pills for the rest of my life, now I feel old
Now that I'm feeling more myself again, head's a bit clearer and I'm not reeling over my sister's diagnosis I thought I'd actually explain why I've been absent for so long.
So. Yes. I've been in the hospital for about two weeks. Got released on Friday. I'm now officially diagnosed with Crohn's disease. The link goes to the wikipedia entry for it, because it's a perfectly okay description of what I have. The short explanation is that it's an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (which is exactly what it sounds like, my bowels are inflamed). There's no cure for it, but with medication and a generally healthy lifestyle it can lie dormant for years and you shouldn't have any great problems. Sometimes it flares up and if it gets really bad you might just end up in a hospital bed for two weeks getting all your nutrition from an IV, because you cannot eat or drink anything at all (that's pretty much what happened to me). There are some annoying side effects too, but nothing really major. All in all, not fun, but it should be quite manageable.
I'm not completely over the acute stage of the disease yet, but it's getting there. I can eat stuff now at least. Some stuff anyway (the kind that is all mushy and suchlike). Still eating quite a lot of meds (but then I'll be eating some of them for the rest of my life) and since my hemoglobin is still quite low (among other things), I'm still kind of weak. But generally speaking I'm pretty okay.
Not a disease people usually talk about I suppose, since it's about your bowels and such. But hey, I don't really care. Not like I can do anything about it, it just happens.
I might end up writing a bit more about my hospital stay. I have lots of stuff to say at least. But right now it's my brother's birthday and I'm quite determined to have enough energy to pay him a visit. At least a short one (thankfully dad's picking me up, because determined or not, there's no way I'd manage to get myself there on my own.) And since I'm still feeling like a good breeze might knock me over, I think no one will mind if I'm wearing comfy I'm-feeling-like-crap clothes instead of anything nice. It's just my sister, my parents and me anyway and they all know I'm feeling like crap anyway.
So. Yes. I've been in the hospital for about two weeks. Got released on Friday. I'm now officially diagnosed with Crohn's disease. The link goes to the wikipedia entry for it, because it's a perfectly okay description of what I have. The short explanation is that it's an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (which is exactly what it sounds like, my bowels are inflamed). There's no cure for it, but with medication and a generally healthy lifestyle it can lie dormant for years and you shouldn't have any great problems. Sometimes it flares up and if it gets really bad you might just end up in a hospital bed for two weeks getting all your nutrition from an IV, because you cannot eat or drink anything at all (that's pretty much what happened to me). There are some annoying side effects too, but nothing really major. All in all, not fun, but it should be quite manageable.
I'm not completely over the acute stage of the disease yet, but it's getting there. I can eat stuff now at least. Some stuff anyway (the kind that is all mushy and suchlike). Still eating quite a lot of meds (but then I'll be eating some of them for the rest of my life) and since my hemoglobin is still quite low (among other things), I'm still kind of weak. But generally speaking I'm pretty okay.
Not a disease people usually talk about I suppose, since it's about your bowels and such. But hey, I don't really care. Not like I can do anything about it, it just happens.
I might end up writing a bit more about my hospital stay. I have lots of stuff to say at least. But right now it's my brother's birthday and I'm quite determined to have enough energy to pay him a visit. At least a short one (thankfully dad's picking me up, because determined or not, there's no way I'd manage to get myself there on my own.) And since I'm still feeling like a good breeze might knock me over, I think no one will mind if I'm wearing comfy I'm-feeling-like-crap clothes instead of anything nice. It's just my sister, my parents and me anyway and they all know I'm feeling like crap anyway.