More than just a bag lady

I had really hoped to be at home by now, spending time with Hubby and the kids during half term. But instead I’m writing this from my hospital bed. Frustratingly there doesn’t seem to be any hope of me going home any time soon and I’m getting a bit fed up.  In my last blog I wrote about the steroids rollercoaster that I’ve been on for the last few weeks. This last week has again seen me on IV steroids yet again after having an awful flare up last Thursday. It seems that after a few days on oral steroids my bowel goes “erm, not having that!” and throws a hissy fit. The pain goes off the scale; the only way I can describe it is it feels like I have swallowed razor blades and they’re steadily working their way through my bowels shredding me from the inside out. And then there’s the fun of either having to go to the loo 30+ times a day or the alternative when everything grinds to a halt and nothing comes out. Things were so bad that I ended going down for another CT scan last Friday so...

I feel like I’ve been on a steroids rollercoaster during this recent hospital admission. When I first came in 3.5 weeks ago the doctors started me on IV steroids to try and get the inflammation from this Crohn’s disease flare up under control. After a few days things seemed to improve so I was moved onto oral steroids with the hope of being able to go home but within a couple of days the pain and constant trips to the loo had returned. So I was put back onto IV steroids and had a CT scan to see what was going on.  The scan showed there was severe inflammation in my small bowel so as well as having IV steroids it was decided to start the adalimumab injections again. I had originally started this immunosuppressant treatment back in May/June but had to stop when I got a line infection and Covid. So I was given the 4 loading doses again and we crossed our fingers that it would help.  Things appeared to get a bit better and back onto oral steroids I went. I even managed to escape f...

This last week has been full of ups and downs in lots of ways. It’s been a strange one at home as Hubby has had to work away a couple of nights this week and even though the kids are old enough to be by themselves and look after themselves as a Mum you can’t help but worry about them. The dog went to the dog sitter so he would be walked and looked after but that meant that he wasn’t there at night to guard the house and protect the kids which I didn’t like. And because my parents are on holiday it meant that in an emergency they weren’t just up the road like normal. And I dread to think what they’ve eaten this week! It’s probably all been from various takeaway places but I suppose if they’re not cooking then they can’t burn the house down right?? Thankfully there were no fires or any other kind of emergencies, the kids have survived and all is ok.  But things haven’t been quite so straightforward for me. The good news is that I’ve restarted adalimumab- the immunosuppressive medicat...