It's Been a Tough Season...Part 2

This past March and April, I began experiencing severe cramping in my stomach and pain in my lower back. I self-diagnosed myself with ulcers (for my stomachache) and chronic back pain left over from my T12 fracture. I suffered for an entire month.



I would pull myself together to get to work and put on a happy face, but the night time was my safety zone in the privacy of home and I found myself paralyzed to do anything productive and laying on the couch all night. I didn't like this life (who would) when I had a toddler running around saying, "Get up Mommy. Come play with me."



April was a busy month of traveling for work and many times alone. On one particular trip to California, I remember just feeling horrible the entire time I was there. After turning my nose up to any suggestion of going to the doctor, I finally plopped myself down into the dr. office the morning after returning from California. After another CT scan, the radiologist ordered me to get to the ER..."you have an appendicitis."



"No, I do not" was my thoughts. An appendicitis does not last for a month. If I had an appendicitis, I wouldn't be able to pull myself together. But I took the drs orders and headed straight to the ER (after stopping at the bookstore to get me a good book to read through the upcoming ordeal).

Whe the surgeon came wheeling into the ER to check me out before surgery, he stopped dead in his tracks and said, "You do not have an appendicitis. You wouldn't be sitting up in bed smiling at me!"

Long story short, they called my gastrointerologist and after closer examination, it was inflammation, near the appendix, caused by the Crohn's Disease. I was admitted into the hospital for 3.5 days for observation, iv antibiotics and making sure that a perforation didn't and wouldn't occur.

After leaving the hospital on many medications, I still didn't feel well and the cramping in my stomach continued despite how little or how much I ate. After 2.5 more months of this pain and 2 unsuccessful drugs, I was admitted back into the hospital. This time, I was started on the heavy artillery of Crohn's medication...Remicade. I am currently still on an iv infusion of remicade every 4 weeks and eventually every 8 weeks and feeling much better.

My full life is returning and I'm not just going through the motions. I am feeling well.