, making the courageous decision to enjoy this sugar-free "treat" when I could give it the proper attention it deserved. And I was not disappointed! I'm so sorry you have to channel Switzerland vibes during this phase of recovery. Neutrality isn't easy when all you want to do is fucking rage and fucking eat little treats every four hours because you deserve it (and because you're a survivor!). I really try to live by the "this is temporary" mantra. It's temporary that I'm going through an adult acne break-out right now. It's temporary that every other word out of my twins' mouths is butt, butt crack and poop. It's temporary that you took a not-brief hiatus but are now about to grace us with your presence on YouTube!!!!!! Temporary is vague in that it can be long or short, but there is a FINALITY about temporary. xo
As a Disney Adult who had a stroke at 34 in 2022 and that became a brain surgery for a rare malformation in 2023 and still has to hear my own mother use the phrase "but they fixed you" any time I mention my chronic health issues, I honestly don't know how to express how much this newsletter means to me. I get a LOT of internal and external pressure to just "be grateful" that the AVM didn't just kill me outright without a lot of space to process how much chronic illness fucking sucks. The New Jersey of my personality (and probably the brain damage) does not allow for playacting appropriate "gratitude" for the people that want it. Thank you for the steps in this edition, they are genuinely helpful!
Absolutely a Disney adult with nostalgia for 2018 Internet times! Grateful (truly) that you’re sharing these parts of yourself and your journey with us in both humor and raw reality🩷 Signed, Someone Who Also Has a Bad Habit of Making Light of Hard Situations!!!
A friend put me onto your content in the early days of the Pandemic. I was so mad at everyone who continued life as normal while I stayed in a bubble with my husband, dog and cat. My own brother made a “it’s okay to weed out the weak, let me go to the gym” remark. So, sad lunch, zooms in on husband’s totally benign but somehow murderous behavior and mullet in full glory was exactly what I needed. Until I landed in the hospital, septic with dozens of small leaks throughout the little intestines I had left. 3 months inpatient with guest restrictions (1/day from 12-2pm) was only remotely manageable because I was so sick and so drugged I have full days(weeks) I don’t have any memory of.
This perfectly sums up the juxtaposition between the feeling of freedom when they decide you are well enough to go home but not even close to life as you know it… and the bombardment of all of your people telling you how grateful you should be to have survived and be home.
As for thanksgiving, I would have lost it during pre-meal snacks- kudos
Don’t fucking stop. This content is so needed.
Not a Disney millennial, but a chronically ill gen-Zer who relates to your miseries and lived vicariously through you when I couldn't eat in 2019/2020
I also need to say, the more angry you get in writing, the more engaging it is. Lolz. Kinda good; kinda bad.
We enjoy all your content no matter what form it takes because you’re always authentic even when it’s joyful, even when it’s self deprecating, even when it’s pissed as hell. I love, “you get what you see and you see what you get.”
Yes. Tess. Great stuff. Absolutely stoked to read more of your brilliant writing. Quite frankly you could write about dog shit and I’d read it.
The fact that you were reading Harold McGee on the weekends is🤌🏻 I’m a chef but also have IBS and some other chronically lame health things and your content just keeps getting progressively more dialed in to my exact niche ver the years lol i love it
I’ve followed you since your Delish videos, which I loved by the way and watched them over and over. You’re quite sassy which I also love 😜. Crohn’s disease is one miserable and hideous disease. My mom is 86 and has been dealing with this disease since her early 30’s, over 50 years!! I realize you have suffered with this since you were quite young and I know you have an extreme form of this disease. I remember growing up, my mom making dinner and soon as it was over, she was in the bathroom for a half hour, our ONE bathroom to share with 6 other people. She ate what she wanted and drank coffee all day long (even though that was the worse thing for her to drink). Twenty five years into the disease, my mother went into the hospital and had a benign tumor removed from her small intestine and I also think a portion of her stomach was removed as well. She had an ileostomy bag for 6 weeks and then had a reversal of that operation and learned to poop again. Well, she went right back to her old habits of eating whatever she wanted and smoking too. The stomach aches and diarrhea continued another 20 years and my mom is still here. She never leaves the house because she likes to be near her own bathroom. You my dear are a true warrior. My mom should take some clear lessons from you but you know you won’t be changing an 86 year old’s way of thinking. Keep on fighting the good fight and know there are people that care and understand (not fully, but we try).
Love you Tess!