I need a new place to stay

Um my old land lord is kicking me out of the UC forum (no, not really) and I need a new place.  I'll just re-use the intro I did there if that's OK.  I got my news this afternoon at work from my GI.  I did the pill cam 10 days ago and that was the last piece of the puzzle for him, although he was pretty sure all along.

Anyways, Hello all, here is my intro.

My name is Mike, 43, fairly recently diagnosed (still not completely sure what is going on, UC or Crohns).

I have learned a lot reading this forum, thank you.

I have the tendency to use the word a@@ a lot and have meant no offense, but saying I was having a bit of a rough time never seemed to convey how bad things are/have been as compared to saying something is kicking my a@@.

I have learned that there are a wide variety of symptoms to this.  I try not to say much because of my ignorance/learning curve.  As I understand it, a flare is when you have active inflammation.  Most have daily symptoms that really indicate, "hey, my system is jacked up", but I don't.  I only know things are bad, as they have been since last August, when I seem to have what I call an "episode".  As near as I can tell from learning the terminology, it would be extreme urgency and some of the most painful cramping I could ever imagine.  I got stung by a bark scorpion a couple weeks ago (I live in Arizona) and realized I would rather deal with that over my unpredictable episodes.  I get severe pain in my gut, it kicks my butt (literally and figuratively) for a couple hours, wipes me out, leaves me weak and makes me worry about every little thing I eat for the next couple days.  And more and more recently is lasts up to 3-4 days before I settle down.  Looking back I realize I have been suffering for the last 15 years or so, just never severly enough long enough to get to a doc to check it out.

I can entirely sympathize/empathize with those who are suffering more than I.  I realize this is not a contest of who has it worse.  I am guessing I am catching this early enough that I have not become fully flared and completely symptomatic, just guessing.  I also completely understand and relate to the frustration voiced by those who have the well meaning friends and family.  I was completely floored by a dear friend whom I thought really understood when she said that she thought doctors were just calling this UC and an auto immune disease to just push pills and not get people in today's society to eat healthier.

As for those whom I recently read were going through spousal/partner problems.  My $.02 is that if they are blaming the illness for their unhappiness in the relationship, they weren't good partners anyways.  As the sufferer in my relationships, I wish those around me, including the wife, would just shut the heck up some days.  I am hurting, there is nothing I can do, there is nothing you can do, so while I am hurting the most is NOT the time to offer the "try this" advice.

Anyways, I just finally made the time to introduce myself.  At least those of you who read might have a bit of understanding of where I am coming from since I have not posted here that much.

P.S.  I had to leave myself a note to do this, same as the one that said look for a forum on UC, because my short term memory seems to have gotten so bad.  Even worse now with the Entocort.  But I am getting longer time frames between episodes.

If my terminolgy, guessing or thinking is incorrect, Please let me know and please also know I NEVER mean to offend.  I am a smart ass a lot but am trying not to be here especially since I don't really "know" anyone here yet.

So, nice to meet you all!

Welcome to healingwell's crohns forum. Since it is a family friendly forum you might want to restrain yourself on language a bit and we are a bit more hard sixes then the UC forum.  As to the wife, I think she might want you to get better and is just going to do say and do whatever it takes to do her part in helping you in that battle. I am sure she has wanted you to "shut the heck up" too, it is not easy to have a sick spouse. Caregivers do burn out, and until you have been a primary caregiver it is very difficult to understand that burden that is placed upon them.

As to those with advice about how we treat our diseases, there are some really great responses on here to those you do not care about.  LOL

Yep, and if a former sailor can restrain themselves, so can you. (Even though it really does express it quite well.)

Pentasa is a med for mild to moderate CD, and generally is also used as a maintence med for those in remission or post surgerical. Nanners is on it and is usually more then happy to share her experience with it. Plus you can look at the medication links in Ivy6's sig.

I use another 5-asa called asacol and so do a few others.

Whoo hoo, another one from the Air Force

Son was on Pentasa and it didn't appear to do too much for him but obviously I don't have x-ray vision eyes!

I guess if it works, great (not as many side affects as some) if it doesn't....... Cross that bridge if you come to it.

yea I'll ditto that, oh sh@@ i forgot what I was going to say

I have no intention of "swearing" if I can help it.  Sometimes when typing fast to keep up with my thinking some words make it to print, as that is how I was thinking and my "filter" doesn't engage all the way.  The whole intent of that statement was to pre-aplogize   f I did slip.

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

I try to infuse humor and sarcasm to preset humor where possible to keep things light.  Thanks for that compliment.

I'm here til thursday!  Try the veal and tip your server!

Another line I used when describing my cyclical problems when ranting......

So I started taking the Entocort 2 months ago, I had a great 2 weeks almost immediately that caused me to generate a thread, How do you know when you're in remission.  Then I had an episode that lasted 4 days.  Lather, rinse, repeat for 2 months.  Each time I feel better and better right before the anvil falls on my head and crushes all hope.  I don't get it.  I guess I do, I am learning I have to be even more concerned than ever what the ingredients are in stuff I am eating.  Rice a roni for God's sake!  Really! Who did I piss off now?  It had dried onion bits and MSG.  Man I wished I had seen that previously. But I had made it to day 16, got slammed, read the ingredients and cried.  Cried because I was too stupid to check them before. 

Seriously, junk food does not hurt me........McD's, or just cheeseburgers in general don't hurt.  I can eat fried fish, turkey, ham waffles hash browns eggs and hey almost any candy will do.....but don't put any lettuce on it.  There is fruit in my yogurt, some anyway, but don't give me any fresh fruit.  Bananas are OK.

And Honey?!?!  Really??!!!!!  I thought this was the most natural harm free food you could eat.  I thought no one anywhere could have problems with honey!!!  Anybody else?

Each time I make it so far and feel really good, I get crushed.  It is so disheartening.  For me it's the pain..........I have no idea if or what kind of pain most of you suffer.  I could handle the going to the bathroom to an extent, but the extreme pain makes me understand why some people contemplate suicide over it.  I am not, BTW, I am just saying I can understand.  I truly don't understand this darn cycle.

Stop the insanity!!  Or if anyone has any insight to help me cope with the confusion and the crappy roller coaster ride I would appreciate it.  Sorry to say I AM feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment.  I (i'm at work at the moment) am afraid to put my suit on and go into the factory (I work in a cleanroom and have to wear a full clean room suit, kinda like the old Intel commercials) I may not get out of my suit fast enough.  Thanks for listening/reading, pearls of wisdom are appreciated.

*just pounding keys to rant

See, I don't geel bad eating the bad food.  They don't hurt me.

Undone... you are KILLING ME. God grant me a salad, please!!!!!!!!!!! No carrots, I hate'em.

Hi Md, nice to meet you. Are you still on the Entorcort? They jack you some, not like steroids, but hey, what's a life with CD without a little roid rant? Ah, good time, good times.

Here's the thing about junk food, you cannot see the damage this stuff causes you. So please take care. If your going to go there, get the little burger. Oh and if your constipated this is pretty much the only laxitive you will need. Think about that.

Ok, funny-ish aside. A friend didn't want her kids to eat fast food. So I, being the Auntie, started programming them early. We'd go to Mc D's in the winter for the toys and the play land, always after they ate and if they said, I want to try that, I'd say, "No you don't, it'll give you fast runny poopies"

Both after their first Mc D bday party, an inevitable part of a kids life these days, told me, Auntie M, I don't like McD's, it made me poop and poop and it wasn't even NORMAL.

Now 9 and 11, neither will eat it. Ah, my work there is done. ;)

One thing I can say is that it is best to eat as close to the source as possible. Your right, those chemicals will hurt ya big time, as you found out. It wasn't the rice that was the problem.

Avoid nuts, seeds, popcorn, skins and fiber that doesn't break down easily, meat or veg.

Treat yourself to the things you really like, cuz hey, you'll get all ranty if you don't, and then see how that goes.

And hey just cuz you have the shh.. poops, doesn't mean you get to be a sh... poop.

Welcome to the boards, may your find your remission soon!

PS, when your cramping like that a few tablespoons of plain white rice really shortens the episodes. Give it a try (no oil/butter, consider it medicine)

Hey, just wanted to jump in and say don't sweat the name of your illness. I usually just call it IBD and leave it at that. The diagnostic process is a long one, and the treatments are the same. The only issue might be assessing your risk for colon cancer - if it's UC you really want to watch out for that.

I started down this path taking Asacol and then switched to Pentasa. On scope I have inflammation at the rectum and cecum, but not in between. I'm sure there's small bowel stuff going on for me, and I've had a stenosis in the esophagus and inflammation in my stomach, so my theory is that I need a med that's more effective higher up. I thought Pentasa would be a good match for me and it has given me a good few years w/o significant blood or diarrhea. But then someone told me that Pentasa is for lower bowel and Asacol is for upper so there you go.

Sorry that you are having so many crampy episodes and pain. That is awful. If you were female I'd tell you to track your menstrual cycle and see if you can correlate to that. Maybe you should track your wife's? ;-)

Ha ha ha, only a CD would ask "... is there supposed to be room for food after pills?"

Funny one :)

Thanks Val!

I only find the humor around/in between episodes.  It's usually hard to find the humor at the time.