Hi all! SO I have been fighting the urge give into the cliché of
blogging when something horrible happens to you. But it turns out that journaling is a great
way for me to release energy, so why not share what I have been journaling with
the world? I mean it is a better source
than Facebook, and recently it feels like I have been turning more to lovely
world of FB to vent my energies. I need
a healthier outlet- that’s where this comes in.
Maybe someone will actually read this, and even better, actually get
something out of it, but if all else fells, at least my thoughts were released
into the universe for the universe to as she wishes with them.
So now on the juicy stuff… As
you can see my last post was at least 2 years ago. Well, a lot has changed since. The major is that I got extremely sick from
the devil disease Ulcerative Colitis. It
was hell that came upon and unleased its wrath with what feels like
overnight. In fact, it didn’t happen
overnight. It was a long process of me not listening to my body and after my
half marathon in DC (April 2013), my body threw in the flag. Within a week, I was sick in bed for days
with stomach pain and the other gross UC symptoms that I will spare you
from. Within the next, I got my office
butt scope and got the official diagnosis.
Within that next week I ended up in the ER, twice! Two weeks later was the start of the longest
hospital stay of my life. I spent two
weeks in the hospital in Austin, and then was jet flown to Oakland, and spent
another two weeks in the hospital there.
To top it off, I was flown on my 30th birthday, so I spent
that milestone hooked up to an IV and on pain meds. So the outcome was that I needed IV steroids
and strong meds, so I was started on Remicade and released. Oh- did I mention I had to undergo 3 blood
transfusions through the whole process?
So back to the story, after two Remicade sessions, it was decided that
it was not working so they switched me to Humira, another hardcore drug, and I
stayed on that for a few months, with no results. I also started seeing a functional med doctor
who put me on supplements and a super strict diet. After doing that for about two months, I made
the difficult decision to have the surgery.
Why difficult you ask? Well
because I can name one out of 500 people that thought it was the best
idea. My family made me feel like I was
giving up and not fighting hard enough so I felt like I was disappointing
everyone when said “F-it, let’s cut this shit out”. I decided that I could only fight one battle
and my battle with UC needed to end sooner rather than later. So, I had my colon cut out on October 18,
2013. During the first surgery, the removed
the entire colon and formed a j-pouch with my small intestine. I was given a temporary ileostomy, which
basically means I had a poop bag on my stomach.
That saga in itself is a blog on its own (note to self, write about my
short life with an ileostomy). On
January 9, 2014, I had my second, and fingers crossed final surgery. The reversed the ileostomy and now I live on
a fully functioning j-pouch. In regular
terms, that means that I have gone back to pooping out my rear. J
So today marks exactly 11 weeks post-op, and while things are
absolutely not perfect, they are much better than being sick in a hospital
bed. I still battle with diet,
nutrition, bouts of depression, and overall, just feeling well. BUT (yes, in all caps), I am slowly getting
my life back. I am back to doing small social outings such as eating out with
friends and starting to get motivation to get back to training and
running. I am back to living a gluten
and dairy free lifestyle. I have gotten
off of the Prozac and am now learning to use other natural forms to help with
my anxiety and dark thoughts. Every day
is a fight, but every day I feel blessed and grateful to have my life. This whole ordeal has really taught me so
much about myself. You will see
throughout this new blogging journey, that I will be completely honest with
myself and with the universe because really I can’t afford to be anything other
than honest.
(Me before the DC half)
(me and my sis during my Austin hospital stay)
(I lost about 90 lbs- I was originally 220, this is at about 140)
(Post surgery 10/18/13)
(ileostomy life)
(Life today)
Initially my blog was to be about Princess Mousey Cards, making cards. posting about cards & other Etsy shops. Then by some unexplained reason, it became about other things. So now I am still a lifestyle blog. I still post about party planning, low carb recipes for epilepsy, I still post about my card shop and fashion. It is a great way to get out your feelings. Of course when you tag about your subject, you will find others who are going through your same circumstances. I have gained some great friends who have helped explain to me symptoms that I could never understand. We help each other. Here is to hoping your blog helps you. lots of love & I will keep sharing. I usually pin with #'s of bloggers tags on Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Tumblr.
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