Long Time No See...

Well it's been a while.  Things have been pretty good, until the last few weeks at least, so I guess that's why I'm back in the blog-o-sphere.  Always thought I'd keep blogging even when things were good.  Guess I didn't after all.  Anyways.

The last year and a bit has been pretty amazing actually.  I've had cold after cold but the Crohn's has been fairly under control, thanks to the wonder drug Humira.  I've had luck at work, I've been on secondment for the last 12 months, and I love the team I'm in.  The people are brilliant, the work is good and the pay is pretty damned sweet.

Today also marks 12 months since I exchanged contracts on my house.  :)  Worked hard, and got pretty much everything I had ever asked for in a house.  A large block, a good house, a good location.  Pretty lucky.

And to top it off a pretty amazing man walked into my life last July.  He's a pillar of strength, and I'm still awed every morning when I wake up and realise it's real, that he is here and it's not just a dream.  And the last few weeks I've needed his shoulders to cry on and he's been unfaltering in his support.

A few weeks ago I was carted off to hospital with chest pains, which thankfully have turned out to not be heart related, but have left a bit of a mystery as to what has caused them.  The last few days that I was off work with the chest pains, I started getting the runs.  With slime.  And blood.  So off to the GI I went.  So far, about the best he can tell me is that it might be a flare.  Might.  The bloods all looked pretty good a while back when I first started feeling bad.  Not sure what they're like at the moment, see the GI again in a bit over a week.  In the meantime I'm on the beloved flagyl.  So of course the stomach pain is worse, the 16 imodium I've had in the last 48 hours has doesn't nothing, the blood and the slime and the gas and the bloating has all gotten worse, and let's not forget the vomiting and nausea.  Bad enough that I'm now off work, unpaid, due to the side effects of the flagyl.  And the GI is insistent that I remain on the flagyl.  At least I don't have the metallic taste in my mouth this time.

The next step is back on the prednisone in addition to the Humira.  I'm dreading it.  When the GI told me that on the phone I had a minor panic attack, for want of better words.  All I could do was sit there and cry and rock for a while.  And all the while I know that that's where I'm going to end up.  The flagyl just isn't working, and I'm so pissed off that the GI is telling me I have to stay on it when all it's doing is resulting in me facing the possibility of not meeting a house repayment.

I feel almost like I'm back at the beginning of Crohn's.  I feel I'm facing the unknown again.  I don't know what's even happening a the moment.  All I know is I'm in pain, mostly made worse by the flagyl.  And the doc won't take me off it until he throws me back on the pred.  And if that doesn't work?  Facing maybe the possibility of surgery.

I dunno.  Just feeling lost, so I guess I'm back here again for a bit.

Might take a holiday, but I guess you won't see the end of me for a while yet.

Ow! Not fair!

So I spent most of the night tossing and turning and barely sleeping and dealing with major gas issues. Crawled out of bed this morning, made it to the kitchen and just about curled up on the floor in agony. Pain in a very specific spot (not sure if the place is significant or not, just very pin pointable location) in the lower right part of my abdomen which I'd rate about a 12 out of 10, and more pain at about an 8 out of 10 in about the same spot that hurts when I have the enemas. Pain in my knee was ignorable (which is a first) as I tried to not collapse on the floor. So I sat curled up on the balls of my feet for a minute or so. Options were, fall on floor and not move, or try and stand up and soldier on. Seeing as I have work today, falling on the floor sadly wasn't an option. Pain subsided gradually but there's still a vague niggle of it there now, and this was nearly three hours ago.

A few fingers are a bit sore today, and my wrists, and elbow, and shoulders, and knee, and toes (seriously, wtf?), but I've brought two wheat bags with me today, so I'll heat them up soon and vary where they go. See if I can't make the old hag go away for a bit.

Yeah, I've kinda started referring to it as that. At least in my mind. The name sounds like crone, which always sparks an image of an old hag in my mind, so all the aches and pains and oh dear Gods! moments I think can safely be lumped together into the image of an old hag. Horrible woman who shouldn't burden a 21 year old. I should whack her with her own cane, then we'll see who really owns this body.

Dad's managed to get himself a cold. This is dad, who never gets colds. Me on the other hand, I pick up every single bug that goes around. So I'm having fun trying to avoid this one because I figure if it can take my dad down, it can easilly take me, particularly seeing as the prednisone is an immunosuppressant (don't know how that's spelt, don't overly care).

Speaking of meds, up to my full dosage of Salofalk now. 6 tabs a day, which total 3 grams of the important stuff. Total of 10 tabs a day of stuff to try and treat this, plus the enemas. Oh yeah, plus the crap he's gonna prescribe me next time I see him.

Treatment wise, 2 weeks down, how many to go?

Off to heat up the wheat bags now. Bye!