Records

Did you know that you are allowed access to your medical records? I have all my records dating back to 1978 and every piece of paperwork since I was diagnosed in 1989. From my doctors office and the hospital visits and admissions. The hospital ones are free but my doctor charged me 10cents per copy. The hospital ones are very very interesting becuase everything is included in the package including your surgery, nurses notes, etc. It's amusing sometimes what the nurses actually write about you.

Post Christmas

Hope everyone had a great day, I did. Like I said before, I ate, but moderation. Nanaimo bars, brownies, butter tarts, mince tarts, cake, turkey....etc. This morning?, I'm fine. I even had a rum and coke and some wine with dinner. As long as you eat something with it, it usually is fine. I still can't sit properly as the abcess is STILL draining, good and bad at the same time. All in all, a great day, for a Crohns guy

Christmas

Well, it's that time of year again, Christmas. And from that I mean food. For me, turkey is about the worst thing to eat because turkey meat causes gas, as does brussel sprouts, onions and cauliflower. Not to mention the wine to wash it down with. What do I do? What the hell, EAT! It's once a year and yes, I'll pay for it in the morning. Is it worth it? YES! It's Christmas for gods sake. But you still have to make sure you don't OVER do it and end up in hospital. Turkey?.....goooood Hospital?.......baaaaaaaaaad.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Questions.........?

I'm open to any and all questions about my experiences with Crohns, if you have any. And I will try and answer them the best I can.

Drugs

Well, I don't know what everyone else is taking, but again, it's a trial and error thing. Whatever drug, or drugs, works. For me it's Salofalk and Prednisone. I'm on 2000mg/day of Salofalk and 5mg/day of Prednisone. They seem to work for me, but others haven't. I've tried Didrical for calcium, but that just gave me kidney stones....lot's of fun those! Remicade is the new one, but there is too much evidence that it can cause cancer, liver and kidney failure and death.....so not for me yet.

All I Want For Christmas...........

........is to be able to sit down! All I've been doing for the past 3 weeks is either laying or standing. I'm getting sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Well, let's talk about diet for a minute and in particular drinks.

You can basically drink anything you want as long as you can tolerate it. But, having said that, you have to remember that as soon as anything hits your tongue, your whole digestive tract starts working. And that's from your mouth down to your a$$, literally. So, for me, I can tolerate just about anything without pain, but I pay for it in the frequency of bowels movements. I can drink hard liqour as long as it's mixed with something and one glass of wine, but I can't drink beer. Pop is bad as it's made with a syrup as well as milk as I'm lactose intolerant. The best thing you can drink and not have any symptoms is water. Plain, simple water.

Thanks

Was thinking today at just how lucky I am. Maybe not with my disease, but with the friends and family that support and help me and my wife and kids. I thank my wife for being there for me when things go bad and for sticking with me after these hard times when I'm off work and am healing. I'm a lucky lucky guy.
I'm healing up nicely, just taking too long as usual. I was going through my medical records and realized that in my 21 years of having Crohn's, I've been hospitalized 24 times. This time, the surgeon told me to seriously consider getting an ostomy (bag). I still don't like the idea, but maybe in the long run, it'll help with the abcesses. More surgery is on the cards for me.

History

Let's see.......what to say, where to start. I guess the most important thing is, know matter what anyone tells you, including doctor's, specialists, books, articles, web sites, etc., only YOU know what you can tolerate as far as food and alcohol is concerned. Everyone is different when it comes to Chron's disease. It's a trial and error thing. You'll find out on your own what you can tolerate. And after all that, things you could tolerate one day, you can't on another day. Basically, you have to learn from what your body tells you.
I just got out of hospital, again, after 8 days. I had a deep perianal abcess that they treated in hospital with antibiotics first, and after a few days, I went into surgery to cut it open. They don't sew it up either. So, I have a Timbit size hole on my a$$ that's continually draining, which is good, but bad too as I cannot sit down still. Perianal abcesses are another side effect of Chron's as are fistulas and kidney stones, both I have and get. I have about 12 inches of large bowel left and have had about 5 feet of small removed over numerous surgeries over the years. My last resection was in 2004 in which I was in hospital for 3 weeks due to infections, another pleasent side effect.
Having said all that, remember......Chron's affect everyone differently

Hello

I started this blog for me, to help me vent, but at the same time maybe help someone else along the way.
I'm 41 years old and was diagnosed with Crohn's's in 1988 after about 8 months of seeing doctor after doctor (7 in all) trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me. I was suffering very painful abdominal pain, every 5 - 10 minutes, couldn't stop going to the bathroom and was losing weight at an astonishing rate. I used to joke that if I could bottle what was happening to me as far as losing weight, I'd be a billionaire!