Living with IBD

Recently I was diagnosed with IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). So this is my road to not recovery but to understanding and learning to accept that I will have to cope and work with this for the rest of my life. This is a blog of my view, opinions, recent news on IBD and helpful hints if I find any. You will find some of my blogs may be quite witty and they are not meant to offend anyone in anyway. My way of living life is basically laughter is the best medicine but I find I do have my days of totally “losing it” with tons of tears. When the doctors ask me how I am doing, when I jokingly reply “shitty” I literally mean it. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines

We are on a tight budget because I have been without a job for over a year because of the IBD but we never really did Valentines on a large scale. I always told hubby to please do not buy me flowers or anything on Valentines. I don't know about every where in the country but here our roses double in price. So here was our Valentines day.

Homemade French toast with hearts cut out, 1/2 pear and sausages.
Massage at home.
Lunch at a local restaurant where we had a cup of soup and shared 1/2 sandwich.
Going to a local pet store to get Scout his rabies shot for $5.00
Made Scout and Teller Liver and Oatmeal Brownies - Easy and piece of cake
Dinner I made hubby Wilted spinach and mushroom salad, prosciutto with caramelized scallops, and topped with shrimp.
Finally, end of the day glass of wine and watched a movie from NetFlix.

Now that was awesome and we did not have to spend lots of money.

How was your Valentines?
Happy Valentines everyone.
(((hugs)))
~Kay

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Cooking Turkey


This is being included in my Life with IBD blog because my joint and connective tissue disorder is related to the IBD.

This is actually funny now. Normally, it would of been fine because I am a master at cooking turkey dinner. My husband does almost all the cooking except the turkey dinner. Well, both my husband and step son were ill last Monday so I was on my own, which is o.k. However, I had my shoulder reconstructed in June so I am not as strong in my right arm anymore. I took the turkey out to take it's temperture. It was just about ready so I decided to leave the oven on low because we had a little while before dinner. I went to put the turkey back in the oven and my shoulder popped out and I dropped the right side of the pan right into the oven! The turkey just tumble and flipped and OMG, what a mess. I had to take towels and pot holders to scoop the turkey back in the pan. It completely fell apart and left a huge mess in the oven. I was so depressed that I ruined the meal that I had spent a lot of time on but then I decided I would take the positive path and said "oh well, the oven needed to be cleaned anyways." So I started the cleaning process that locks the oven for 4 hours. Soon after that all the fire alarms went off in the house. The house was full of smoke. So much so we had to open the windows, disconnect the fire alarms and take the fans out of the closet to blow the smoke outside. (It is cold in New Hampshire) Well, needless to say I have iced my shoulder since that night. On another brighter note the boys, Scout and Teller (our adopted German shepherds) just love me for their meals of Turkey, gravy, potatoes and carrots and I have a clean oven :)
~Kay

A few helpful sites on IBD

Living with Chron's

The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America

The Mayo Clinic

MedLine Plus

The Cleveland Clinic

What is IBD?

IBD is inflammatory bowel disease. IBD is inflammation of the colon and intestines. Chron’s and Ulcerative Colitis are some forms of IBD.
A few symptoms are:
Pain in the abdomen
Diarrhea
Bloody Stools
Vomiting
Fever
Weight Loss
Joint Pain
Fatigue

What is the difference between IBD and IBS?
IBS is Irritable Bowel Syndrome which is a disorder of the bowels that mostly alternates between diarrhea and constipation. It is also know as spastic colon. It has some of the same symptoms as IBD but it is not a disease. It is considered a functional disorder and the intestines look normal where as IBD shows irritations of the intestines.