After the diagnosis...

I wish I had started this blog sooner so the details wouldn't be so fuzzy since it has been a few years. I usually have a pretty good memory but it's not as good as it used to be.

Anyways the next few years I remained on the 6MP and had to go on steroids twice when my stomach wasn't doing well with just the 6MP. Luckily I convinced my doctor to try a different steroid since I had such a terrible time with the Prednsione. I got to go on Endocort which worked great. It had little to no side effects and worked well when I needed them. I will say that Prednisone is a great steroid to heal you the fastest, it just has a lot of side effects the longer you remain on them, plus who knows the long term effects. I was on them for almost six months which was not good. If you want to know more about the crazy side effects of Prednsione look up Scott Stapp's (Lead singer of Creed) story, he was on them for years!

Now although Crohns is an autoimmune disorder, there are triggers that make it worse. Trigger foods and stress that irritate your symptoms. I used to be a smoker and then when Emma (my daughter) was almost two I decided to quit. It was fairly easy for me to quit, I did the gum and once when I got a craving I smoked a stale cigarette and it was so gross that I didn't want to smoke anymore. It definitely helped that David was quitting at the same time. We did pretty well until we went on a family vacation to Florida and Emma entered into her terrible twos. On that trip David and I both started smoking again, and my stomach was having a terrible time. My doctor had never mentioned that smoking would make my symptoms worse. When I got back from that trip it was time for a check up with my doctor and I told him about smoking and that my stomach was bothering me again. He told me that if I continued to smoke that my medication wouldn't work and I would continue to have issues. Once I heard that it was pretty easy to quit again and I have never looked back.

A lot of people ask me what foods I can't eat and honestly the easier question would be which foods I can eat, trust me the list is much shorter. So my list of trigger foods are as follows:

Fried, greasy food, fast food
Raw vegetables, citrus fruits or fruits with seeds
Dairy products
Soda, coffee, anything with caffeine in it
Red meat, processed meats (lunch meat)
Spicy foods

Ok so maybe the list doesn't look so long but those are more so categories of foods I can't have haha! Pretty much the foods I can tolerate when I am not feeling well are rice, bread, baked potatoes, and white pasta. I have also put myself on a liquid diet a few times to give my guts a rest. Broth and jello, yum!

Almost forgot the stress part! So basically stress can be just as bad as those foods on my list. I used to get really worked up over trivial stuff, drama I guess you could call it. I have learned to let alot of things go and just had more important things to worry about in my life, or better things to be concerned with. It's amazing after letting stupid stuff go how much simpler life can be. :) I really did expect a lot of people and constantly felt let down by friends. But David gave me great advice once..."If you never expect anything from people then you will never be let down by them when they don't do something or you can be pleasantly surprised when they do". It really is good advice. Also I got a tattoo on my ankle last year of the Ohm symbol as a way to remind myself to stay calm. David think it looks like a sideways butt with a fart coming out of it, but whatever it's my reminder haha! They do recommend doing yoga or light exercise to help maintain being stress free. I have done bouts of working out in the past but Jillian Michaels does NOT qualify as light exercise! I have also tried a yoga class with my friend Lauren that I did enjoy once I got over the awkwardness of the chants and the fact that we were the youngest people there, I'm talking about we were in a senior group haha, but we didn't care! I am actually trying out a restorative yoga this Sunday in Stafford so wish me luck!