Florida Cop Shares Quarter-Century Fight with Crohn’s

The day to day, month to month, and year to year struggles with Crohn’s can be overwhelming for anybody. As with most life experiences, learning about others who have experienced similar scenarios can help guide someone along the way. This is true of Crohn’s disease as well. 

One such person who could easily fill this ‘leading example’ role is a gentleman named William Connell.

Introducing Police Officer William (Bill) Connell

Once you ‘meet’ Police Officer William (Bill) Connell, you just have to be amazed and inspired by his tenacity.

Bill has wrestled with Crohn’s for 25 years and has aimed to not let it get in the way of what he’s needed to do at work (Fox 13 News/Fox).

Now, you—and maybe even Bill, as well—might have taken a day now and then, when you just need time to decompress, to rest up, to get a handle on things. But, that can’t happen too often because Crohn’s, as you know, requires daily attention to medication and diet just to stay afloat. Bill told Fox that he gets weekly injections and takes more than a dozen pills a day to help control his Crohn’s.

Bill and his struggles with Crohn’s

Tough times come for this former Clearwater, Florida Police Officer. They arrive in the form of flare-ups. You know how draining those episodes can be. As Bill describes them, “The average flare is a painful experience. Painful because it hurts, you can't leave the toilet, painful because your body is basically shutting down on you." Additionally, you likely experience “diarrhea, bleeding, and fatigue” (Fox).

Bill goes back to school

As Fox tells us, Bill, after more than 20-years as a Police Officer and nicely settled into his retirement, accepted an employment opportunity with the Lealman Innovation Academy, in St. Petersburg, Florida. The academy is a charter and ‘alternative school’, initiated in 2014 with grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, per the Tampa Bay Times.
Bill has served the school as resource officer for the last 16 months. In this position, he fulfills the job description as being “a sworn law enforcement officer and is responsible for providing security and crime prevention services in the school environment.”

Bill’s current job duties vary in many ways from those he carried out in nearby Clearwater as a city police officer: from “bicycle patrol,” to training (of other policemen), to swat negotiator”- and everything in between, he told Fox. Connell does note he welcomes in this new position an easy access to numerous rest rooms at the school, especially when his CD flare-ups occur. "I like have the keys to everything, not a problem to get somewhere if I have to," he said. (Fox)

Holding down a job with Crohn's disease

In the Fox article, this law enforcement officer explains that going to work with Crohn’s feels like "your worst flu, compounded by 100. That is my day to day life and that's hard to live with."

If you, as a person with Crohn’s, also hold down a job, you can no-doubt identify with Connell’s description of workday struggles. And yet, Connell told the Fox reporter during the televised interview that he didn't let his disease stop him from doing his job.

Read on to learn more about Bill, and to learn more about managing employment with Crohn's disease.

Photo credit: Fox 13 News