As most of my readers know I have this lovely thing called Crohns Disease (insert heavy sarcasm). I found out I had Crohns in November of 2013, almost 6 years ago. Boy oh boy what a roller coaster it has been! Multiple medications, SO MANY scans I am not sure how I am not glowing, researching like crazy, diet changes, flare after flare, fatigued to the point of depression because I just wanted a normal life! It's one of those things that just when I think I am doing better BAM I am knocked back down.
Well fast forward to August 2018, random high fevers but felt okay when they would break and no other symptoms. I powered through for 3 days and the night of day 3 it got the best of me. After very busy day of popping Advil to try and get through I spiked fever again and couldn't get it to break. I was nursing my 5 week old baby in the parking lot of the restaurant we were at and couldn't stop shaking and my breathing got very heavy. My husband got to the car and said he was taking me to the ER as I was turning blue. All of my kids in the car seeing me like this. I passed out on the way but some how managed to come to and walk myself in the ER because the kids were in the car and someone had to stay with them, at least that is how my mom brain and power kicked in and thought. They rushed me to a room. I was told my heart rate was 190 and I was in septic shock. I was in and out of consciousness but I remember my husband never leaving my side, the nurses trying to keep me conscious, telling my husband to make sure my kids know how much I love them and how much I love him, to tell my parents I love them and praying so hard to the Lord to please give me another chance here on earth because I knew I was dying but I was FIGHTING! My body may of been giving up but my mind was not! Guess what here I am today to talk about it!!!!! It still makes it hard to breath remembering it, but I also am reminded God kept me here for a reason and I truly believe that reason is my family. My kids and husband were all I could think about and that is what helped pull me though! That mom power I call it! So while recovering in ICU they tell me it was an infection that was Crohns related.
Well now we are at March 2019, I've started a great job just a month ago and start having a ton of pain and super bloated when I eat. I go to the ER they tell me Im just constipated. Well my GI orders an MRI that shows I have a bad stricture and partial bowel obstruction and I need emergency surgery the nurse says. We opted to wait on a colorectal surgeon since thats what they do... that was a mistake as he was awful during my recovery, but its over with now. 12 days of a liquid diet and I finally had my surgery. All went well and I was sent home 2 days later. Well 2 weeks to my surgery day I was doubled over in pain, I get sent to the ER and I am full of infection and abscess. They should of been drained according to every other doctor but my surgeon would not admit that I had infection and said I needed to be tougher when he removed my bandages and sent me home. I got a second opinion and they agreed with the ER but I was already on 2 very strong antibiotics so they waited to see if that would help which it did, after 2 rounds of them. I was still having a lot of issues after surgery but I made my way back to some what of a normal life eventually.
I was tired of still feeling the way I did before surgery minus the pain so I finally decided to try a clean eating program my friend told me about, even though I thought I already ate pretty well. To my surprise it actually worked! Like it helped A LOT! This is now my new lifestyle and I use these products and the understanding of food it taught me daily! If you would like more information check out this Video . You can order the products here . Everyone with Crohns is different and this is my opinion. What helps one may not help the other but I figure its worth a try for others because if you don't make time for you wellness you'll have to make time for you illness.
I am now doing really well, I am still on Stelara a biologic medication for Crohn's but I hope to get off of it soon and just continue my new healthy lifestyle thats actually been the thing to help me! A biologic lowers your immune system and has very scary side affects but the doctors want me on it for a year but can not really give me a reason other then to make sure I don't end up back in surgery sicne my Crohns was active when I had the surgery. See most doctors have told me for the past 5 years "diet has no affect on Crohn's Disease" well myself and MANY others including a doctor I see will disagree. The only time I started feeling better and got a quality of life back what when I started putting good stuff in!
I wanted to write this so others can understand what Crohn's Disease can do to a person. To help raise awareness and maybe let others see they are not alone and there is hope out there! That just because someone doesn't look sick on the outside doesn't mean they are not fighting a battle on the inside.
