My name is JJ, I am a 30 year old woman who has been with my female partner for almost five years (ive always been gay) and consider myself as VERY lucky...
A quick rundown of my story looks something like this...
I met my partner when I was 25, two weeks later I found a breast lump, a month later had a biopsy then started getting infection after infection in the breast.... I was consequently fired from my job for taking too much time off.
I moved in with my partner not long after that (she should have ran away then... But she didn't...) I had the precancerous breast lump removed two years later at 27, and had been too sick with infections, D at least twice to three times everyday, joint pain, nausea, cramps, and sciatica, to work... Also my platelets were up and I was anemic... So I took on part time University study from home....
After a barage of 'normal' tests My GP (primary care giver?) sent me to see a GI who conducted a colonoscopy, endoscopy, barium X-ray, MRI -- all of which showed nothing... As a last resort she organized a 'pill cam' and found ulcers in my terminal ileum and some inflammation in my colon... dX 'mild' crohns
My partner could have run then too.... But nope...
My crohns got steadily worse until it reached its peak of D 25 times a day, nausea, anemia, cramps, fatty liver, severe joint pain etc... I was on copious amounts of Salofalk (the equivalent to pentasa?) More than twice the maximum dose (my GI said that it wouldnt hurt... Wrong...)
So here we were two years into our relationship... I'd had a breast lump removed and a DX of a chronic disease... Our relationship was also being tested by her parents who disapprove of her being gay, let alone in a relationship with a lazy bum who 'won't' work.... She should have ran then....
So suddenly I was starting to have SEVERE flank pain followed by copious amount of blood in the urine and was being rushed to hospital every couple of weeks only to be sent home 5-7 days later with no diagnosis... I had everyone stumped.... My poor partner would work a 14 hour day, 6 days a week, come home and feed our animals, come to the hospital and sit by my bed for 3-4 hours, bring me food (as I am on a dairy free gluten free diet...) take my washing home and do it all over again the next day (yup, she's an angel)
It took them a further 18 months to work out that I had a rare kidney disease called renal papillary necrosis (where part of my kidney was dying, shedding and then getting stuck in my ureter) I had a stent fitted but it was removed 3 weeks later due to a major infection.... So now there is nothing they can do for me besides pain meds (which I try not to take as they make me severely depressed)
A week after I got out of hospital in April 2011 my partner proposed... we have been engaged ever since... (its still ot legal in australia) So as I said... I count myself as VERY lucky, my partner has seen me at my absolute worst... And still wants to marry me... The woman needs a medal I swear!
We are currently discussing children which of course is complicated due to my many illnesses... And she works full time, so we are looking at other opinions such as adopting (difficult in Australia) or fostering... I am flaring again at the moment so I'm thinking it will go in hold again for a little while...
I'm sorry for the ridiculously looooonnngggg story, but I just wanted to say that there ARE good people in this world who will accept you and love you no matter what... I pray that those of you looking for love are as lucky as I have been!
Looking forward to talking to you all in the forum!
JJ xxx
A quick rundown of my story looks something like this...
I met my partner when I was 25, two weeks later I found a breast lump, a month later had a biopsy then started getting infection after infection in the breast.... I was consequently fired from my job for taking too much time off.
I moved in with my partner not long after that (she should have ran away then... But she didn't...) I had the precancerous breast lump removed two years later at 27, and had been too sick with infections, D at least twice to three times everyday, joint pain, nausea, cramps, and sciatica, to work... Also my platelets were up and I was anemic... So I took on part time University study from home....
After a barage of 'normal' tests My GP (primary care giver?) sent me to see a GI who conducted a colonoscopy, endoscopy, barium X-ray, MRI -- all of which showed nothing... As a last resort she organized a 'pill cam' and found ulcers in my terminal ileum and some inflammation in my colon... dX 'mild' crohns
My partner could have run then too.... But nope...
My crohns got steadily worse until it reached its peak of D 25 times a day, nausea, anemia, cramps, fatty liver, severe joint pain etc... I was on copious amounts of Salofalk (the equivalent to pentasa?) More than twice the maximum dose (my GI said that it wouldnt hurt... Wrong...)
So here we were two years into our relationship... I'd had a breast lump removed and a DX of a chronic disease... Our relationship was also being tested by her parents who disapprove of her being gay, let alone in a relationship with a lazy bum who 'won't' work.... She should have ran then....
So suddenly I was starting to have SEVERE flank pain followed by copious amount of blood in the urine and was being rushed to hospital every couple of weeks only to be sent home 5-7 days later with no diagnosis... I had everyone stumped.... My poor partner would work a 14 hour day, 6 days a week, come home and feed our animals, come to the hospital and sit by my bed for 3-4 hours, bring me food (as I am on a dairy free gluten free diet...) take my washing home and do it all over again the next day (yup, she's an angel)
It took them a further 18 months to work out that I had a rare kidney disease called renal papillary necrosis (where part of my kidney was dying, shedding and then getting stuck in my ureter) I had a stent fitted but it was removed 3 weeks later due to a major infection.... So now there is nothing they can do for me besides pain meds (which I try not to take as they make me severely depressed)
A week after I got out of hospital in April 2011 my partner proposed... we have been engaged ever since... (its still ot legal in australia) So as I said... I count myself as VERY lucky, my partner has seen me at my absolute worst... And still wants to marry me... The woman needs a medal I swear!
We are currently discussing children which of course is complicated due to my many illnesses... And she works full time, so we are looking at other opinions such as adopting (difficult in Australia) or fostering... I am flaring again at the moment so I'm thinking it will go in hold again for a little while...
I'm sorry for the ridiculously looooonnngggg story, but I just wanted to say that there ARE good people in this world who will accept you and love you no matter what... I pray that those of you looking for love are as lucky as I have been!
Looking forward to talking to you all in the forum!
JJ xxx
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