So, there I was.......16 years in the Navy with thousand of miles clocked in the air, on the land, and on the open ocean. The places I've been, the things I've seen, and the things I missed at home. All for the love of it! And then........the excruciating pain hit me. Eating a cracker made me vomit. I drove myself to the ER (stupid, bratty, too independent to ask for help mistake #1 of a million), and stayed a week on enough steroids to feed an entire Olympic team and enough immunosuppressants to make my body a walking sickness catcher. Then the doctor comes for a visit--he says, "We have to do a colonoscopy to be sure, but it walks like a duck, smells like a duck, and quacks like a duck. Crohn's". Queue the scratching record sound now.......YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! This sucks! And I know in my belly (no pun intended) that the looming diagnosis is only one stupid bowel prep from being set in stone because my mother has it as well.
So, the Navy doesn't take kindly to Crohn's and it's chronicness. I am fighting for the right to stay in the Navy now despite the disease. I am rolling along fine after a course of prednisone and metrodinazole, then onto the Entocort and the Azathioprine. Lifting weights daily, Navy PT twice a week, and roller derby practice twice a week as well. Poof......another bellyache. I remember the doctor has told me that I need to come in early and head it off at the pass. Ugh.....apparently I STILL didn't go early enough. 2 weeks ago I went in, immediately admitted, and 3 days later saying sayonara to 8" of my small intestine and my appendix. I am slightly disturbed by the surgeon's note regarding "abnormal stomach, duodenum, and small bowel" as well as "fat wrapping". Surgeon did what I needed him to do, but he certainly was a man of very few words as far as what it all meant.
I am still home on convalescent leave (I only asked for 2 weeks because I knew I would be crawling the walls) and will visit my Navy GI doctor tomorrow who ultimately sets the tone for my future in the service with this disease. I am not sure what he will say or what he will prescribe (I am not on anything while the surgery heals). The surgery was great and the surgeon did me a favor by suturing inside and gluing the outside, taking in to account that I live in Florida and bikini season is 9 months long! Haha......
My current symptoms are lightheaded after eating, no appetite, sleepiness, and small, painful sores on my lower arms. Any of this familiar to any of you? Advice? What meds did you get put on? I believe the civilian GI doc would like me to start Humira. Should I also ask for B12? How about the arm sores?
Advice, humor, references, or shared stories are all more than welcome. I am overall very positive and, in a sick way, thankful that I was forced to slow down and reflect. But that's another completely different story!
So, the Navy doesn't take kindly to Crohn's and it's chronicness. I am fighting for the right to stay in the Navy now despite the disease. I am rolling along fine after a course of prednisone and metrodinazole, then onto the Entocort and the Azathioprine. Lifting weights daily, Navy PT twice a week, and roller derby practice twice a week as well. Poof......another bellyache. I remember the doctor has told me that I need to come in early and head it off at the pass. Ugh.....apparently I STILL didn't go early enough. 2 weeks ago I went in, immediately admitted, and 3 days later saying sayonara to 8" of my small intestine and my appendix. I am slightly disturbed by the surgeon's note regarding "abnormal stomach, duodenum, and small bowel" as well as "fat wrapping". Surgeon did what I needed him to do, but he certainly was a man of very few words as far as what it all meant.
I am still home on convalescent leave (I only asked for 2 weeks because I knew I would be crawling the walls) and will visit my Navy GI doctor tomorrow who ultimately sets the tone for my future in the service with this disease. I am not sure what he will say or what he will prescribe (I am not on anything while the surgery heals). The surgery was great and the surgeon did me a favor by suturing inside and gluing the outside, taking in to account that I live in Florida and bikini season is 9 months long! Haha......
My current symptoms are lightheaded after eating, no appetite, sleepiness, and small, painful sores on my lower arms. Any of this familiar to any of you? Advice? What meds did you get put on? I believe the civilian GI doc would like me to start Humira. Should I also ask for B12? How about the arm sores?
Advice, humor, references, or shared stories are all more than welcome. I am overall very positive and, in a sick way, thankful that I was forced to slow down and reflect. But that's another completely different story!
they love me but they don't understand.
