Category: Crohn’s

I spent the first half of February 2008 waiting to be disemboweled, which is a strange state of affairs. As such you might imagine I’d remember the time vividly, but I struggle to recall much beyond the thin, pink twilight walks from office to home, punctuated a bit more often than usual by a trip [...]

The Worst Thing that Ever Happened to Me, The Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me 2008 started out with one of those moments that one’s life pivots around, that one might reference as when everything changed. Before it: terror of my own devising. After it: a senescent, lessening terror based on real events and [...]

Today’s infusion of Remicade–my first–is all done with now. I was a bit antsy having to have this done at the Cancer Center at St. Vincent’s (I am quite sensitive to the discomfort and suffering of others; I was worried that the distress of those who are much worse off than I would make me [...]

The last few months have taught me that Crohn’s is a systemic disease. It doesn’t have a sense of place or boundaries. It’s not shy to start knocking the doors of my joints or steal energy from my mind or make me feel confused and broken. I’d sum up the biggest problem right now as: [...]

Voices of Crohns Disease – Well – Tara Parker-Pope – Health – New York Times Blog: “Today, “Patient Voices,’’ created by my colleague Karen Barrow, gives a voice to Crohn’s disease, featuring the stories of seven men and women who talk about living with the disorder.” Nice write-up today on Crohn’s on the New York [...]

I knew I’d been not quite myself, and that I’d been fighting off some low-grade blahs over the past few weeks. Our anniversary trip to Walla Walla wasn’t as wonderful as it could have been, for example, because I was tired and crampy and uninterested in wine tasting for the most part–a travesty*. But over [...]

It’s redeeming when one’s gastroenterologist comes into the room and, grave and serious though he tends to be, says “You look really skinny.” And that’s the theme of my current health situation, which is to say: optimistic. Since my dosage of prednisone has been reduced from 40mg to 5mg (and now I get to wean [...]

I went to the doctor this morning in a glum mood because I knew things weren’t quite as good as they were a few weeks ago, internally. About a week ago, I started feeling kind of bad in my tubes and I figured that was taps for getting off of the prednisone. Indeed. What is [...]

I am a geek and that’s what I do for a living, generally speaking. I am notoriously bad at sticking to any sort of routine, and I have a penchant for sleep. Early mornings make me feel hungover even when I’m in the best of health. Everything seems fuzzy and nauseated around dawn. That paleness [...]

Bah. The manyfold side effects of the prednisone I’m taking for the Crohn’s are coming home to roost. My face, subtly but surely, is starting to puff up like a melon. And my skin? Strange, fragile, soft and shiny. I’m self-conscious. To say nothing of the constant eating and its consequences. Bah! But this, too, [...]