Tired.

I am aiming to blog something everyday, but I haven’t blogged at all the last few days and mainly I put it down to my feeling pretty ordinary. I’ve had Crohn’s since 2001, diagnosed in 2002. During 2002 I was what they term “steroid dependant” which essentially means that the disease only responds to steroids and when the steroids are tapered, the disease flares up again. I was studying at the time and I look back now and wonder how I managed to complete my degree.

2002 marked the beginning of what would be one of the worst years of my life in terms of Crohn’s disease (although this year is giving it a run for its money) and it culminated in my having a resection performed on Christmas Eve. That horrifies most people, the thought of having a major surgery on Christmas Eve, for me, it was much welcomed relief. Anything that would make me feel better.

So following the resection I had three wonderful years of remission. I wish I’d known back then that it was to be short lived; I would have tried to pack a bit more into life. You know make the most of it while I can. When the symptoms re-emerged it was slowly, so slowly that I didn’t really even notice at first. I think that there might have been a little bit of denial in there as well.

Fast forward to now, I have been on so many different medications (which I might talk about in a separate blog) with very little response, even steroids don’t make a whole lot of difference and as if that’s not enough, it appears that I am now having an allergic reaction to Methotrexate. The doctor has given me tablets to counteract the symptoms of the allergy i.e. itching, rash, etc because at the moment the symptoms are quite mild and the benefits of the Methotrexate outweigh the risks of continued use of a medication I’m allergic to.

“But if you go into anaphylactic shock, be sure and go to the emergency dept.” Yep, great advice. I’m not sure what’s more worrying, that some people actually need to be told this or that it’s possible that while watching Grey’s Anatomy I could go into shock.

Anyway I guess it’s on account of this that I’m feeling a little tired and slow these last few days. I have my next Remicade infusion on Wednesday and so hopefully that’ll have me feeling better soon after. My success with this has been limited but I’d be interested in hearing what other peoples experience of Remicade has been.

xx