Professional pickleball player Rob Nunnery, now 41, looked like the picture of health from the outside.
In March 2022, the former Division I tennis player was traveling the world and competing on the global pickleball circuit. But behind the scenes, he began experiencing a sudden, severe pain in his backside that led to years of chronic pain, fever, chills, and abscesses (pockets of infection) requiring surgical drains. “It got so bad, the pain was so rough, I had to go to urgent care,” says Nunnery, who lives in George, South Africa. “As the pressure built up, it translated into extreme pain.”
For nearly a year, he didn’t know that the underlying cause was perianal Crohn’s disease; all the while, he was pushing through persistent pain, training for tournaments, and navigating the healthcare system for answers. Perianal Crohn’s disease is a penetrating form of the condition,
