Living With Crohn’s

He ordered a colonoscopy (haunted me for years, now, here it was!) but put me on Prednisone in the meantime. I asked him if I had to go on that particular drug, I had a bad experience when I had a problem with my eye. He said, “Was it Uvitis?” I answered that it was, and he told me it was a symptom of Crohn’s. I was now thirty nine. The colonoscopy came back negative, but he didn’t believe it, and had a colleague at Columbia, and sent my results to them. Sure enough, I had Crohn’s, it was just a difficult strand to find, and the hospital hadn’t been equipped to see it. And, on top of that, the bleeding was caused by three hundred and fifty ulcers in my intestines. I was severely dehydrated and malnourished. He wanted to put me in the hospital for intravenous, but I stubbornly refused, I didn’t want to leave my kids.

It was a rough road back, and took between a year to two years to feel halfway normal again. The depression was horrific, worse than the disease! My kids were old enough to keep themselves busy after school and until dinner, at which time I would cook with gray spots in front of me eyes. The rest of the time, I was either on the couch, or in my bed. I remember lying down, getting up to put the laundry in, lying back down until it was done, then getting up to put it in the dryer, and lying right back down. I started eating baby food and yogurt, and slowly, I was able to keep food down. I began to sit up downstairs on the couch for longer periods of time. I started combing my hair, and looking more presentable. I introduced other foods into my swollen intestines. Time has gone by, and I have had one other bout with this inflammatory problem. That was a couple of years ago. The only thing I have changed is my ability to handle things in a calmer way, causing less stress, and less swollen parts in my body!

I read a lot of self help books, and last year, I started going to a Reflexologist, who is a gift from God to me. She has helped me immensely. I feel stronger, and healthier, more focused, and more at peace from within. I’ve worked hard on coming to terms with issues and baggage I thought I left behind, but stayed in my intestines.