Friday, May 17, 2013

Funny Thing Happened At The GI Office.......

I had my 6 month check up with my Gastro this week and basically....I still have Crohn's.

During my 15 minute chat, I discovered that I was actually contributing to my dehydration.  Yea, go figure.  Here all this time, I've been drinking tons of water, but I was forgetting one important thing.....I also need salt.  Yep, salt.  And when you think about it, it's true.  When you go in to hospital and they re-hydrate you, they give you basically salt water.  And all these years I've been avoiding salt.  Well you learn something everyday and after over 20 years of Crohn's, apparently I'm still learning.  So, now I snack on saltine's (with peanut butter) and a shake (or two) of salt on my dinner.  I still have to drink though as well.   I'll let you know if it works.

She can see from the tests that the Remicade seems to be working for the most part.  It has eliminated the pain but I still haven't gained weight.  Then she proceeded to tell me that I may have "topped out" at my current weight.  I may never get bigger than I am.  She recommended Carnation Instant Breakfast, but also made suggestions on different ways of using it, like in yogurt, soups etc.  Even watering down Boost and drinking it throughout the day instead of all at once.  I find that if I drink one of those little bottles, I'm heading to the bathroom and "urinate out my ass"!  So it looks as though I'm going to be stuck at 145 - 150lbs.

Other than that, I'm going to get my colon scan in Sept to get a closer look to see if the Remicade is working......let's hope.  Last time, which was almost 2 years ago, she couldn't even get the tube inside a few inches from all the inflammation and scarring. 

Let's hope there's light at the end of the tunnel.

1 comment:

Cj said...

"...light at the end of the tunnel." How apropos!!??!!

BUT keep up the good news!
And remember there are gallons of fresh salt water FREE near where I live!!!