I'm Rob Nunnery, a professional pickleball player with 19 titles, Crohn’s disease, and a permanent ostomy.

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For years, I kept competing, traveling, working, building, and saying yes while my health was already under pressure.

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I was diagnosed with perianal Crohn’s disease in 2023.

Five colorectal surgeries.
A colostomy in February 2025.
A complete proctectomy in January 2026.
A permanent ostomy.

Two weeks later, a post-op artery bleed required an emergency pelvic angiogram to stop the bleeding.

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I documented the recovery publicly as it happened, reaching millions of people and opening a wider conversation around chronic illness, ostomy life, recovery, body image, stress, and the cost of trying to do too much.

 

I've won 19 professional pickleball titles since 2022, including the 2025 Dubai Open ten weeks after colostomy surgery and the first Major League Pickleball championship in 2021.

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I'm one of the only professional athletes in the world competing with a permanent ostomy.

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I now write The Short List on Substack and build Flexara Health from lived experience with Crohn’s disease, ostomy life, travel, training, heat, recovery, and sensitive guts.

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The thread through all of it is simple:

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Just because you can keep going doesn't mean you should.