So we have covered my infertility, started to talk about baking, now I am going to tell you about my Crohn's disease. And let me tell you, it is not pleasant, so if you are eating right now or have a weak stomach, you might want to just skip this entry.
OK first the technical scientific info. Crohn's Disease is one type of a group of diseases called IBD, Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It is an inflammatory autoimmune disease. Basically Crohn's causes your immune system to attack your GI tract causing it to become inflamed.
I could go into great detail about how i got diagnosed, but this post would take an hour to read. Let's just say it took 3 months, four hospitalizations, lots and lots of vomiting, every test you can imagine that involves drinking radioactive material or shoving cameras where they really shouldn't go. And then finally i was diagnosed with Crohn's Ileitis, which basically means that the section of my bowel where the small intestine meets the large intestine gets inflamed and hence back up and vomiting.
Now normally this disease doesn't bother me much. I get IV infusions of a drug called Remicade every 8 weeks and it pretty much has kept me in remission for the past two years. Unfortunately lately I have been having some issues. I have been having some stomach pain and nausea, my GI thinks it may just be another stomach issue, perhaps related to having my gallbladder removed. But it has been getting in the way of my life this week. The past two days I have been on an almost entirely liquid diet to help avoid pain and inflammation. It is hard to do much work when you have to run to the bathroom every five minutes for obvious reasons. Hopefully the new drugs the GI doc gave me will help though.
And to add insult to injury, I have a bulging disk in my lower back. Awesome. So it hurts to do anything but lay down on a heating pad, including running to the bathroom or sitting on a toilet.
Yup, my life rocks; bad back, Crohn's disease, blocked right tube and lazy left ovary. Oy.
Yikes! That is not a fun disease to have. One of my BILs has IBD...I think it is ulcerative colitis. He has a heck of a time with it but does manage it. Good luck with TTC! And I really enjoy reading your blog! Those cupcakes sound so yummy and inspired me to make cupcakes today!
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