Previously...

The posts before this one were posted as webpages, not blog pages. This is no doubt why my updating quit...writing the code, hashing over tummy problems, and frustration was not tops on my list. I had started a new job, was trying desperately to keep it, and so on. I landed back in the hospital in September 2003 for another 10 days. The 6-mp dosage caused leukopenia and some other not so fun symptoms. I got out of the hospital, a bunch of tests that told us nothing new, a possible surgery in the offing, and again lots of drugs. They switched the 6-MP for Imuran (azathioprine), but pretty much the same batch as after the previous hospitalization.

I went back to work, sick and struggling to be ok enough to keep the job. I did keep it. But at home things were a bit frayed. I just dropped when I got home. I couldn't play with the kids, couldn't fix dinner, (often couldn't even look at food). It was bad. Really, really bad.

The azathioprine eventually kicked in well enough that finally I wasn't living in the bathroom last summer after a bunch of dosage changes. The cortenemas make reappearring visits. I have been on prednisone several times. I catch everything under the sun. I flare on a fairly regular but livable basis. Surgery hasn't sounded appealling enough yet. I keep hanging in for something that really will work. In the meantime, avoiding the killer foods, being careful about all food, trying not to get too exhausted, too hot, around sick people, has to do. Sometimes this works better than other times. The rest is realizing that pain meds, nausea meds and a day in bed might be the best thing some days. Still here I am, hating it.