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A new doctor for my Crohn’s disease

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I saw a new doctor about my Crohn’s disease the other day. He’s an internist rather than a gastrointernologist like I usually see. I haven’t decided yet whether I’m happy with the new doctor or not.

He wants me to go back and start from the beginning on my meds. This weekend I’ll start trying a new Crohn’s drug – well not a new drug, but new to me. It’s worth a try … I just hope that I can afford it! My gastrointernologist had taken me off most of my Crohn’s meds a while ago because he was convinced they weren’t working … duh! No matter how much I told him they were helping … hey I was still working! When I got taken off the other meds I got so sick I had to stop working and I’ve been on medical leave ever since (4 years!).

So if the new meds work, maybe in a few months I can go back to work in the ER. I hope so! I’d actually started to give up hope of ever returning to work again.

He also wants me to try taking Metamucil again. I’ve tried it in the past but didn’t have much good to say about it as it seems to bind me up too much rather than help … odd since my problem is the opposite reason most people take Metamucil! Anyway, I’ve started using it once a day but only using a teaspoon full instead of a heaping tablespoon as the directions state. Maybe that will help.

It’s weird. Ever since I saw the new doctor earlier this week I keep seeing ads for Bowtrol review. Very strange. A colon cleanse is the last thing I need! LOL

Anyway .. don’t you hate it when you have to see a new doctor? Whether it’s a new family doctor or a specialist? I do. I hate going over my medical history and all the meds I’m on or that I’ve tried in the past for my Crohn’s.





My back is screaming!

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It was such a nice day here in Toronto that my husband and I decided to take the dog outside in the backyard and do some yard work.

We had actually started raking the lawn and tidying up the yard a little bit early last Monday evening, but now I can say that the backyard garden is cleaned of old dead leaves and foliage and looks great. Now we just have to clean up our very tiny front yard and our planted boulevard and the Spring cleaning will be done. At least outside …

I feel good having spent several hours working outside today, but my back HATES me right now!

I’ve had an aching back for over a year. I finally got one of my doctors to send me for an xray two weeks ago and just as I thought I’ve got a slipped disk. I’ve been doing back exercises to ease my pain and sleeping with two pillows under my legs at night … and it’s helped, but my back is still pretty bad. Gardening for over 4 hours today will not help at all.

I almost wish that we had a sleep number bed so I could play around with it and maybe find a bed hardness or softness that my back likes. Our mattress is very hard, but maybe it’s too hard. If I don’t sleep with those pillows under my legs I can barely get out of bed in the morning.

Once I came inside this evening I took some Advil and a Tylenol and put a heating pad on my back. I also took some Advil before I went out to work in the garden … but still .. my back is really hurting. I have a feeling that it will be worse tomorrow. Plus I’ll likely have some stiff muscles from all the bending, twisting and odd positions I was in as I tried to clean out my garden beds.

I’ll bet that most people don’t think that gardening is much of a workout, but try doing it for four hours – bending, stretching, lifting things … oh yeah, it’s exercise.

Do you have any aches and pains from doing Spring related activities?

One health crisis after another

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This has been a busy week for me. I’ve had two doctors appointments, one medical test and a ton of computer work to do! I’m glad the week is almost over.

I guess it doesn’t help that I’m not feeling well. (As usual). My Crohn’s is just in a constant flare and my back … well that’s another story … it had been feeling a lot better over the last few weeks, but I must have done something to it yesterday morning before walking to one of my doctors appointments and the next thing I know my lower back is spasming and aching. It’s still acting up, but not as bad as yesterday.

For some reason my pain doctor weighs me every time I see her (usually once a month). I hate it, but for the first time in a while I got some god news when she did her weigh in – I’d lost 8 pounds since my last visit! Yeah! Maybe I’ll be back in fighting form by early summer. Yeah! I even ran into a nurse that I worked with in the ER and she asked me if I’d found a diet pill that works. LOL Nope – just eating healthy (as per normal) and trying to be a little more active. It’s probably the slight increase in activity that helped.

Of course I could be losing weight due to the Crohn’s disease. I once lost something like 35 pounds in one month and it was at a time when I didn’t need to lose an ounce! I could have also lost a few pounds because of my thyroid … I only have half my thyroid due to a precancerous tumor that I had removed – oh … 20 years ago, but the other day I noticed that the right side of my neck, where the remaining half of my thyroid is seems to be slightly swollen so when I went to see the doctor yesterday I asked her to take a look at my neck. She thought it was a little puffy too and sent me for an ultrasound.

The talkative ultrasound tech let me know that my remaining thyroid tissue has several nodules in it and that’s a kick in the ass ’cause I take synthetic thyroid replacement medicine and that’s supposed to help keep a tumor or nodules from reoccurring. So .. I’ve got new nodules in there … so now i might be looking at more precancerous or cancer growths and I might end up having to have surgery to have the rest of my thyroid removed. Fantastic. NOT.

It just seems that it’s once thing after another with my health this year- the constant Crohn’s flares, a slipped disc in my back and now growths in my thyroid that might mean I’ll have to have surgery. What else might happen?

Poked and prodded

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Today turned out to be busy!

My husband usually has Mondays off and works the rest of the week, but he did someone a favor and traded shifts so he worked on Monday and had today off instead. Good timing on the switch as I had a doctors appointment in the afternoon and if I had taken the subway as I’d planned to do it would have taken me well over an hour to get there. Instead it only took about 15 minutes by car!

I’ve been seeing my family doctor and other doctors fairly regularly because my Crohn’s just won’t settle down … plus I had to go in today to get another shot of Depro Provera. No I’m not using it as birth control – even though that is how it’s working on my system … we’re trying it out to see if takes care of my endometriosis. I’ve been on it for almost a year now and since I don’t get my period while I’m on it I’ll have to say it helped because now I don’t have those horrible horrible period pains that were almost making me pass out in pain prior to my starting Depro Provera.

The only bad side-effect is that it’s caused me to gain at least 10 additional pounds … since I have Crohns that’s not too bad (Crohn’s tends to make you lose weight!), but still … I don’t like the extra weight – not at all. Hmmm maybe I should try some Solo Slim ?

I’ve also been having a lot of trouble with my back lately. I’d say it’s been hurting more and more for over a year – especially if I walk a few blocks or do house cleaning like sweeping or vacuuming. I think it’s because I tend to lean forward a little bit when I do those things. Anyway, my back goes into spasms that get worse and worse until i lie down and let my back muscles rest.

At the beginning of February – when my husband was in the hospital with a heart problem – I did a lot of walking back and forth to the hospital. I was carrying things back and forth as well. I think that did my back in … because sometime during those first few days of the month my left thigh went numb and now my whole left leg is pretty numb. I have Vitamin D deficiency too so that might be affecting the bones in my back.

So in addition to seeing the doctor today we also made a trip to the hospitals x-ray department and had my lower back x-rayed.

Then it was off to a drug store to pick up some digestive enzymes. Since my bowels are inflamed due to the Crohn’s disease it’s causing me not to digest some of the foods I eat very well. I also don’t digest some of the pills I have to take each day either … so I’m going to try taking digestive enzymes for a while and see if helps at all.

Finally after being out for about four hours we arrived back home. I didn’t get to rest my sore back though … my husband wanted me to edit one of his posts and he always seems to have trouble resizing photos and then adding them to his blog. I’ve even written out directions but he seems to always need my help. Arghhhh! It’s not that hard – right?

I think I”m just going to relax for the rest of the evening. God knows I need to recover from being poked and prodded all day! LOL But first – dinner! I made a roast yesterday so we’re going to have leftovers … easy!

NO to house guests!

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OMG … Chris’ parents are driving me nuts! Chris went back to work today for the first time since he was admitted to the hospital for his heart problems a week and a half ago.

Just like the last time he had heart problems I’ve been a little nervous about him going back to work, but he called me in the afternoon and said that he’d felt a little off when he first started, but had felt great the rest of the time.

Of course, his parents have also called several times today as well! As I said they are driving me nuts. I think they are expecting Chris to have problems and then be admitted to the hospital again … like that does anything for my worries!

Believe me, this time if anything does happen with Chris his parents can stay in one of those extended stay hotels with a kitchenette. I can’t have them invade my home again! Last Friday when Chris was admitted to the hospital they came down right away without even letting me know, so when I should have been trying to relax and get some food into me after spending hours at the hospital with Chris I was instead running around trying to clean up the house.

I get along with the in-laws ok … but they’ve done a few really bad things to Chris and I in the past so I really don’t like spending much time with them at all. I just don’t trust them.

Anyway .. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the rest of Chris’ shift went well and that he’ll be home here with me within the next half an hour. I’ve already got dinner cooking so we can eat shortly after he gets home.

How do you feel about your in-laws and no-notice extended visits? Do you get along with them well or do they drive you nuts like mine do to me?

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