Miracle?

The Cimzia is working.

PRAISE
PRAISE
PRAISE GOD!!!!!

I had my second round of shots on Tuesday.

Side effect?

Exhaustion.

I felt like Rip Van Winkle.

Like I could sleep forever.

But.........

On Wednesday, I was up early, and full of energy, and had very little pain, and felt like a whole new person! I went and got my much needed hair cut and color, and started to fall asleep in the chair! Which is typical for some people, but highly unusual for me... Thankfully, I have a most supportive and accommodating husband, so I was able to come home and crash.

Today, I was filled with energy. None of the lethargy from yesterday.

In summation....no reaction to the injections this time (an improvement from the first treatment); just very tired for a day and a half (an improvement by a day), AND, I look great. Even I can tell that I look better.

We trudge on.........

A sidenote - I am getting my tubes tied on Monday. I don't want to, but I have to. As a condition of taking this drug. I cannot get pregnant. My battered and beaten body just can't do it again. And the drug is very potent. Because I am fiercely anti-abortion, I couldn't handle being faced with potential decisions that I can't even wrap my head around. So.......I'm taking matters into my own hands (with the loving support of Mr. Hurricane of course), and just getting it done. I am blessed with phenomenal, God-loving physicians, who communicate with each other, know me as a person, not just a patient, and seem to truly give a damn about me and my desire to live as long as possible to see my beautiful, miracle babies grow up.

So........it's not a big deal of a procedure, home in one day, no incisions, and the grandparents are here to help with the bambinos.........but........if you could take a few minutes of your day and say a little prayer for me and for us, I know that I would feel it.

Thanks again for your continued love and support.

It may be a few days before you hear from me again, but know that I'm still out here!

HH

Nothing

is working.

Three whites and two blues.

Nothing.

One more day.

Sigh.

Can U Tell Me Y?

~

Yesterday, I ate Chex Mix, Pizza, and Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream.

All of which are either fibrous or bulky.

Can you tell me why....TODAY.....all that is coming out of me is WATER?

Oh right.

I have Crohn's.

That's why.

Silly me.

~

Thirteen Days

~

Today my guts woke me up.

I'll spare you the details.

But I wonder how many of you have ever been woken out of a dead sleep by your guts, not your bladder.

It sucks.

I have my next Cimzia treatment tomorrow.

Exactly fourteen days from the last one.

My guts lasted thirteen days.

This is progress.

And it means the drug is WORKING.

The drug is an immunosuppressor. It is a TNF blocker. What does that mean? It means my immune system makes too much of a protein called TNF. This drug tells my body to stop making that protein. (I'm not a doctor, but I think that's what all this means!)

Since this drug is working, I now know that my illness is in fact genetic.

A discovery that relieves me and haunts me.

Because it means there are others in my family who could potentially have or develop this disease.

Not just my babies, who I chose to have, knowing there was a possibility that they could carry the gene for Crohn's.

But for my brothers.

And their babies, who they had before we ever knew I had Crohn's.

For all of my other family.

For all of them, we wait.

And we pray.

But the drug is working.

There is hope.

Hope.

~

Progress

I guess I need to let you all know that I am doing better.

I've been enjoying some healthiness lately, and I've been so 'busy' I haven't been able to go to the blog that I reserve for complaining!

So the new treament, CIMZIA, is working!

Praise GOD! Praise GOD! Praise GOD!

I had a reaction to the injections (no big surprise there)....and it was a pretty awful 2 1/2 days....BUT!.....the medicine is working.

I still have diarrhea, and lack of bowel control, but I do not feel "SICK". Hard to explain. But I can tell the difference. Haven't had any fish hooks since then. Plus, I will always have diarrhea and lack of bowel control. I now have 'short gut syndrome', as a result of having a bunch of my guts removed. But hey.......God has granted me peace about it, and I am just so blessed at having another chance at 'life'.

So.......next Cimzia treatment is on Tuesday. I will be pre-loading with Benadryl, in the hopes of averting or minimizing a reaction.

For now......I'm back.

And I am oh so very grateful.

48 Hours

In 48 hours...

I will begin receiving a new treatment.

Right now...

All I can think about is my mouth.

I have bloody, painful sores all over the inside of my mouth.

My mouth, my gums, my tongue, my throat.

They are related to the massacre of disease that is raging in my guts.

If you were to chew on a sandwich made of stainless steel and razor blades, you might come close to what I'm experiencing right now.

In 48 hours...

A new journey begins.

In 48 hours...

Fish Hooks

So at 12:01 a.m., pumped up on adrenaline after watching over six hours of football (most of it played OVER and OVER and OVER again), I made these awesomely grandiose plans for my Monday.

All of the laundry would get done.

The huge box of 'paperwork' would get tackled, completed, and filed.

And I would scrapbook the rainy afternoon away.

And then the fish hooks got in the way.

6:30 a.m.

Diarrhea started.

Eight times before 8:00.

Fish hooks, you say?

That's the way I describe the pain.

Imagine that a fish hook is being pulled through your guts, all thirty feet of them. Every time you have a bowel movement. And then imagine that you have over ten bowel movements a day. What if you had fifty bowel movements a day?

Some people compare it to swallowing a saw.

Nope, it's fish hooks for me.

So my grandiose plans have been shot down.

I will settle for getting all the laundry done.

Perhaps next Monday I will put scrapbooking FIRST on my list.