An Overdue Update

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It’s been a while, I know. I’ve been recovering from Thanksgiving. Really.

My doctor took me off one of my meds the day before Thanksgiving. The medication in question was making me extremely tired and after a day without it in my system, I was on an energy high just in time for Thanksgiving. Of course, with the new energy buzz and the growing ability to eat real food, I overdid it on the whole party and eat thing. It was worth the days of recovery to be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner after two months of eating cream of rice, pudding, and cup of soups!

Dr. Blake gave me a talking to about resting up, mostly something about promising not to do pushups for four weeks. I’m feeling considerably less dizzy and have a bit more energy, however I fade quickly if I try to do too much. Dr. Blake made me define “sit around and do nothing” and then fixed my definition. Basically, she told me that every bit of energy I have, all the calories that I consume, have to go to healing my colon. She mentioned something about snowboarding in January if I don’t over do it now, which is a goal I can appreciate.

I’m still in a lot of pain some days, and my eyes are really driving me crazy. Probably not helped by my daily routine of computer work. If only you could put “flatscreen monitor” under insurance claims. I have an eye doctors appointment next week. Apparently Ulcerative Colitis can cause or may be related to certain eye conditions as well, including the lovely blurry vision that I’ve now gotten used to ignoring.

I’m back to a bit lighter diet, but I am truly thankful for the ability to eat Thanksgiving dinner. It was a blessing I’ve never appreciated so deeply.

As to the future, if these four weeks of intensive medication and healing go as hoped, I’ll be slowly getting back to normal life over the next month. I’ll have to continue on a lesser dose of the meds for six months, and then I’ll go back on them whenever things flare up again. There’s no way of knowing when or what triggers UC, but now that I know what to watch for and how to treat it, it can be managed quickly in the future. I’ll have to have colonoscopies every five years to ensure no tumors have developed and to guard against colon cancer.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts as I work through this time of recovery. I have so much to be thankful for and your support tops the list. Thanks.

- Jess

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