Tired of today, and of Crohns

It’s been a long long day. I’m at work, it’s almost the end of day for most of us here but I am staying late tonight an extra hour to do our finishing tasks I feel like a zombie.

Yesterday I had my doctor’s appointment and unfortunately my inflammation has already gone up to 20, and that was blood work taken 1 day after stopping prednisone. I took more blood after my appointment and I’m seeing him again next week.

We sort of discussed what will happen if it shows that it’s still inflamed. Most likely I will be back on prednisone (super sad face) with imuran. I really, really don’t want to go back on prednisone. Monster me does not want to come back again. Plus there is side effects associated with long term use of prednisone (osteoporosis, diabetes, plus more), as well as imuran having its own lovely and sometimes lethal side effects of its own. One of its side effects, although rare, is cancer. Also, I can look forward to my hair most likely falling out.

Now, I almost want to say let my insides swell up with inflammation. Go right ahead!

If this course of action doesn’t work I know my doctor is thinking about Remicade, which is an infusion. From what I understand, it’s kind of the last resort, big heavy strong meds. If this is where I’m heading anyway, should I be put through another course of prednisone just to grow completely too big for my clothes, turn into a crabby angry girl again, eating everything in sight, and possibly adding on the more detrimental side effects as well?

Decisions, decisions. To be honest, I will most likely go with what my doc says. Anyone who wants to put in their two cents about this is more than welcome though, I need some perspective.

Time to get back to work, byebye!

Crampy morning :(

Wow, what a morning L

Last night I started feeling nauseous while at my friends house. It lasted the last couple hours I was awake. When I woke up this morning I felt better while getting ready for work. Once I in my car on the way  to the subway I started feeling really, really bad again. The nausea was back along with intense cramping. I kept feeling like I was going to be sick on the subway. I was alternative between covering my mouth with my hands and doing a half curl on my seat resting my head on my hands from the cramps.

These cramps are AWFUL!!! In November, before the prednisone, I had constant dull pain. This, from what I read, is the same thing but feels much worse. They are waves of intense cramps that last for about a minute and then subside completely anywhere between 2-7ish minutes before they come back again. I felt like I was having contractions! Ok I don’t really know what contractions feel like, I’m sure they’re more painful, but the situation was similar. During the cramps I couldn’t breathe, tears were squeezing out my eyes and it was all I could do to not cry out. These waves lasted for over 2 hours. I was debating whether to go back home before even getting to work or seeing how it went. I came, and for the first hour I tried to squeeze in work between the pain. It’s 11 now and for the past 45 minutes I’ve only had 3 or 4 less intense cramps, thank god! The nausea is also pretty much gone.

This was horrible. I tried calling my doc but he’s in surgery Fridays and his receptionist wasn’t in. I have an appointment next Tuesday, hopefully they stay away!!!

First day drug free :)

That's right, today is my first day not on any medication! The first day since August! This might change next week when I see my doc, but for now I will just be happy my 10 weeks on prednisone is over. 

I'm waking up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get my bloodwork done at 7am before work. It will be interesting trying to get out of bed early enough for that :(

Lately I've been getting more cramps. Today just before getting on the subway I got pretty intense stabbing pains around where my inflammation was. And last night my cat laid across my lower stomache and I felt cramps and pain. I didn't move him and eventually it either went away or I got used to it. My doc says I tough things out too much so it could be either one really.

We got a new furnace at my house today. I'm sitting in bed with 2 sweaters, a scarf and slippers to keep myself warm. Our old was was turned off at 10am today and it was FREEZING today! brrrrrrrr. The new one is doing its best to warm us back up, but it's not quick enough!!

I'm off to my second yoga class soon. This time I will sweat and get a good workout. I gotta start working on the 20lbs I gained these past couple months :( My big clothes don't fit anymore! I'm hoping that it will go down naturally from being off prednisone, but I won't take that chance. Yoga it is! 

Oh, and here's a picture showing some of the crazy amount of cupcakes I baked on the weekend. We raised over $300! They had excellent reviews :)

 

Have a great night!

Yoga!

I finally got around to signing up for yoga :) I went tonight to a "release and restore" class which was very relaxing and surprisingly snuggly (we had blankets!) It wasn't a workout it was a couple relaxed poses held for a long time and meant to clear your mind. It was different and interesting.

Today has been quite a day. I managed to get signed up to bake 200 cupcakes to sell for fundraising at work on tuesday. So I got a head start today, and thank god I did! I made about 65 today and that took hours. So I highly doubt I could have done it all tomorrow. I'm doing salted caramel and red velvet. I got a cheap little starter piping kit from walmart, so the icing looks really nice :) 

I've been feeling mostly ok, just some random cramps here and there as usual. I have to get my bloodwork done next week, and I have a doctor's appointment the week after.

Drumroll please!......2 more days left of Prednisone!!!!!!!!

In the middle of the prednisone I felt like I had been on it forever and that it would never end. I can't believe it's almost over! :) As much as it was a miracle in destroying my inflammation practically instantaneously, I really reaaaaalllyyyy hope I don't need to go on it again. I am so glad to be back to being me and not a crazy monster. 

I'm going to try to squeeze in a yoga session tomorrow before the cupcakes. Or maybe that's not a great idea, it might kill me and then I'll have no energy to be a professional baker for a day.

That's all for now, byebye :)

2 more weeks...and then?

It’s been a while since I last wrote. Not much has changed, still feeling mostly good. I get some random cramps in my right side, and I battled a monsterous headache last Friday and Saturday. I basically slept on and off Saturday in my room with the curtains closed. Very exciting weekend!

I’m at work right now. There’s supposed to be a snowstorm tonight and tomorrow, boo! I don’t even care about the snow, I just don’t want to battle traffic to get to work.

Yesterday I went down to 10mg of Prednisone, which means only 2 weeks left! I have mixed feelings about this, about how my body will deal with being on its own again. Will it flare up immediately? Later? Never…? ;) I like the last one! But we all know this is a chronic disease and that is highly unlikely. But please, Crohns, stay away for a while. I am enjoying feeling good and eating proper food.

My moonface is starting to go away, but it’s not 100% gone yet. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long. Belly is still there and the hump. These are only physical side effects left tho, at least I’m not trapped in a crazed mind haha.

I’ve been taking it easy, relaxing after work and catching up on shows. Last night I mixed it up a bit, watched How I Met Your Mother, Raising Hope, and the Lying Game. Once I get home from work I don’t really get up until it’s time for bed. As much as its lovely and comfortable to do that, I don’t think its helping with my weight and belly situation. I really need to get going on the exercising. I haven’t been back to the gym in over 2 weeks, oops? This weekend I will sign up for yoga. I will!!!...maybe.

I was just reminded of this mind numbing ridiculous thing we have to prepare for the auditors here at work. They ask us for the same things over and over and come up with the craziest requests. Lucky for them my emotions and anger are in check these days or I might say something!

A nice weekend

I've had a nice weekend. Today was a bit exhausting, but it was good overall.

Yesterday I was kind of lazy during the day. Stayed in my pj's until 4pm..made some applesauce with my mom. I went out for coffee with my friend to our favourite coffee place after dinner. We had Nescafe and Frappe (greek coffee of course!) but decaf since it was getting later at night. Hopefully in a few months we will be drinking greek coffee in Greece ;)

Today my mom and I went out to get some stuff and then my little neighbour/sister I never had came over to do some baking with me and she also brought her homework with her. We made mac and cheese with ham and red velvet cupcakes. Our first attempt at icing was a flop (thanks Betty Crocker??) but our second attempt, cream cheese icing, recipe given by my friend turned out fantastic and delicious. I got a lot of icing sugar on me at first tho haha. 

After my neighbour left I managed to make some dinner. At that point I was dead tired but my mom was busy doing tax things so I got up off my bum to do it. I tried a potato and spinach casserole I found online, and some chicken breasts. This recipe is a bit of a test to see how I deal with spinach, as it seems that when ever I've had blood in the past couple months, I've also had spinach in the day or so beforehand. Doc says it's probably not that, but I might as well test it. If a bleed then I know, and if I don't, I got a tasty meal out of it.

Tomorrow night I'm going out for dinner with some of my college friends and some friends we met in Cancun a couple years back. We're going to a restaurant where you eat in the dark. I've been a couple times before and really enjoy the experience.

I've been feeling good this weekend, except for feeling bloated last night started around 8pm. It went away but a small tummy ache came back around 10. Not too bad, I say. 

3.5 more weeks of prednisone! Yay!

Warm cuddles

Tonight I am cuddling with my trusty heating pad, catching up on shows. On my way home I felt like I needed to pee, which turned into a pain/cramp because I needed to go so bad, and when I finally got home from work it seems that it was more than that. It's a real mood killer to be feeling great for so long and then seeing blood. Not a lot..but it's not normal, and it tells me that not everything is perfect inside. 

Last time I went to the doctors I had blood just before I saw him and he didn't seem concerned since my inflammation mark was basically non-existent. He told me if it keeps up to let him know. I'll see how the next couple days go before I give him a call. I've been reading a book called Foul Bowel by John Bradley, which is a great book by the way, and it seemed that he was good on higher doses of prednisone, but symptoms came back when he tapered to lower levels. Maybe that's the case for me too. But who knows. (On a side note, this book has me laughing hard quite often, mostly on the subway in public. But I don't care)

Miserable nights like this at least are getting me to relax and stop being on the go so much. I know I've been going to bed too late all week, perhaps this could just be my body telling me to slow down and take better care.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!