I've got soul but I'm not a soldier...

Having a chronic illness means that I've had to change my life. I can't work a full time job. Honestly I can't even work a real part time job. One day a week doing office work for a local therapist only breaks things up so much... This means I have a LOT of time on my hands. While I love the Young Democrats of Georgia, there are only so many hours a day I can devote to my chapter, region, and membership responsibilities before I start wanting to set things on fire. Controlling my illness also means keeping my stress levels low. So, I need hobbies that keep me calm and take up some of my time. At this point I've figured out a few things to break up the monotony: Reading (books, online articles, pretty much anything), blogging, cooking, photography, experimenting with makeup, painting my nails... Yeah, so the list isn't as long as it could be but it's all pretty low stress. I know there are a lot of blogs out there about these various things. But, I ...

Since my last post regarding Crohn's disease I've had a few changes. I'm now seeing a different doctor. This one has doubled my immunosuppressants. Apparently everything we were doing before just wasn't enough to lower my inflammation markers. The past few weeks have been difficult. I hate complaining when I feel bad because I know how bad it can get and how quickly it can get there. However, I've been suffering from headaches and nausea for some time now. Maybe it's time to change my migraine meds? I don't really know. I also have a rash that the doctor attributed to an allergic reaction. It's itchy and seems to just keep getting worse. I know that some day soon things will start getting back to normal. When they do I'll be sure to let you know. But right now I just feel really out of sorts. I have to say I'm lucky. I'm now on Social Security/ Disability. If I get sick I can go to the doctor and receive treatment. I can get help. Not everyon...

I need to write. I need to write like I need to breathe. I love the feeling of pen on paper but I can't justify killing more trees for something I don't keep up with as much as I should. Because I need to write, I'm going to blog. I plan on updating this blog at least once a week but if I don't that's ok too. This is for me. This is my own record, I will keep it for posterity. My memory is horrible. Maybe this blog will help me in the future. Enough explaining. Time for real posts.

I have Crohn's/Colitis. This is a subject I haven't really taked about before but it's such a huge part of my life that I feel it's necessary to discuss it here. Maybe this will be a way to express some of my concerns and vent some frustrations while alleviating some stress. Since I was a child I've always had strange stomach aches. Every time I ate I would get nauseous almost immediately afterward. My parents thought that I was just trying to get out of doing the dishes, but that really just wasn't the case. My stomach ailments got worse when I left for college. A lot of the problems I was having I attributed to the poor quality of food on campus. The Chow Hall wasn't exactly known for it's exceptional variety of nutritious foods and I remember being notified more than once during my tenure that they had failed their health inspections. Food contamination however, wouldn't cause the fistula that had developed starting in December of 2005. After doze...

CCFA.org: Advocacy Please please please check this out and sign it to help people like me (and 1.4 million other Americans) who suffer from Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis.