Colonoscopy Day Today so lets cut off some polyps…..

 ….Crohn’s disease is an opportunity to learn all about colonoscopies because you get to have them all the time even when you don’t want them.  They are especially memorable when the anesthesia is not quite right and you are basically awake for the entire procedure like happened to me a few years ago.  Hopefully, these doctors at Grafton Hospital got their act  together and there is no repeat of that type of entertainment.  They always say the prep is the worst part and that is generally correct unless you are sick for a week afterwards like happens to me just about every time but maybe not for this procedure.   Hopefully, they just snip off a few polyps and that’s it.  Unfortunately, the surgeons always like to cut out a piece of my large intestine in a later procedure because it is beginning to constrict near the small intestine and I am starting to run out of colon to slice up.  Maybe not today but the final end result when you run out of large intestine aren’t that pretty.

There are worse things than Crohn’s disease.  During my first surgery many years ago they told me I had cancer before the surgery which turned out to be false.  When I finally gained something resembling consciousness a nurse told me I had Crohn’s disease.  My response was “What’s that?”.  She said the doctor will explain it and walked away quickly.  I have gone many years without any really bad surgeries that would affect my lifestyle in a permanently negative manner so I hope that streak continues after this procedure.  Long stretches of taking Humira, Remicade and other medicines may have kept my guts in better shape than people used to fare without these medications.

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Colonoscopy Preparation Day!

    Yea!  It’s colonoscopy preparation day!  The best part of this day is……well…….it ends eventually.  Got my gatorade, bottle of Miralax and four dulcolax pills ready to take.  Moved my reclining chair next to the restroom to avoid any accidents.  Hope this all goes OK without any medical problems.  I suspect they may find medical issues during the colonoscopy tomorrow because I have been having problems.  I have delayed longer than most Crohn’s patients but I have had good reasons.  Now I just would like to get this over with and find out the results.  Hope to keep my GI tract functioning as God designed with no modifications from some knife happy surgeon.

Pain Medications

via Neanderthal used ‘aspirin’ for tooth pain: study

Scientists believe that Neanderthal man made and used a type of aspirin for pain relief. I think that is fairly impressive for people with limited technology.

My father used to take aspirin for headaches almost every day.  I probably gave him half his headaches. Aspirin and Ibuprofen are wonderful pain relievers and I would love to make use of them.  Unfortunately I can’t take either one because  I will bleed out due to Crohn’s disease if I take NSAIDs.  I take a combination of Tylenol and the mild prescription opiate Tramadol to avoid going insane and snapping at people when I have Crohn’s related issues.  Tramadol seems to deaden your feeling to sharp intense pain  but it does make me a little sleepy if I take it at the same time as my other medications.  I avoid driving any distance when I take Tramadol because it tends to make me a little too relaxed to drive.  Also, you need to be careful not to take too much of Tramadol because it can kill you but so can many other medications if taken incorrectly.

There is currently a heroin epidemic in Milwaukee and many other areas. Apparently, many people began their heroin addiction by abusing prescription opiate related drugs. The solution to the problem that the politicians are starting to consider is to make it more difficult for doctors to prescribe these types of medications to their patients because then they will never develop heroin addiction.  That’s a great solution to prevent heroin addiction unless you are the person who needs the medication constantly for a permanent disease and is now going to be forced to jump through hoops to get your medication.

Politicians should leave medical prescription decisions to doctors until such time as they get a medical license.   So far I haven’t had to jump through too many hoops to get Tramadol other than showing my driver’s license and delivering a script in person rather than having it automatically sent.  I believe that other states have more severe hoops to jump through so I hope that doesn’t become the solution here.  I would recommend giving doctors guidelines to follow rather than forcing all patients into some little box of restrictive laws so that their lives are inconvenienced.

Tramadol has made quite an improvement in my lifestyle capabilities since the doctors prescribed it to me.  Sometimes I actually get to sleep an entire night without being  stabbed awake with some type of sharp pain.  I have been taking it for many years and so far I haven’t had any sudden urges to use heroin.  Not that we shouldn’t help heroin addicts but I don’t believe any laws made by politicians are really going to stop people from using heroin.

 

Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream

English: 香港山頂廣場 Category:The Peak Galleria Category:Häagen-Dazs in Hong Kong Category:Restaurants @ Peak Galleria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

It tastes so good that I eat too much of it. If I didn’t have Crohn’s disease there would not be any problem. Haagen-Dazs is an unfair temptation with no way of escape. I think my stomach is going to explode like a pulsar.

 

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My days of traveling places are numbered.

Endoscopy image of colon showing serpiginous ulcer, a classic finding in Crohn’s disease (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Crohn’s disease is making it increasingly difficult for me to go anywhere. Doctor’s keep giving me pills to help with various problems but they all have side effects. I think eventually I will become almost totally housebound unless I become incredibly rich so that I can afford a driver and a customized van with restroom. Somehow I doubt that I will ever become that rich.

Related articles

• The Role of Surgery in Crohn’s Disease Treatment (everydayhealth.com)
• When to Talk About Crohn’s Disease (everydayhealth.com)
• Can Vitamin D Deficiency Cause Crohn’s? (everydayhealth.com)
• Crohn’s Disease Symptoms (answers.com)
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease 5: Surgery for Crohn’s Disease (surgery101.org)