Hello Crohnies and overweight, fluffy or fat friendly friends everywhere!
I've decided that instead of leaving this blog fallow, I will repurpose it as a blog about my struggles with Crohn's Disease, which I've had for over 13 years now, and my weight and sense of self acceptance.
Currently, I'm not taking anything but Azithioprine (and only a half-dose every other day) as treatment for my Crohns because my previous Dr, Doctor Lord at Virginia Mason, tried to get me into a Glaxo Smith Kline drug trial/study, but was unsuccessful because my heart is too healthy and I am not incapacitated by my weight.
So he's referred me, after 3 grueling months of blood tests, colonoscopies, EKGs and multiple visits to the Virginia Mason Hospital and Clinics located in downtown Seattle (which is really tough to drive in these days, because of traffic revisions and upgrades and other DOT insanity) to the University of Washington Department of Digestive Diseases and Dr Scott Lee, who is supposed to have a different drug trial that I can become a part of, hopefully.
Still, because I couldn't enter the GSK drug trial while on medication, I've been 4 months now without any substantive treatment for this painful gastroenterological disease. Which basically means I've been spending a lot of time in the bathroom for the past several months.
April has been a tough month in particular, because I haven't been without medication for this long in 13 years, so while the Crohns has spread down to my descending colon and my rectum, it hasn't been that painful since 3 years ago when I had an operation to remove a stricture from the juncture of my colon and small intestine. And the last time I was sick so often was when I was pumping breast milk for Nick after he was born and I kept having to run to the bathroom every time I used the hospital pump they sent home with me.
I honestly think I'd been having Irritable Bowel Disease symptoms for about two years prior, but I just hadn't found a doctor who knew how to diagnose IBD. From what I have heard and read, this is fairly common among the Crohns and Colitis community, and some people spend 5 or more years going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out why they are so sick with stomach/intestinal pain, diarrhea, bleeding and rectal fistulas and fissures (and hemorrhoids). I spent two or three months once in 1998 drinking some kind of stomach coating mixture because I couldn't swallow or eat anything more solid than babyfood and keep it down. Xrays revealed that my entire digestive tract, from my esophagus on down looked like it was wrapped in white cotton batting. I think that was my first true Crohn's flare.
Anyway, I'm still fighting to have a life in between running to the bathroom, and I've paid particular attention to doing the things I need to do for my husband and son, Nick. I also try to keep in contact with friends and relations via Facebook, and I try not to stress about things like the horrible terrorist bombings in Boston on April 15, last week. I try not to watch the news or read too many sad books, and I rely on my hopeful friends to keep me feeling like I can conquer anything, given enough time and determination.
I have been struggling to keep my exercise schedule, going to Thrive, a local gym (WIO closed down last June, which still makes me sad) at least 3-4 times a week. Now that there is a new Spin With Lynn class going, I try to ride the ridiculously uncomfortable stationary bikes Thrive provides, though recently my sore and aching rear end just would not cooperate, and I had to bow out of Sunday's spin class, much to my sorrow. Because Humira and Cimzia, both injectable biological drugs that I was on for Crohns, seemed to react in my body like a steroid (cortical, not anabolic), I gained back all the weight that I lost back in 2009, and now I am back to my heaviest, the weight that I was when I was pregnant with Nick and that I maintained after he was born via c-section. Then when I joined Work it Out in 2006, when Nick was 5 years old, I'd started to lose weight again and gain muscle tone and strength.
But I fight on, determined to not let my size or my IBD get the better of me, or keep me from being mobile and healthy as possible.
I hope that you will share my journey with me. You are welcome to sit down and have a nice cuppa tea and read.
