Crohns Disease — Page 3 — You are in My World Now

I hate being stuck at home on medical leave

November 17, 2009 by Tricia

I’ve been off work due to Crohn’s for going on five years now. It’s tough being on medical leave from a job you love for so long. I’m sick of feeling sick all of the time and frankly I’m more than a little bored.

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I’ll be returning to work any time soon. I’m just not getting better. I tried a new medication this month that was supposed to help lower my pain levels and of course I ended up getting hives and having other reactions to it … so, so much for that. Too bad too, because I think it was helping a bit!

So now my doctor wants me to put in a new disability appeal. I did that the first year I was off work but they turned me down, but now that I’ve been off for so long my doctor thinks I might have a chance at getting disability coverage from work … so I might give it a try.

It was so disappointing last time when I was turned down though. That’s one reason why I put off trying again. So wish me luck!

So much for going out on long walks!

October 30, 2009 by Tricia

Now that the weather is getting cooler I was thinking of taking the dog out for long walks more often.

I have Crohn’s and my health isn’t all that good and walking in warm weather only seems to make me feel worse. However, we just found out some scary news about our new renter neighbors so I don’t feel good about leaving the house empty on a regular basis.

I’ve gained a little bit of weight while I’ve been off work due to my illness. Mainly because I feel so crappy most of the time that I’m just not active enough … but it’s only a little extra weight … I’m certain that if I could just get more active I’d be back in shape in no time. Certainly I don’t need a weight loss product just more exercise.

The trouble is that we learned the new neighbor has a history of breaking into houses! So uhm … it’s a good thing that I’m home almost all the time!

I guess if I do start going out for walks more often I’ll alter the times I go out so there’s no regularity to what I’m doing – just in case their keeping track. Doesn’t that suck that we have neighbors we can’t trust?

Damn acid reflux!

October 8, 2009 by Tricia

I’ve had a rough time over the last week or two with my Crohn’s. It’s acting up really bad, but … on top of that I’m also having acid reflux. Prior to this long Crohn’s flare (4 years and counting!) I never had acid problems, but now it seems that I do.

Most of the antacid drugs (prescription and over the counter) don’t work for me so I have a hard time managing the acid reflux. A drug called Pariet seems to work best, but as luck would have it my prescriptions run out. Grrrrr so I’m stuck trying to use over the counter Zantac and Gaviscon to counter the acid.

I had an acid attack that was really bad this afternoon. The pain starts in my chest and goes up my neck and into my face. My first line of attack when I feel this kind of pain is to immediately drink a glass or two of water. In the past one or two glasses of water would usually calm it down, but lately I have to drink five or six glasses of water just to dull the pain. Believe me, I’d rather read colon cleanser reviews instead of having these seemingly unprovoked acid attacks!

Last night I cooked a pasta with chicken and pasta sauce for dinner and I’ve come to realize that tomato sauce seems to be one of my acid triggers. The odd thing is that I don’t get indigestion or acid reflux shortly after eating something like tomato sauce … it’s the next day or even the day after that! Weird huh?

Anyway .. as I said today’s acid attack was bad. My throat still feels burnt. You know like when you throw up when your stomach is empty and all you bring up is bile and your throat feels raw afterwords? I even feel like I can smell and taste the acid.

If anyone out there has some suggestions as to how I can stop these acid attacks (non-medicinal tips and tricks) I’d love to hear it. Maybe there are some mild foods that I can eat that won’t trigger the acid? That would be good – as long as they are ones that don’t make my Crohn’s worse too.

How do sick people stay in shape?

September 26, 2009 by Tricia

I’m so frustrated. I keep wanting to get back into a fitness routine, but because of my Crohn’s I just can’t seem to get started.

Seriously. Right now my right side is aching so bad that I can barely walk around my house let alone think about picking up the ‘ol Kettlebell and start doing a bit of a work out.

Seriously – how does a person with a chronic illness that keeps acting up manage to stay in shape? I certainly haven’t found a way!

Luckily I was fairly active in the summer – getting out and walking more and of course doing work in my garden. Believe me … when I work in my garden it is a workout because I’ll stay out there digging and stretching over the raised garden beds until I get whatever job I’m working on done … sometimes I’m out there for eight hours at a time – even if I’m in excruciating pain! I call it extreme gardening. LOL

Now that the weather is beginning to get a little cooler I want to try to find a way to stay active and in shape indoors. Yeah I could go out and walk or even jog in the winter, but when it’s -25 Celsius out and there’s three feet of snow that’s not really the best kind of activity.

As usual I’m going to hope that this pain goes away so that I can do something that keeps me active. I certainly have enough fitness equiptment in the house to get me in shape. I just need to feel well enough to use it.

Losing weight again

September 23, 2009 by Tricia

I was at the doctors yesterday and as usual she made me do my monthly weigh in. Why she weighs me every visit I don’t know … maybe she’s afraid that with my Crohn’s I’ll have a sudden drop of weight … it’s happened before.

The worst Crohn’s related weight loss I had was shortly after we moved into our house back in 2001. I lost 40 lb in one month! Worst of all was the fact that I didn’t need to lose any weight so I was really really skinny … like underwear falling off skinny. LOL I certainly didn’t need to use diet pills that year!

The ironic thing is that I’ve been in a Crohn’s flare for over 5 years now (yeah it won’t settle down!) and I actually gained a bit of weight during this time … probably due to feeling so awful and not moving around as much. Also, some of the meds I was on caused me to gain a bit of weight. Luckily – over the last few visits at my doctors I’ve learned that that little bit of weight I gained is coming off and with any luck I’ll be back to the weight I should be for my height and body type very soon.

Now that I’ve started losing weight again I just hope that my body doesn’t go into overdrive and makes me loss it really fast. That would be unhealthy!