Acknowledging I'm a Sick Person...and Promptly Ignoring It
It started happening in 2017: the realization that I am a sick person. I know, I know...after all these surgeries and procedures and medications I took for the nearly 20 years prior, it still didn't start sinking in until I had a bowel obstruction in February of 2017 . It was the first time I had an NG tube inserted while I was awake (brutal), and it reminded me that I was not in control. That is a lesson that's been very hard to learn. But even with that realization I refused (and still refuse) to live life like a sick person. Smiling through an NG, February 2017 That summer it was discovered that I had almost zero Ferratin (stored iron), so I added a hematologist and iron infusions into my health care repertoire. I also switched medications from Humira, which was not working, to Stelara. Stelara is a bi-monthly injection that I am still taking to this day and (knock on wood) has been relatively successful at keeping my disease in check. In August my surgeon declared my absce...