The Diseased
In January of 2008 I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. For those of you who really want to dig into it, you can go here. It's a chronic, auto-immune disease where your intestines become inflamed. They don't know what causes it and there is no cure. For me it basically means abdominal cramps, diarrhea and general discomfort. Because it is an auto-immune disease it can also manifest itself in other parts of the body, most likely in the joints.
Before I get into the details, let me first say that Crohn's affects the part of your body that our society tends to shun. Yes, there is the book "Everyone Poops" and there's a catchy diarrhea song but apparently girls never fart and even if they do, it definitely smells like rainbows and marshmallows. If you do not want to know the workings of my lower area, I would stop reading now.
Before all this started to happen I had a great digestive system. I could eat anything I wanted and my bowel movements were great, for lack of a better word. I rarely had constipation or diarrhea.
Let me start from the beginning. Right before Thanksgiving I started having awful gas. Like, surely my colon is rotting from the inside, gas. For Thanksgiving I planned a trip to Colorado to visit my aunt and uncle. My parents went as well but Walker did not. The first night we got there we went to a restaurant, I had chicken and mashed potatoes, nothing big. For some reason that did NOT sit well with me. It basically felt like the food was just sitting in my stomach like a rock. The rest of the night I just laid in a recliner. I was still having really bad gas which is pretty uncomfortable when you are staying at someone else's house. The next day I got up and my mom and I went to Golden, Co. I was feeling so bad that day that we tracked down a doctor in the area. I get to the doctor and he says that I should stop eating lactose and gluten because I could be intolerant of either of them. You would think if someone delivered news like that, it would have been derived from solid medical examination. Nope, all he did was feel my stomach and told me I was constipated. He recommended taking milk of magnesia and not eating gluten or dairy products. Sorry, you just don't TELL someone that...and during Thanksgiving! So the rest of the week I tried my best to avoid both of those things. For Thanksgiving all I had was a little turkey and a little bit of potatoes...woo hoo! The next morning after Thanksgiving I took the milk of magnesia...boy was THAT a bad idea. I had diarrhea for pretty much 4 hours straight...and this was the day I was supposed to go skiing. It's not very fun to be running to the bathroom while you are trying to ski. Especially with all the ski gear on. Needless to say it was a crappy week.
Flash-forward a couple of weeks and Walker and I are on vacation, first going to Philly, then NYC, then Boston. You would think this would have been a great time, but as usual I was feeling like crap. One of the biggest problems was that since I was having diarrhea, my body was not absorbing the necessary nutrients to function. I was tired and cranky and by this time, I had completely lost my appetite. I'm also still having awful gas. Directly following this trip, we went to Austin for my company's Christmas party. I decide to go to the doctor there too. They weren't sure what I had, but they sent me to get a sonogram of my pelvic and stomach area. Everything came back normal.
So after the holidays I finally find a gastroenterologist in Atlanta. I am kind of like a guy when it comes to my health, I ignore symptoms until I can barely handle it anymore. Since Walker is such a supportive husband, he goes with me. We get there and I run through all of my past experiences with them. They ask me if I have blood in my stool. I said no, because I never saw any. They recommend that they check just in case. Because if I do, then things are more serious than they thought. So how do they check this you might ask? Oh, they stick their fingers up your butt and gather a "specimen". This was my quick introduction into other people touching my butt. And the best thing was Walker was there to experience it with me! The test came back positive. It was then recommended that I have a colonoscopy to check things out. The thing that sucks about a colonoscopy is not the procedure itself, but the prep-work. You have to completely clean out your colon. This means taking a diuretic. There is nothing weirder than having pure liquid come out of your butt. They put me out for the procedure which is awesome...I love anesthesia. I wake up and my doctor delivers the news. I have Crohn's. Oh, by the way it has no cure. Great!
Next entry - Dealing with Crohn's.
Before I get into the details, let me first say that Crohn's affects the part of your body that our society tends to shun. Yes, there is the book "Everyone Poops" and there's a catchy diarrhea song but apparently girls never fart and even if they do, it definitely smells like rainbows and marshmallows. If you do not want to know the workings of my lower area, I would stop reading now.
Before all this started to happen I had a great digestive system. I could eat anything I wanted and my bowel movements were great, for lack of a better word. I rarely had constipation or diarrhea.
Let me start from the beginning. Right before Thanksgiving I started having awful gas. Like, surely my colon is rotting from the inside, gas. For Thanksgiving I planned a trip to Colorado to visit my aunt and uncle. My parents went as well but Walker did not. The first night we got there we went to a restaurant, I had chicken and mashed potatoes, nothing big. For some reason that did NOT sit well with me. It basically felt like the food was just sitting in my stomach like a rock. The rest of the night I just laid in a recliner. I was still having really bad gas which is pretty uncomfortable when you are staying at someone else's house. The next day I got up and my mom and I went to Golden, Co. I was feeling so bad that day that we tracked down a doctor in the area. I get to the doctor and he says that I should stop eating lactose and gluten because I could be intolerant of either of them. You would think if someone delivered news like that, it would have been derived from solid medical examination. Nope, all he did was feel my stomach and told me I was constipated. He recommended taking milk of magnesia and not eating gluten or dairy products. Sorry, you just don't TELL someone that...and during Thanksgiving! So the rest of the week I tried my best to avoid both of those things. For Thanksgiving all I had was a little turkey and a little bit of potatoes...woo hoo! The next morning after Thanksgiving I took the milk of magnesia...boy was THAT a bad idea. I had diarrhea for pretty much 4 hours straight...and this was the day I was supposed to go skiing. It's not very fun to be running to the bathroom while you are trying to ski. Especially with all the ski gear on. Needless to say it was a crappy week.
Flash-forward a couple of weeks and Walker and I are on vacation, first going to Philly, then NYC, then Boston. You would think this would have been a great time, but as usual I was feeling like crap. One of the biggest problems was that since I was having diarrhea, my body was not absorbing the necessary nutrients to function. I was tired and cranky and by this time, I had completely lost my appetite. I'm also still having awful gas. Directly following this trip, we went to Austin for my company's Christmas party. I decide to go to the doctor there too. They weren't sure what I had, but they sent me to get a sonogram of my pelvic and stomach area. Everything came back normal.
So after the holidays I finally find a gastroenterologist in Atlanta. I am kind of like a guy when it comes to my health, I ignore symptoms until I can barely handle it anymore. Since Walker is such a supportive husband, he goes with me. We get there and I run through all of my past experiences with them. They ask me if I have blood in my stool. I said no, because I never saw any. They recommend that they check just in case. Because if I do, then things are more serious than they thought. So how do they check this you might ask? Oh, they stick their fingers up your butt and gather a "specimen". This was my quick introduction into other people touching my butt. And the best thing was Walker was there to experience it with me! The test came back positive. It was then recommended that I have a colonoscopy to check things out. The thing that sucks about a colonoscopy is not the procedure itself, but the prep-work. You have to completely clean out your colon. This means taking a diuretic. There is nothing weirder than having pure liquid come out of your butt. They put me out for the procedure which is awesome...I love anesthesia. I wake up and my doctor delivers the news. I have Crohn's. Oh, by the way it has no cure. Great!
Next entry - Dealing with Crohn's.