A Writer's Life Interrupted--Some Thoughts on Crohn's Disease

Still medication free, but moving toward the biologics again. While the SCD diet works well for some people, I'm not so sure it works for me. However, I will go back to square one with the chicken soup and begin again before I give it up completely. I have given myself to the first of the year. I have an appointment with a holistic physician in mid-December. Once I've completed that appointment, done the chicken soup for awhile, I will take inventory.
I once said that having Crohn's does not define me. It doesn't, but this experiment at trying to manage Crohn's without pharmaceutical intervention, has taught me that in many ways, Crohn's does define me. Crohn's comes in many forms and for many people it is very different. It is NOTHING like the commercials you see on television. Well, perhaps it is for some, but not for the majority. It is not just a matter of worrying about when you have to use the restroom. It encompasses so much more and as such, encompasses me. At least my earthsuit has to deal with this disease which makes it my problem.

Other Crohn's symptoms with the exception of diarrhea.

1. Inflammatory response: Not just your intestines get inflamed, but any part of the digestive trace which includes the intestines. The first time I experienced a multiple number of ulcers in my mouth caught me unaware. I'm not ignorant any longer and mouth ulcers are no fun. They hurt.

2. Gastritis: Ugh. Horrible. Did you know you can actually feel your stomach? You can when you have gastritis. Every stinking inch of it burns like acid. *shudder*

3. Esophageal spams brought on by gastritis: Might has well huddle into a ball until they pass. Cause you ain't gonna be doing anything else but hide out in your bedroom.

4. Erythema Nodosum: A lovely inflammatory condition that pops up on your skin. It's actually inflammation attacking the fat cells under the skin and mostly happens on the legs. Mine popped up on the top of my foot. They can be big or small, mine were medium sized, occurred in a circle, and they are painful.

And there are more than just those listed above. Like, fistulas and fissures. But I won't get graphic here.

What I bet you don't know, is that the  number of diagnosed Crohn's cases is rising.

There is more to see here than just genetics, though genes do play an important part. There is something in our environment that is adding to our growing numbers, something that is poison to our bodies. Diet, smoking, stress, development in an overly sterile environment, antibiotics, sugar, low fruit and vegetable consumption.

I am guilty of all of the above. I smoked, ate on the fly, had an extremely stressful C.E.O. position, had chronic ear infections as a child, and found it so much easier to eat processed food rather than fresh fruits and vegetables.  I was a busy mom to three kids and business woman. And I was stressed to the max.

Perfect set-up for someone like me with a defunct gene.  If I could go back and change things I would, but I can't. This does not explain why a child contracts Crohn's disease or even why health conscious adults come down with it. And it wasn't like I didn't cook. Trust me, more nights than not we had fresh food.

So is there something else afoot?

Antibiotic use is huge precursor to Crohn's. Most of the people I've met had just finished a round of antibiotics before having their first real flare. While I have had symptoms of Crohn's disease throughout my life, my first significant life-threatening issue happened after two rounds of antibiotics to treat pneumonia.

Still, no one is quite sure just what sets the disease off. Is it antibiotic use in cows? Genetically modified foods? Whatever it is, it has happened in the last seventy-five years. I'll leave the final answer up to the researchers, but I can't help but wonder... Was it the ear infections as a child?

As I am now moving into a state of near exhaustion, I will close this blog for today.

Happy reading!

(((hugs)))

Louann

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