One of the auto immune diseases I have is Crohn\u2019s disease.
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I don\u2019t know how to explain it. I\u2019ve never been sort of a religious pill taker having been raised by my mother, whom we spent a lot of time telling got her doctor certificate from the readers digest, but mom was all about supplements and trying to negate the possibility of dementia\u2026.. over the years she probably took $1 million worth of supplements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have my regular meds blister packed by my pharmacy\u2026 a lot of people have their vitamins blister packed as well but one of the meds I take, is six huge horse pills, which takes up about half of the blister pack so I don\u2019t have my supplements added to them. Being neurodivergent I have had to work out a routine that I kind of have for myself about taking pills\u2026.it started out with me not allowing myself to have a cup of coffee in the morning until I brush my teeth and take my pills and I\u2019ve been doing it for so long that it\u2019s just second nature\u2026. I don\u2019t think I really wake up for it anymore..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s what I feel about the vitamin D situation\u2026. when I moved to Victoria my Crohn\u2019s was the worst it\u2019s ever been\u2026.I was sicker than a dog, my stress levels were through the roof and i was in a flare that had lasted a little over a year. Eventually the inflammation hit my hips and I was unable to walk\u2026.couldn’t even get myself to the washroom. My mom called an ambulance and had me hauled off to the local hospital where they physically draining fluid from my hips\u2026. You should\u2019ve seen the size of the needles\u2026gak! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was in the hospital about a month and during that time was when Mal told me what Linda had suggested about Vitamin D. I of course immediately pooh-poohed the idea because I\u2019d spent my whole life living with a person who used to hide lecithin powder in our peanut butter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was also during that hospital stay that I discovered a whole raft of over-the-counter meds and clinical meds that I can\u2019t take. I can\u2019t take Demerol. I can\u2019t take codeine I can\u2019t take ibuprofen. I can\u2019t take\/use most NSAIDS\u2026 no kind of anti-inflammatories and most sleeping meds\u2026 which really sucks because the doctors kept trying to put me on anti-inflammatories trying to get my body to stop flaring and for the longest time and they didn\u2019t connect to the idea that what was going on in my joints was connected to my Crohn\u2019s.
Eventually through that hospital stay I became the patient of an amazing woman who was a gastroenterologist, and because I was unemployed and so sick she gave me the meds I needed to take for my Crohn\u2019s and for a couple of years and she gave me the meds religiously every month. The med that I was taking at that time was a drug called Salofalk that is also known as pureinethol or 6MP. And I took a shit ton of those pills for years\u2026.also, for some reason the manufactures of salofalk would stop making the pills every year in September so by the end of the year everybody was scrounging and back in flare (I was getting my winter meds through a friend that worked in a pharmacy in Minnesota for cripes sake)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast forward to another conversation, I would suggest in the early 2010\u2019s with Mal when she reiterated what Linda had said, and suggested, I should be taking at least 3000 units of vitamin D a day. I discussed it with my gastroenterologist, who said it can\u2019t hurt\u2026. so I started taking one or 2000 units of vitamin D when I remembered, there wasn\u2019t any kind of regularity to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within six months I was in remission, no more mucus, no more bleeding but best of all no more pain\u2026.it seem that the vitamin D and the Salofalk in combination was what my particular Crohn\u2019s disease needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve had a couple of my minor Crohn\u2019s flares in the year since, but nothing like they were before. The challenge with Crohn\u2019s disease is that the only organ in your body that they don\u2019t think can be affected by Crohn\u2019s is your bladder but it can affect everything else and no two people have the same disease which makes it harder for Western medicine to get on top of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I truly believe that the vitamin D I take is the reason I\u2019m walking still, and no longer incontinent. Which could be a really big deal. (If ya get my drift) As a result of my email exchange with Linda I upped my vitamin D intake to 5000 units a day\u2026 My biggest blessing I guess considering how much stuff I have to take is that I can take a fistful of pills at once. I don\u2019t know that I would be as diligent if I had to take all those bloody things one at a time.
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One of the auto immune diseases I have is Crohn\u2019s disease. I don\u2019t know how to explain it. I\u2019ve never been sort of a religious pill taker having been raised by my mother, whom we spent a lot of time … Continue reading