My Truth To Be Shared

Hello my concerned friends.

I figured I would give you an update on what on earth is happening with me, because a) those of you reading these words right now are kind and loving enough to take time from your life to read about me and mine, and b) because I understand that is an unbelievable act of selflessness.  I thank you for making that choice, and because of it, I feel comfortable sharing some of my truths with you.

So I have Crohn’s disease.  I have had it since I was eight, and I was officially diagnosed when I was twelve.  It’s an autoimmune disease in my digestive track: meaning that my body thinks that it’s its own enemy, and will create great damage anywhere that food touches.  There isn’t a cure for it, only treatments that sometimes work.  When they work it is called remission.  When they stop working, that’s called having a flare.  I am currently having a flare.  And because the body and the mind are so intensely connected, I have different physical and emotional layers to my disease.  And this flare has been especially bad, it would seem, because when one of the layers of my Crohn’s decided to become compromised (which is what happened during my first hospital stay a few weeks ago), my body reacted by compromising a lot of other layers as well.  This resulted in a constant pain, which became it’s own monster; unrelated to the treatment for my Crohn’s.  That’s at least what my doctors and I think as of right now.  So.  We are treating as many of the layers as we can, until the pain can subside enough that I can leave the hospital, return to remission, and then return to my life.

And I’ll be honest, this has been a scary flare.  With my previous flares, there was only one layer to treat.  The answer in the past was once to change my meds; another time to remove my damaged intestines for a fresh start; and another time it was simply to raise the dosage on a medicine that balances the damage that my white blood cells inflict upon me.  

So a few weeks ago when I entered the hospital for the first time, we followed one of these paths: we changed the medicine that I was taking.  The new medicine can take a few weeks to start working, so that could be why I left the hospital still in pain….but the pain that I felt not just continued once I left the hospital, but it grew.  It grew into that monster that I mentioned above…and I couldn’t handle it by myself.  At first it was only when I ate.  I would curl into a ball of hurt, weeping and sweating and shaking from the pain of digestion.  And a few days later, that was just how I always felt, with or without food.

So that’s why I have been in the hospital twice in the last month.  It’s a good thing that I came back, too, because that pain monster was growing stronger than me.  And a few times during this hospital trip, it felt like it took over.  When you can’t trust your body, it’s hard to trust anyone or anything, and it became really hard for me to see some of blessings in my life.  And that’s scary too.  Because that leads friends to turn away from me, and when my friends are my only family…it feels like being orphaned all over again.

Anyway…there was a lot of information in that last paragraph, which could probably fill its own novel, but I’ll just touch on it here to let you know how appreciative I am for those of you continuing to show me support and love…despite the pain monster trying to push you away.  Because at the end of the day, only one of us can survive: pain monster or Heather.  And I will win this battle.

So that’s some of it.  I know there’s still a lot left unanswered, both in this blog post and in my intestines; but ultimately I am happy to be in a place emotionally and physically to feel comfortable sharing this with all of you.  I am an insanely loved human being, and no pain monster can make me believe otherwise.  So at the end of the day, no matter how many IVs or drugs or doctors come in an out of my hospital room, I am very,  VERY lucky to be me.  

Please let me know if there is anything else you are curious about, or if there is any way that I can give back to you.  Because your communal love and support is why I am winning this battle, and why I will make it to remission.