But I got an email from someone (name I will not reveal) and this person said to me.
How can you call your page Crohns (Laughter and Wellness) ? The email went on to say quote "you obviously don't have Crohns or you would know the two don't go together.
Well I do have Crohns as a matter of fact. Diagnosed in 1997 and major surgery in 1998 where I lost a good portion of bowel and about six inches of colon. And along the way I lost my business, well stolen away by a partner who took advantage of my sickness. So I do know what Crohns is all about.
I do know the pain. I have more bad days then good days. I know all about the frequent trips to the bathroom, being worried when you are invited out that you might make too many trips to the bathroom, not wanting to go on fishing trips with the guys anymore because you don't want to be embarrassed by requesting too many bathroom stops, having the gut wrenching pain when you eat the wrong thing or just simply eat too much. Paying for the medication when you are not on a drug plan.
Stopping the medication because you just thought it was costing too much, then ending up in the emergency room because you weren't taking your meds.
Yes, I know all about Crohns Disease and I do, I really do. I have researched this disease trying to find what causes it, why it chose me or maybe I chose it. Looking with hope for a cure. Arguing with the doctors about what causes it and why.
Speaking of arguing with the doctors, when I first knew that I was sick, it was hard to figure out. The right side of my abdomen swelled up to about four times it's normal size. The doctors told me on three trips to the emergency room that I just had a very severe bruise. Some bruise. When they finally decided to operate on my "bruise", they drained out four litres of infection. Now this was 1997 and no one asked where did that infection come from? No, they just stitched me up and sent me home.
Then I developed a fistula and began draining through the incision. What followed was six months of trips to the doctors and being told, don't worry about it, it's just the aftermath of the operation. It will go away. For six months it drained. I went through three shirts a day, taped Kotex pads to my swollen belly and still drained through them.
Finally I literally begged for a sineogram. The doctors reluctantly obliged but even made sacarastic remarks to me as we waiting for the test to begin and the results to be made known. When the results came in the two doctors reluctantly admitted to me that I was right, there was a hole in my bowel, but they didn't know why and wanted to operate right then and there. Well by this time I had enough of them so I went looking for another doctor. I found a great one in Dr. Joel Pffeifer of Saskatoon and he did the surgery and I have been surgery free since. However I still have Crohns and always will have.
About two years ago, I had a major battle with anxiety and panic attacks, maybe connected to the Crohns, maybe not. But to make a long story short I ended up in a mental health hospital, voluntarily admitted for about seven or eight days until they could find a medication to ease the anxiety. Was the stress and anxiety caused by the Crohns or perhaps by the Crohns medication. Well we will never know.
Now I am finally getting around to what I started to write about, remember, my Facebook page - Crohns (Laughter and Wellness)? Do the three go together / I think they do.
I realized, after my stay in the mental health hospital, I needed to lighten up. I needed to laugh more. I needed to enjoy life more. I read an article, in fact I posted it on one of my websites about the five most often heard wishes of the dying. And right up there were two. I wish I hadn't worked so much and 2) I wish I had enjoyed life more - I wish I had laughed more.
So on my little Facebook page Crohns (Laughter and Wellness), we try to laugh, find pictures, find articles, reasons to laugh and sometimes we even laugh a little at ourselves. If you want to join this site, you are always welcome.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/134657929976274/
I also have two websites, that I am kind of proud of.
One is www.talkaboutguts.blogspot.com (You know that's about Crohns)
And the other is www.panictopurpose.blogspot.com
