So, through the early 2000's I concentrated on raising my boys, working and just living life. I started exercising again after my 3rd son. I started most days with an early morning workout before work, get dressed and go straight to work. Mike had his routine for getting the boys up and to daycare and school and I took over after work. It helped that I worked at the gym where I worked out so it cut down on my travel time. I started with treadmill and weights and eventually added spinning to my routine. Pre-kids, Mike used to go on long bike rides on the weekends and I would go on short rides (mostly fundraising type that were supported or on trails). When I got into spinning, we started riding more on the roads (it was nerve-racking getting used to cars flying by!) on weekends when we free time and a babysitter. My longest ride was the MS150 although I only did 100 miles, it was my longest ride ever! I also started doing Pilates and walking. I even completed 2 half marathons during the summer of 2009. I wasn't one of those super crazy exerciser but knew that it made me felt better and helped keep my Crohn's and stress level under control.
As a young couple, one of our dreams was to teach our kids to ski so we could go as a family. We started our oldest while he was in kindergarten and gradually added the other two. It was fun taking them to the local hill and watching them learn and have fun.
I was taking Imuran regularly but also started having an occasional bout off feeling "clogged" or worse a bowel obstruction that I could usually wait out and stop eating until it cleared. Sometimes it would take vomiting to straighten things out but I tried to avoid going to the ER at all costs to avoid being admitted. I was too busy to spend a few days in the hospital! My GI was aware of my obstructions and prescribed the normal tests, barium series and colonoscopy. But my issues always seemed to be above the scope area and since I wasn't having the blockages consistently, he didn't want to operate. (I totally agreed with this!)
On Wednesday January 27th, things started normally with a work-out, work and plan for lunch. Around 11:30 I felt the familiar pain of a blockage coming on, by noon I knew I wasn't going to lunch and asked a friend to drive me home. I texted Mike that I was having someone drive me home, he knew it was bad because I never relied on someone else to get me home! By the next morning, I knew I needed to call my GI and be checked out. By that afternoon, I was in my own room with pain meds and an NG tube. (For those of you that don't know what an NG tube is, it's a nasogastric tube inserted through your nose, down your throat into your stomach to drain the contents. It is so NOT my favorite thing!). The plan was to wait and see if things would start moving on their own. In the mean time I also consulted a surgeon just in case surgery became an option. On Saturday, I was visited by a covering GI who had looked at my labs and saw that my albumin levels were very low and wanted to have a PICC line inserted in my arm and TPN started. TPN??? What was that?? I had no idea what was happening except that I was frightened. He also explained that I needed the nutrition in case I was going to have surgery. Since things weren't changing, I knew that Surgery was a huge possibility. So I consented to having the TPN started figuring it was temporary until after surgery and I was stronger. For a few more days things were in a holding pattern....I will leave the story for now but want to share a few pictures of me Living, Loving and Laughing before my life changed!
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