Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Crohn’s for a Crone


According to Wikipedia, a Crone is an old woman. In some stories, she is disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in manner, often with magical or supernatural associations that can make her either helpful or obstructing. The Crone is also an archetypal figure, a Wise Woman

Also according to Wikipedia, Crohn’s Disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus, causing a wide variety of symptoms. It primarily causes abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody if inflammation is at its worst), vomiting (can be continuous), or weight loss, but may also cause complications outside the gastrointestinal tract such as skin rashes, arthritis, inflammation of the eye, tiredness, and lack of concentration.  

Hopefully, I do not fit into category number one.  have a cousin who calls herself an old crone.  Not that she is strange, mind you, but she does have a fairy tree in her yard and believes things that I really don’t understand.  I love her, but she IS strange!
   
But I DO fit into category number two. It is not the type of thing one brings up at a formal dinner party.  If it ain’t one thing it’s something else!!!!




One of the things I find most frustrating with MS is the fact that it has so many different symptoms.  When something happens that is out of the ordinary, we often don’t know whether to go to the doctor or assume that it goes along with the MS.  That is what happened to me.

This Crohn’s problem started last year.  I was in terrible shape for a couple of months before my husband talked me into going to the doctor.  Naturally, I was sent by my doctor to a specialist to be checked out.  I had to have a colonoscopy (which is a fun process in itself!) and the results came back that Crohn’s was the culprit.

If you have not known anyone who has this, it is very painful.  Not only that, it keeps you very close to home for fear of having an “accident”.  Since it is such an unpleasant disease, it is not discussed much in the finer circles!

I am hoping that we are getting all the bad stuff out of the way so we can enjoy the upcoming fun time of the year.  We have had the flu, deaths of two dear friends (another died this weekend) and now this.  The rest of the year should be a piece of cake!!

 

2 comments:

Muffie said...

Janie, I'm so sorry you have Crohn's on top of MS, although I keep hearing that having two auto-immune diseases is not uncommon. I've known several people with this horrible disease, and I feel so sorry for them. Do you take meds for it -- I keep seeing one advertised on TV.
Peace,
Muff

Janie said...

I do.......but only during flare-ups because it is sooooooooo expensive!! It is pretty rough when it flares, but thankfully it takes breaks in between!! :)