So I thought I should do an update about where I my journey is at. As you know having a chronic illness means the fight never ends. So last year I begun training at the gym again and was really enjoying it starting to feel much better about myself once I had my drugs sorted out. However, in April I started to have severe abdominal pain, I had recently had a colonoscopy so I was surprised as the crohns didn't appear active during that although it was noted their were some narrow areas. This pain has been persistent, ongoing and prevented me from doing things. We followed the usual protocols when monitoring crohns a CT revealed some stringy areas but no thickening of the bowel wall so wasn't worried it was serious.
The Panadol I was taking wasn't reducing the pain so I asked for stronger painkillers, which they where happy to give but when they said the next in protocol was codeine based painkillers I asked for something without codeine as it can bind you up and cause more pain if it is narrowing. This threw the system through a loop a patients wanting stronger pain meds but refusing oxycodone. The prednisone didn't seem to have any impact and the antibiotics did I believe it is most likely an infection not inflammation causing the problem so am again getting off the steroids and taking a bigger dose of antibiotics hoping this will end the pain. But I have had to cancel my gym registration which is disappointing and am doing less than I am comfortable with. I have taken a leave of absence from my board role so that I don't make the same mistakes I made when being on pain killers previously when I was in employment. I regret burning some bridges then but I didn't realise at the time as we push through when we are sick and sometimes we don't realise the consequences of that.
So now I am getting ready for winter, hoping this pain goes away without the need for intervention and I can get back on with my life. I really hope to find a new opportunity for a new experience and new challenge that isn't health related in the near future. Because we remember the experiences we have we don't remember the challenges we had to have them.