Eating Round the Clock

With intestines shortened, a woman needs eleven meals a day

Gunvor Rosen's diet would put a trucker to shame. Several truckers, in fact. Each day the Swede tucks in the equivalent of 15 eggs, 6 1/2 Ibs. of potatoes, 41/2 Ibs. of pork and liver, one package of bacon, four steaks, twelve slices of roast beef, two quarts of ice cream, 1 Ib. of butter, several loaves of bread, 20 quarts of tea and light beer.

Rosen, 44, needs all this food --enough to feed a family of eight--as a result of treatment for a mysterious and frustrating intestinal disorder, Crohn's disease. A chronic inflammation of the bowel, Crohn's afflicts an estimated 1 million Americans, including 100,000 children. It goes by a variety of other names, including regional enteritis, ileitis and granulomatous colitis, depending on which part of the intestinal tract is affected. Repeated flare-ups can totally block the intestine. Fistulas or abnormal passages may develop in the inflamed bowel and lead into adjacent organs. In some instances the disease also causes arthritis, skin lesions, an inflammation of the eye or, rarely, a disruption in liver functioning. Sufferers experience abdominal cramps, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, fever, lack of appetite, weight loss and vomiting.

No one knows the cause of Crohn's disease, although researchers suspect that a virus or a flaw in the body's immune system may be involved. A cure is similarly elusive. In attempting to control the disease, doctors use drugs that suppress inflammation and the immune system. In severe cases, they must resort to surgery, cutting away diseased portions of bowel and then reconnecting the ends or creating a hole through the abdomen so wastes can be collected in a pouch. But even with such drastic measures, the disease may recur, necessitating more extensive operations.

Rosen's case is an extreme example of Crohn's disease. Her illness began when she was 19 and was treated with drugs alone for 20 years. But since 1976, she has undergone six operations; she has lost her large intestine and all but 27 1/2 in. of her 20-ft.-long small intestine. Because food passes through her truncated bowel so quickly, she does not get needed nutrients or fluids. To stay alive, she must eat eleven full meals a day,* a total of 20,000 calories. She also receives supplemental fluids intravenously and vitamin injections. At 5 ft. 4 in., she weighs 141 Ibs.

For the past 20 months, Rosen has been living at Kalmar Lasarett, a community hospital; Sweden's socialized health-care system picks up the tab for treatment and meals. But fed up with bland food, she has been taking short trips outside: "I leave after lunch and manage to hit three or four restaurants before I feel satisfied. Then I come back to a new hospital tray for dinner." She would like to leave the hospital and cook for herself, but the big problem is money. Rosen lives on a pension of $7,680 a year, and government regulations allow only $2,100 more for people with handicaps. "That," she complains, "would last about a month for buying the extra food I must eat."

*At 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 5:45 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 10 p.m., 1:30 a.m., 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.

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