My Crohnstipated Life

I thought I was in control, I really did.  Wow, was I an idiot. I’m not gonna lie, although I felt like I was an expert in “Crohn’s Disease,” I was only fooling myself.

For those of you unfamiliar with this disease, it’s an autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease that can affect any part of the digestive tract from gums to bums. In 2007, when I was diagnosed, I was told there was nothing I could do but wait and see what direction the disease took. Sadly, a decade later and after millions of dollars raised and thousands of hours spent on “research”, nothing has changed.

According to my gastro, I have a stricture so severe that no medicine in the world can heal it. All of the tests revealed that the opening from the stricture was at best about a hairline opening. Simply drinking too much liquid at one time even causes me severe pain and nausea now.

Prednisone does offer some relief, but no change in the stricture. There is too much scar tissue built up. My stricture is located in the Cecum (I think that’s what she said) and part of the ileum is  badly inflamed by Crohn’s.

My solution, because I feel there is nothing left that I can do to heal myself, is a bowel resection. Where my lovely surgeon will remove ALL evident diseased sections of my intestines, not only the stricture part. I’m praying to God that I don’t wake up with a colostomy. That for some reason is so horrifying to me and I can’t imagine it.

So, here I am on the cusp of making a decision about the quality of my life. Actually, I’ve already made the decision. But the decision to have surgery is a very personal one, requiring extraordinarily careful consideration.  Unfortunately, surgery was not the ‘cure’ I had wished for but if I want my life back, I think it’s time to make a move.

We each have to decide what is best for us but having information from others who have been in the same boat is so helpful. While I’m healing from the surgery, I’ll be posting more about this little journey. If you have a question, reach out to me!

Hugs~