A Little Background
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in my early twenties. I had major surgery when I was 26 due to a fistula (hole in the intestinal wall) forming in my colon. They addressed that by resecting (removing a section of) my colon. I have a very fashionable, long horizontal scar on my abdomen. I’ve often joked with friends about it being from a knife fight.
For nearly the last 20 years since my surgery, I’ve managed my disease with a steady use of mesalamine-based medications. Based on recent colonoscopy results and symptoms, that medication seems to have stopped doing what it’s supposed to do in the beginning of 2015. I’m about to start taking something significantly more severe which is heavily monitored and intravenously administered. Possible side effects range from “flu like systems” to “cancer.” Obviously I’m hoping for more of the former. Ideally only the former.
This is where I plan to write about my experiences getting up to speed on this new medication. I’m writing to reflect and my audience is “me.” This kind of writing feels narcissistic, but I want to have something to come back to as things progress; to accurately think about my journey putting newer and fancier medical chemicals into my body. I have no idea how often I’ll write, but when I have something to say I’ll say it here. People who know me know that’s pretty much how I do things. Obviously I don’t have any problem if you’d like to read along, otherwise I wouldn’t be putting this stuff in a public place.
Things will be medically graphic when appropriate. If that bothers you, then don’t read. I lost both of my parents to the infinitely inventive horrors of two different kinds of cancer. Seeing anyone you love undergo bone marrow transplants, strokes, brain surgeries, and organ failures is shattering. My physical challenges will probably (hopefully) pale by comparison, but I want to be honest (with myself) about the relationship between my body’s struggles and my thoughts and feelings.
In service of said honesty, I’ve never actually been in a knife fight, nor do I want to ever be in one.
I’ve also never seen Rebel Without a Cause.
