I hate to rush time, but is it January yet?
I can tell that if I didn't have my monthly visitor right now, I'd be feeling great!! What a way to start a blog huh? Sorry if it's TMI but that's just how I feel right now. I spent all day yesterday curled up in the fetal position on my couch watching tv. I wish I was doing the same thing today but it's Monday so I'm at work and then it's my weekly trip to BIDMC for blood work and then off to school until 10 so I won't find the comfort of my bed until around 11pm tonight. Next week is my last week of school!!!! I can't wait to be able to just go home after work on a Monday night. Of course I will be going to the gym, not just sitting on my bum, but still, I'll be home for dinner and bed at a reasonable hour.
Friday's visit with The Doc went easier than I thought it would. First thing he asked me is "what's new and exciting?" and I said "Well..." and told him about stopping the Pentasa and how much better I was feeling. He wasn't very happy about it and explained to me that if I have a major flare we will have to go back to the beginning, steroids, weight gain, etc. etc. I said, I'll take the risk. I am up to the full dose of the long term med now and it will take about 2-3 months for it to get up to speed and then I should be good to go. As long as I am very very good about my diet then I should make it through without a problem. He said ok, I can see I'm not going to convince you otherwise so let's try it. But if you have ANY problems, call me right away. WOOHOO!! So I'm down to one medication, taken once a day, at night before I go to bed. It comes with some risks but I've done my homework and the risks are slim and the day to day side effects are virtually nothing. Of course Friday is starred on my calendar as you-know-what-day of the month and oh boy am I like clockwork. But I'm kinda glad to get it out of the way now because it will allow me to really see how my body feels over the next four weeks before my next appointment. I just hope this feeling of my lower half being stuck in a vice goes away relatively quickly. Yesterday was the worst, today is much better, I should be in the clear by Wednesday, just in time for kickboxing.
Speaking of which, I did go to kickboxing on Saturday and was very glad that I did. It felt great, I had no trouble, no weakness, I'm a little rusty since I hadn't been going very consistently for awhile but that won't last. I even went in on Sunday for some cardio and strength but I only made it through 20 minutes of cardio before I had to stop and go home and submit to the couch. Isn't exercise supposed to help?! Not this weekend.
Saturday I went to a birthday party for my twin cousins and my Mom was asking how the docs visit went and she asked if I'm going to pursue more Celiac testing. I said at this point, no. I'm going gluten free regardless so what's the point? I know there are a lot of valid reasons to keep pushing the testing and get a final confirming yay or nay but I've been through so much this year already and I know how much better I feel off of gluten, why bother having a tube shoved down my throat? I know that gluten free is better for Crohn's too and that it's very likely that my Crohn's is a result of Celiac and that my other symptoms point to Celiac too (rashes, infections, etc) but at this point I'm done with testing. I'm ok with the medication regiment I'm on now. I have faith that I'm going to start getting a lot better at this point so let's just let it be. I'll be concerned when I have children but I'll watch them carefully and make sure they get the appropriate tests if needed. That's a long way off anyway. My uncle was asking me exactly what Crohn's is and he says "so have you got the gluten completely out of your system?" and I had to be honest and say no, but I'm kinda glad he called me out. I'm MUCH better than I was in April when I started this blog but it still sneaks in here and there. Today I haven't had any gluten in I don't know how many days, (a lot!) and I plan on keeping it that way.
I have four more weeks of bloodwork and then another meetup with the Doc on January 6th and then after that I go to once a month bloodwork and once every 3 months Doc visits for a year. I'm really looking forward to next year, this year has sucked royally. But it was all worth it because hopefully next year I'll feel better than I have in 15 years. I may still look into the holistic approach but for right now, I'm going to keep things as they are. I need to just give my mind and body a rest for a while!!
I was talking to Allie last week and she asked me if I had been noticing any patterns with my diet and how I feel. I was glad she made that point because yes, there are, and one of them is all the sugar I've been consuming. I blame the holidays but I'm going to try and stop doing so much baking and focus on more healthy foods. I'm sure I'll be posting a few sweet recipes here and there but for the most part I hope to be blogging more about healthy meal ideas and that sort of thing. Plus my journey back to fitness, I'm really looking forward to losing these 20 pounds and getting my shape back! The picture of me on the upper right corner was taken July of 07 and I was looking great then, I'm hoping to be back to that shape by my birthday, Memorial Day Weekend 09!!!
Friday's visit with The Doc went easier than I thought it would. First thing he asked me is "what's new and exciting?" and I said "Well..." and told him about stopping the Pentasa and how much better I was feeling. He wasn't very happy about it and explained to me that if I have a major flare we will have to go back to the beginning, steroids, weight gain, etc. etc. I said, I'll take the risk. I am up to the full dose of the long term med now and it will take about 2-3 months for it to get up to speed and then I should be good to go. As long as I am very very good about my diet then I should make it through without a problem. He said ok, I can see I'm not going to convince you otherwise so let's try it. But if you have ANY problems, call me right away. WOOHOO!! So I'm down to one medication, taken once a day, at night before I go to bed. It comes with some risks but I've done my homework and the risks are slim and the day to day side effects are virtually nothing. Of course Friday is starred on my calendar as you-know-what-day of the month and oh boy am I like clockwork. But I'm kinda glad to get it out of the way now because it will allow me to really see how my body feels over the next four weeks before my next appointment. I just hope this feeling of my lower half being stuck in a vice goes away relatively quickly. Yesterday was the worst, today is much better, I should be in the clear by Wednesday, just in time for kickboxing.
Speaking of which, I did go to kickboxing on Saturday and was very glad that I did. It felt great, I had no trouble, no weakness, I'm a little rusty since I hadn't been going very consistently for awhile but that won't last. I even went in on Sunday for some cardio and strength but I only made it through 20 minutes of cardio before I had to stop and go home and submit to the couch. Isn't exercise supposed to help?! Not this weekend.
Saturday I went to a birthday party for my twin cousins and my Mom was asking how the docs visit went and she asked if I'm going to pursue more Celiac testing. I said at this point, no. I'm going gluten free regardless so what's the point? I know there are a lot of valid reasons to keep pushing the testing and get a final confirming yay or nay but I've been through so much this year already and I know how much better I feel off of gluten, why bother having a tube shoved down my throat? I know that gluten free is better for Crohn's too and that it's very likely that my Crohn's is a result of Celiac and that my other symptoms point to Celiac too (rashes, infections, etc) but at this point I'm done with testing. I'm ok with the medication regiment I'm on now. I have faith that I'm going to start getting a lot better at this point so let's just let it be. I'll be concerned when I have children but I'll watch them carefully and make sure they get the appropriate tests if needed. That's a long way off anyway. My uncle was asking me exactly what Crohn's is and he says "so have you got the gluten completely out of your system?" and I had to be honest and say no, but I'm kinda glad he called me out. I'm MUCH better than I was in April when I started this blog but it still sneaks in here and there. Today I haven't had any gluten in I don't know how many days, (a lot!) and I plan on keeping it that way.
I have four more weeks of bloodwork and then another meetup with the Doc on January 6th and then after that I go to once a month bloodwork and once every 3 months Doc visits for a year. I'm really looking forward to next year, this year has sucked royally. But it was all worth it because hopefully next year I'll feel better than I have in 15 years. I may still look into the holistic approach but for right now, I'm going to keep things as they are. I need to just give my mind and body a rest for a while!!
I was talking to Allie last week and she asked me if I had been noticing any patterns with my diet and how I feel. I was glad she made that point because yes, there are, and one of them is all the sugar I've been consuming. I blame the holidays but I'm going to try and stop doing so much baking and focus on more healthy foods. I'm sure I'll be posting a few sweet recipes here and there but for the most part I hope to be blogging more about healthy meal ideas and that sort of thing. Plus my journey back to fitness, I'm really looking forward to losing these 20 pounds and getting my shape back! The picture of me on the upper right corner was taken July of 07 and I was looking great then, I'm hoping to be back to that shape by my birthday, Memorial Day Weekend 09!!!
Comments
I have a goal of my wedding day (which is just after Memorial Day 09) to get in tip-top shape and feel my best; feel free to get on my case if I'm ever slacking at the gym. :)
glad your appointment went well! It sounds like you're getting close to getting where you need to be :)
hey - did you like those other GF english muffins? they weren't TOO expensive were they?? which brand were they?