Purple Out People!!! #gopurple #purplechallenge

Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week starts tomorrow and we are so excited to celebrate it with everyone in our IBD family!

What is Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week?
As a result of a federal bill introduced by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Congressman Andrew Crenshaw (R-FL-4) passed in 2011, Congress declared December 1-7 to be Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week to educate Americans about the diseases and encourage people to join in the effort to find a cure for IBD. This resolution was passed in thanks to some great Senators and Representatives who cosponsored it including:
·      Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
·      Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)
·      Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
·      Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
·      Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)
·      Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
·      Senator Richard Burr (R-NC)
·      Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
·      Congressman Rush Holt (D-NH-12)
·      Congressman Jesse Jackson (D-IL-1)
·      Congressman Pete King (R-NY-3)
·      Congressman Tom Latham (R-IA-4)
·      Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY-14)
·      Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA-3)
·      Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA-8)
·      Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY-15)
·      Congressman Dennis Ross (R-FL-12)
·      Congressman Pat Tiberi (R-OH-12)
·      Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA-9)

Why celebrate?
Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis impact millions of people nationwide. We don’t have to tell you how debilitating these two incurable diseases can be- the cramping, the diarrhea, the constant urgency, the food limitations, and so on.

Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week is celebrated to make people aware of these diseases and raise money to bring us close to finding a cure.

How to celebrate this year
A group of Crohn’s and Colitis bloggers are coming together to celebrate this year with a Go Purple Challenge.

From December 1-7, we are going to wear an item of purple in honor of Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week. Whether it’s a shirt, bracelet, pants, socks, nail polish- it doesn’t matter as long as it’s visible and purple!

Each day, we are going to take a picture and post it on our blogs, Facebook, & Twitter to share with our followers to show our support of the Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week.

We are challenging all of you to join us!

Wear purple and take a photo of it each day and post it to your blog, Facebook, or Twitter with the hashtag [#GOpurple  or #PurpleChallenge]. At the end of the week, we’ll compile all the photos on our blogs to share with everyone.

Want to celebrate but can’t participate in our challenge?
Check out the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America’s website for ideas- they have some great one’s listed for ways to participate in the week.

Happy Crohn’s & Colitis Awareness Week!

Rebecca (www.caringforcrohns.com, @caringforcrohns)
Sarah (www.myjourneywithcrohns.com, @SarahChoueiry)
Melissa  (www.detouredfashion.blogspot.com, @allbluezoo)
Louise (www.youngcrohns.tumblr.com, @sapphire20)
Kristen (www.kla-yeayouknow.tumblr.com)

#NHBPM - what day is it?!

Guess what? I didn't blog everyday. 

Guess what else?  I think that's great!

You know why it is great?

Because it means LIFE was getting in the way and that is A-O-K with me.

I've been black Friday shopping, putting up decorations, visiting friends, celebrating new babies, enjoying time with my family and generally just not worrying about Crohn's disease one-freaking-bit. 

Can you GRASP the enormity of that? 

NOT WORRYING ABOUT CROHN'S DISEASE?!

For those of you WITH IBD you probably can grasp that, for those who are closest to me and really understand what the past 9 years (specifically the past 18months) was like - you probably grasp it too. 

I'm stuck between crying for joy and getting shit-faced on peppermint schnapps.  Okay, I'm not gonna get drunk on schnapps b/c that is WAY too much sugar and I'd be up all damn night - but you're pickin' up what I'm throwin' down.

Sorry if you were counting on my infinite wisdom imparted into a blog post for every day of NHBPM....I promise to make it up to you somehow, k?

Find your silver lining and be awesome!

#NHBPM 23 of 30 - Something your doctor has taught you

What have you learned from your doctor?

Which one? There’s a gastroenterologist.  A dermatologist.  A hematologist. A psychologist. An infectious disease doc. Of course the “primary care physician”.  A surgeon.  Oh, the surgeon.  THE surgeon.  I’ve definitely learned the most from my surgeon.  We’ve “been together” for 11 months  now – that is EONS in the land of military healthcare where everyone is moving or deploying and you can easily go through 5 doctors before it is YOUR turn to move.  She left me once – deployment – but true to her word she is back and picked up right where she left off.

I wish everyone I knew that had to have surgery could have her for a surgeon.   What has she taught me? 

Vulnerability. The day she came to tell me I had developed a fistula. Her face when she walked through the door – a combination of pain, helplessness, confusion mixed with the concern of a mother and someone who has pledged to “do no harm”.   

How to be humble.  When things continued to push the borders of typical surgery related issues she sought out the physicians who could help.    She was never afraid to say “I don’t know” and quick to take all offered suggestions into consideration.    

Transparency. She cried.  She sat in my hospital room with my family and she cried.  And she looked at my husband in the eyes and told him she was gonna fix this thing if we would let her but she understood if we wanted to move onto to someone else and she would make that happen.  She curses.  That might offend some people but it just makes me like her that much more.  She likes coffee, she hates to run, she drinks sangria and she just put a pool in her backyard.  I bet most people don’t know stuff like that about their doctors.  But that is who she is. 

Kindness. She NEVER seems put out by me.  The emails, the phone calls, the pages.  She returns them all.  She IS a kind heart. 

Selflessness. She’s in the military, so that is just a given.  I remember her coming to my room in her civilian clothes “just to check on you” as she would say on her way to an event with her family or on the way home from something.  I asked her to walk with my team for CCFA’s Take Steps this year.  She had guests in from out of town and came anyway – after spending the morning at Sea World with her family.  

Strength.  I don't know how to put this one into words.  She believes in me (where my health is concerned) and that empowers me and strengthens me physically and mentally.  It is through HER strength that I am able to find mine is this conundrum that is IBD.

Simply put, she is awesome and I don't believe for ONE SECOND that if I would have been paired up with another surgeon I would be the post-op person I am today.

At Take Steps San Antonio 2012

me, Dr. Pottymouth and Shana my WOCN.

I have since added another WOCN but she had to leave early :)

 

Find your silver lining and be awesome.

 

 

#NHBPM 22 of 30 - days late and dollars short

Being healthy has caused me to put off writing - how's that for a turn of events!?  I've been out and about doing things I haven't been able to do for a LONG time and just haven't sat down to write.  So, I'm a couple days late on the thankful post and a few dollars short because I was black Friday shopping!

What I'm thankful for - God, family, friends, modern medicine, PICC lines, blood transfusions, sushi, Cholula, coffee, LEGOs, basketball, water, my husband's career, medical coverage, the internet, US military, my education, the CCFA, Texas weather, the NFL, king size beds, relationships, plastic surgery, toll roads, Greek yogurt, The Chew, technology - most of the time, the school bus and my health. 

Find your silver lining and be awesome.

#NHBPM 20 of 30 - Alternative treatments, etc.

Yeah, yeah - I missed a couple days.  That'll happen this time of year I suppose - trying to decorate for the holidays, preparing food and enjoying these 2 little people that God blessed me with.  Things are a LOT different around here compared to last year.

The day 20 prompt is "Write about alternative treatments / regimens / medicine. What do you support? What is crazy?"  Oh boy.  I don't want to offend any of my well meaning, heart in the right place, just trying to help me friends - so please do NOT get your feelings hurt.  If you think you are going to get your feelings hurt, click away and don't read any further.

Let me start off by saying that I support whatever people want to try.  GO FOR IT!  If you think it is going to help your disease then by all means, try it!  I've tried some "alternative" treatments and when I say alternatives I don't mean eating tree bark. I mean manipulating other systems in my body to try and lessen their effects on my GI/immune system. 

Essential oils, diet changes, diet restrictions, juicing, vitamins, fish oil, probiotics, etc.  I've heard pretty much all of them.  And I know there are more than that.  I appreciate that people are concerned about me and want what's best for me.  I really really really do.  But you know what?  Sometimes I've just had enough.

The inundation of these "miracle treatments" really hurts my feelings.  It is as if to say "that surgery you went through was not needed, you should have just tried (insert remedy here)".  It's hurtful, demeaning and condescending since I'm being honest.

My favorite thing about these treatments is that they most often are suggested by people who have NO IDEA what it is like to live with Crohns' disease/IBD.  My colon and rectum were turning INSIDE OUT and bleeding to the point I needed blood transfusions.  I was spending HOURS of my day running back and forth to the bathroom - most of the time in so much pain I couldn't even describe it.  I had lost SO much time with my kids, family and friends because of my health.  But yeah - I totally should have tried eating soaked tree bark.  Or vitamins.  Or sustaining my body solely on juice.  Or any of the NUMBER of things that have been presented to me over the years.

KNOW that I love each and every one of you who has suggested these things - and YES, they probably did work for so and so's cousin's best friends hairdresser to put a flare at bay.  It does NOT mean it cured them of Crohn's disease.  You know why?  Because there is NO CURE for Crohn's disease.  Your symptoms may wax/wane but they will always be there waiting to rise up at the most inappropriate times.

Find your silver lining and be awesome.

#NHBPM 18 of 30 PART 2

 

 

 

 

Find your silver lining and be awesome

#NHBPM - 18 of 30 Making my own rules PART ONE

And apparently I can only use so many pictures in a post - so please see part 2 for the conclusion.