Lately I have been thinking a lot about how having a childhood illness shaped me, as a person, as a teen and an adult. I’ve asked myself often what, if any chronic illness lessons, I got out of that experience. Some of you know I have Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, also now thought to be an autoimmune disease, without a known cause or cure. I was diagnosed at 14 after a period of months when pounds melted off my frame faster than you can even imagine. My abdomen hurt all of the time, as in so much cramping that I thought I would pass out. Sometimes I still…