Author Archive
Eating with Crohn’s & UC
Anyone with IBD knows how much having the disease sucks. It limits what you can do, where you can go (in proximity to a bathroom), and what you can eat. While you can’t control when you are going to flare or need the bathroom, you can control your diet and try to suit it to help you feel as well as you can.
Whether or not you are on a special diet, it’s always important to keep track of any foods that may trigger you. For some people, that’s spicy foods, for others dairy. Each person is different so please don’t take what I write as an end-all be-all for IBD diets. Do what works best for you. So without further ado, here are some of the more common diets and food restrictions for Crohnies.
Would you?
If you could give anybody your disease so they could understand what you go through, what it really feels like emotionally and physically and if they had to endure the very worst of the disease for a month would you do it? Why or why not?
My best friend, a new Crohn’s patient
Last week, my best friend was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease.
My heart goes out to her- she lives in upstate New York several hours from her family. She sent me a text message to tell me the diagnosis and when I called her, she had been at the doctor alone except for a friend picking her up from the colonoscopy. She knows what Dan and I have gone through over the past six years. She’s also a nurse, which helps her have a clinical understanding of the disease. But not much can prepare you for the diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease or UC.
Introspective Tuesday
I’m feeling introspective today more so than usual. I was playing around on Facebook when a new blog post popped up in my news feed from a high school friend’s blog, Before and Afro. Today’s entry title – MAJOR LIFE UPDATE. Between the wording and the all caps, I was intrigued to see what she was announcing. (Note: her past blog entries have been about her adventures as a white girl rocking an Afro wig, it’s pretty awesome).
So I logged onto her blog to read the new entry to find that she quit her job to figure out what she wants to do with her life and blog full-time.
To say that I am jealous is an understatement.
ABC’s of Crohn’s Disease & UC: “C”
Sorry for the lapse in posting- we hit Jewish holiday season and then I got swamped at work. But I am back with the next in my ABC series- the letter C! I am excited to do this one because I came up with a lot of things that go with the letter and the two diseases.
Money Matters
Anyone with a disease knows just how expensive it is to live with a chronic illness. The medications, doctors appointments, surgeries, emergency room visits, and everything in between- it all adds up over time. In fact, I just went back through our records and since we got married in 2009, give or take a bit, we have spent over $4,000 out of pocket on Crohn’s related expenses.
I feel unbelievably lucky that Dan and I have health insurance because of the high medical costs associated with Crohn’s Disease. Every six weeks, Dan goes to his doctor’s office to get his Remicade infusion. So every six weeks, we pay a Remicade copay. We also pay for parking at his doctor’s office, wear and tear on the car (its a 60 mile round trip from our house to his doctor and back), gas, copay for check ups every four to six months, and for other small procedures periodically (bone density scans, colonoscopies, CT scans, etc.).
The ABC’s of Crohn’s Disease & UC: “B”
Here is the second installment of the ABC’s of Crohn’s Disease and UC. Surprisingly, I didn’t find many B’s associated with the disease (aside from some obvious ones). Let me know if you know of any others that should be added to the list!
Genetically Modified Food & IBD
Today’s blog post comes from a topic my coworker mentioned to me- genetically modified organisms in food. We were out for pizza last week and he approached me asking if I had read anything about the relationship between GMOs and IBD and I hadn’t. He said that there have been recent studies/papers showing that GMOs are linked to causing IBD In fact, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. So I did a Google search and found this out:
Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. Common genetically modified foods include soybean, corn, canola, rice, and cotton seed oil.
Jennifer Jaff, Patient Advocate, Passes Away
I am a little late in posting but last week, a great advocate for chronically ill patients passed away from complications with her Crohn’s Disease. Jennifer Jaff, 55, was executive director of Advocacy for Patients. She was first diagnosed with Crohn’s when she was 19. She had eight operations to treat her disease and during one 12-year-period gained 120 pounds while on steroids.
The ABC’s of Crohn’s Disease & UC: “A”
Weeks ago, I had an idea to come up with the ABC’s of Crohn’s Disease & UC. This has turned into a HUGE task- coming up with things that are related to the two diseases with every letter of the alphabet. But at the same time, I’ve learned a lot more about the diseases than before by researching the two diseases and the various symptoms, medications, complications, and other things related to IBD.
That being said, here is installment number one: the letter A.
Caring for Crohn's & UC 