Update Time

Oops.  This is what happens when I leave it a few (a lot) days between blog posts.  Things happen.

So.  Med wise I'm still on the pred, still stabbing myself fortnightly with Humira, and have been bumped up to 6 tabs a day of Salofalk.

Am also currently sitting at home recovering after a probing.  Yup, another colonoscopy.  Prepped over the weekend; limited food intake on the Saturday and the ever so wonderful approved clear fluids on the Sunday, then nil by mouth from midnight and probing this morning.  Glad it's over with.  Apparently there's not much amiss up there though, so the doc is a little miffed.  He did try to make mention of the enemas again, and I'm sorry but even when I'm doped to the eyeballs on anaesthetic I'm still going to tell you exactly where you can stick those, and it ain't anywhere near my butt.  I get to go and see him in a week, so maybe there'll be a new plan of attack by then?  Crossing my fingers.

I've been trying to keep myself occupied and keep my mind off things.  I've been attacking the garden among other things, my greenhouse is now mended (had a few nasty holes in the shade cloth) and my pots have been moved into there from the older, more falling apart greenhouse.  My vegie patch is now ready for plants again, full of poop and the walkways are now obviously walk ways.  And the grapefruit tree got cut down.  I feel a little sad by this, judging off it's size it's been here forever and a day, and the neighbours have memories of the little old lady who used to live here and her grapefruit.  At the end of the day though, it's the second year in a row that every branch has been weighed down to the ground with fruit and it's the second year in a row that every single fruit has been riddled with fruit fly.  Considering I don't really eat grapefruit, and I'd really value not getting fruit fly in the rest of my fruit and veg, I reckon in the long run I've done the right thing.

I've been making plans to redo bits of the house, take the carpets up and polish the floor boards (hello sock sliding!) and trying to work out just how to go about removing wall paper and wood panelling.

And then I've been busy with the crocheting too.  Yes, little old granny in a 25 year old body.  Some days I even feel old.

And I've been experimenting in the kitchen and using my wonderful better half as a guinea pig.  Poor thing, some of the flavours I throw at him I'm surprised he even lets me near the room, let alone do anything in it.  The things that keep you sane huh?

Anyway.  I'm off to snooze a little, still very tired and a bit woozy after my probing this morning.  Thankfully was only one end this time and not both.

Hope everyone is well, and will hopefully update a little more often.  (Though please don't hold you're breath, you should know what I'm like by now!)

I swear, doctors are evil. Evil I tell you!

Went home early from work yesterday. Just couldn't cope. In pain, shaking, temperature changes, tired, head in a mess. Not conductive for the work environment.

Mum went with me to see the evil doctor person. Which was good in a way because everything absorbed while I was in there then vacated my head afterwards. Bad in another way because the doc talked to her, not me. Get to see him again in four weeks.

So. The good news is I don't have to have the enemas any more. This came about from me going "Pretty please, a thousand times, with a cherry and sugar on top, can I please not have the enemas anymore?". And yes I did use those words. It was that or demand it and I thought maybe a cherry would be nicer than demanding. Also, my inflamation markers were back down to well within normal range or nearly normal (instead of waaaaaaaaay up high in the sky).

The annoying news is that he batted every single side effect (or at least what has been happening to me since I started the meds) down with either a "Yeah, that happens with Prednisone" or a "That's not related to your meds" then promptly ignoring it. The chest pain? Not related to my meds so doesn't bother him. Still bothers me.

The bad news (at least in my eyes). I get to stay on the Prednisone, same amount, no backing me off. And I get to stay on the Salofalk (not such a biggy, but really, I'm not sure what it's doing for me). And he's starting me on Imuran. Mum's getting the script filled for me today. I get to have weekly blood tests with this one, so I'm guessing I need to harden up and get over that fear of needles just a little bit. If the Presnisone and Imuran don't work, I get to look at a fortnightly injection of something (think it's Humira, could be something else though). My iron is still low (though still not anaemic, so that's good) and he was going to put me on iron tablets too, but didn't want me starting two new meds at the same time.

In other fantastic news, the joint pain is apparently not caused by the meds, infact the meds should make it better. Ignore that fact that most of it started after I started taking the meds. So it sounds like I've got the delightful arthritis that comes with Crohn's. I'm also the heaviest I've ever been, despite 5 weeks ago being the lightest I'd been in two years. And! The blurry vision? Someone forgot to mention to me that if you're predisposed to diabetes then Prednisone can start the ball rolling. Blurry vision can be a sign of diabetes. So guess who gets to have her sugars checked? As if one incurable chronic disease wasn't enough.

Slept a little better than usual last night, although woke up about quarter to six to a massive painful cramp in my left leg. So it's still aching from that, and currently my right one feels like it's going to go. I'm tired, and my vision is having fun with me, and my fingers hurt.

In relation to the weight gain, it's a problem. Double chin is now very noticeable (if it wasn't before). Work clothes are also an issue. See, the shirts I wear are the presentable office type ones, with the buttons down the front. Noticed after I got to work today that the shirt I'm wearing today in particular, decides to open between the buttons. Not a good look. So I now face the prospect of going and trying to find shirts that fit and look decent. Sadly, the style and brand I wear now, I know looks alright when I'm five kilos lighter, but sadly it's the biggest size in that style and brand. So I've got the horrible task (and yes it's horrible, I despise it with a passion) of hunting for a whole new work wardrobe. Yuck. Time wasting, expensive, stressful, pointless exercise. Hate.

Room needs doing. Cleaning, rearranging, etc. Too small. Need space. Unfortunately, the only other room in the house that is a possibility isn't a possibility, it's a glorified walk way. So I get to either clean the room, rent, or save and buy. For now, cleaning the room out sounds better. And cheaper. Bah. It's still a teeny room.

Anyway. Off to try and muddle my way through the day. Blergh.

Tired, cold induced blather.

Urgh. I am coldy/fluey at the moment. Achey, sniffly, head feels like a bunch of wet soggy newspaper glued to the inside of my skull.... The first person who says it's swine flu will be shot. Seriously, that's all I'm reading in the news at the moment. "Blah, blah, blah, swine flu, blah blah, swine flu, blah oh look swine flu". It'll go away. Just like the bird flu did. Besides, what I have is more likely a cold than the flu. *defensiveness over and out*

Joint pain still bugging me, particularly in my fingers, wrists and knees. Also, the pain I get in my jaw is starting to worry me a bit. It happens after eating a normal size meal (small bits and pieces are okay), or when I have something warm then something cold (ie, hot food followed by a mouthful of drink). Rather painful and tight and very uncomfortable and I'm not entirely sure that I'm meant to be experiencing it.

My parents must be magic. No, really. We had pizza last night for dinner, just after I had been musing over how it would go (okay, so it was a day or two later, but hey. Magic sounds better). Eagle Boys pizza gets a big thumbs up!!! I can eat pizza! Whoo!! Just not pub pizza at the local. *sad face goes here* But I can eat pizza!

Sleep is being interupted. I don't quite know which is more annoying, the waking up and staying awake for hours on end, or the waking up every hour or two throughout the night like I have been lately. Possibly that, because at least if I'm awake for a few hours I get deep sleep either side of it and I can do stuff during the time I'm awake. Waking up regularly is sucky because there's no deep sleep and nothing gets done.

My eyes are bothering me. Still just the general blurry/hard to focus crap. It's not made much better by eight hours in front of a computer every day. My computer at home doesn't get turned on during the week anymore. Poor thing. I just don't have a need for it at the moment. By the end of the day my eyes hate me.

Coherency is also still out the window somewhat. Typing gets redone, backspaced, deleted. Talking comes out half gibberish half the time. Sometimes I just shouldn't talk. Sometimes I can't. That's fun. And others I can't think of simple words, like desk and chair and window. They get replaced with "thing" and pointed to.

Off to get blood tests again this afternoon. I get to see the meany person next Tuesday after work and he wants blood tests done. Hate needles. Hate doctors. Hate afternoon traffic. Grrr....

On the upside, I have less than a week before I tell the doctor that either he takes me off the enemas or I take myself off them. I've had enough of them, I really have. They're time consuming, always uncomfortable, often painful, sometimes to the point of wiping out all messages my brain is trying to send to my body, and quite honestly, I'm fed up of having things shoved the wrong way up my butt. Not. Happy. Jan.

I'm to the point now where I tend to end up laughing a bit, because otherwise I'll cry. And I don't even try to stop my brain coming out with silly things. Like this morning, when my first thought upon entering the bathroom was, "Let's see what the Pimple Fairy left for us today". I tend to be a bit more sensible than that, but no. Sensible? Out the window! Clearly, my brain recognises that I need amusement above anything else, particularly at that hour of the morning.

Poo is back to it's usual self (by usual, I mean that which it has been more often than not in the past couple of weeks). No slime (thank the Gods!), no blood. Maybe it was just a one off, catch up/retaliation for the MacDonalds? Hoping so. And yes readers, I will proceed to talk occasionally about poo, farts and all things gross involving the gut and the butt. Have fun reading!

No kitten. I'm sure I'll eventually get tired of looking. In a year or two. :P