This holiday was on Sunday. I love ravioli!
To have a day devoted to it is awesome! I usually have the beef filled ones. But, I've also had spinach and artichoke, a mix of different cheeses, and a pesto filling. Probably others that I can't remember at the moment, but shows a little bit of the variety out there. There's a bunch of different sauces you can have with them, or just have them by themselves. I actually like most dumpling-like things.
Monday was National French Bread Day. A nice, crispy, just came out of the oven French bread is the best. St. Patrick's Day was last Thursday. I kind of think of it as: Getting In Touch With My Irish Heritage Day.
We did our annual traditional Irish-American corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and soda bread dinner. The soda bread had sugar on it this time, which was pretty good. People used to warn me about soda bread. That it's an 'acquired' taste.
I liked it the moment I had it. I think it was like that with mince meat pie, too. (The modern sweet version, not the actual traditional savory one.) Having the soda bread sweet is interesting. I think I like both versions.
Tonight's the start of Purim. I'm not going to any parties for it this year.
I might dress up in costume tomorrow.
Might reuse parts of my Halloween costume...Or at least just wear the ears, maybe the mask I didn't wear on Halloween (it's weird, I'll take another look at it), the choker, and maybe some cat earrings. I have quite a lot of cat-themed earrings. Just simple and fun. It's a lot like Halloween in many ways. People dress up in costumes (either of the characters from the story, or as other people/creatures/things/etc.), you usually eat candy, the adults are told to drink enough so we can't tell the difference between the villain (Haman) and one of the heroes (Mordechai), there are special triangular pastries/cookies with a variety of fillings for it (hamantaschen), sometimes people act out the story through skits, sometimes there are carnivals, etc. It's a lot of fun.
I actually can't drink, so I can't do that part, but there's plenty of other great stuff to it. When the story's recited, we tend to do different things once certain names are read. Like, stomp our feet, boo, and/or use groggers or noise makers when Haman's brought up. I know that the congregation I like the most usually has a pretty sizable crowd for Purim. Since I'm still on an immunosuppressant, I don't want to be in a potential environment where I could easily get sick.
I got sick there after going to Yom Kippur evening services. I'm trying to protect myself from getting sick, yet again, as best I can at the moment. It's only been a little over a month since I was last sick. I can have my own party at home, and maybe watch vids for it, too.
I have different versions of the megillah I can read from, as well. Last week was tough for me physically.
My IBD suddenly got worse last Monday. The pain has pretty much been constant, but frequently fluctuating between 'annoyance' and 'can't stand it anymore'.
So, I emailed my gastroenterologist on Thursday. She responded surprisingly quickly. About an hour and half later. She sounded very worried. She wanted me to do a blood test and another nasty test right away. I got to the blood test last Friday. I couldn't do that other test. With the way it would have been done there, I think I would have passed out.
In the near future, I might try the clinic where I had it done last time. They were able to do the part I might pass out on...If I can't do that one, I'll have to get a sigmoidoscopy. At least, that's what she said before this email. Not sure how it'll be now. I'm scared of that, too. As of right now, I've gotten 3 blood test results back. One was a basic panel that they always order for people, one for the ALT, and the last one was for my sed rate. I was normal with the first 2. Although, a couple of readings for the basic panel were close to breaking out of the normal range. The ALT one can indicate liver damage. So, yay! No liver damage!
My sed rate was actually the closest its been since they started monitoring it. It measures inflammation, and can be an indicator of remission. I've come very close to the remission range for it once before, but it just got worse over time after that. The normal range is 0-20mm/hr. I had 26 this time. My highest, back at the end of June, was at 44. According to that, I like that it seems I'm getting close to remission again. However, I don't 'feel' better.
I actually haven't felt this bad in months. My symptoms seem to be just as bad as they were back then, too. (Although, at times in different ways.) I'm getting really frustrated and scared of it.
Hopefully the other blood tests will show something that reflects what's happening with me. Maybe that nasty test I've been avoiding will indicate something. The blood tests might not be enough. I think my gastro mentioned something like that before. I scheduled an appointment with her the week before I emailed her. It's for the beginning of next month. I thought that was pretty soon, but she wanted me to make an 'urgent' one for sooner. There was only one available in between now and then. It was close to that date anyways, so I'm sticking with it. She definitely thinks I'll have to switch to remicade or humira now, and wants to discuss it at that appointment. This scares me, too.
She wanted to prescribe prednisone 'in the meantime'.
I just got off of it last month. Plus, one of my main symptoms might have been brought on by it. I also had some bad side effects. Just as I started taking prednisone, I went down a dose of azathioprine, and down a dose of balsalazide. Now that the prednisone has made it out of my system (supposedly it takes a month after you finish taking it), I have less meds in my system to combat it or keep it at bay. It makes sense that it'd be hitting me hard.
My body couldn't stand being at the dose of azathioprine that my gastro wanted me at. The balsalazide helped a great deal at the beginning, but it seemed to become useless after a while. She wants me to stop taking it after I'm through with my current prescription of it. I think that's in a few days. So, the only thing I'll be on for a little while, for this at least, will be the azathioprine at a lower dose than what would supposedly help me. That's also a scary thing to think about.
I've been kind of in a waiting game for a while already. Haven't really found the right med since I was diagnosed back in July. I remember, at the beginning, my gastro said it might take a while...Maybe my body's reacting before it shows up on things like blood tests? Also, I'm going to space out what little of azathioprine I have until my next batch arrives. So, I might be in even more pain. But, at least I would have some of it in me, rather than nothing at all. I should get my new prescriptions soon, though. To somewhat distract me from this, I joined Instagram. It's been interesting.
People seem to really like my pics.
I've been experimenting a bit with the filters, too. I'm starting to like them, and for a lot of pics, they seem better with those filters. I'm also thinking of taking at least one pic a day and posting it on there. I might not post all of them on other places. Although, that might be different for deviantART. I managed to get enough gumption to take a selfie of myself.
I've always felt weird about being in pics. (Same with being in a video and audio recordings. Even if the recording is just me playing my clarinet.) It was worse when I was at my heaviest. Now that I've lost so much, I'm a lot better about it. Although, I still feel a bit weird. Hopefully, that will change more in the future.
Took a pic of Rosie today. She almost seemed to be saying: "Ah, you humans, taking a picture of me again!" But, she's so cute, and she was staring at me for a while. It's tempting if you stare at me like that...
I was so nervous on Saturday about what's going on with me, I decided to message someone who also has Crohn's. I've also known her for a while. Used to go to the same synagogue. Didn't know she had it until recently. Anyways, we ended up going to brunch at a local breakfast place called Elmer's yesterday to talk. After that we went to a place called Mora for ice cream. I got half a scoop of cheesecake brownie ice cream, and the other half was dulce de leche ice cream. They have about 3 different kinds of 'dulce de leche' ice cream. I got the original. They have such a wide variety, it can be hard to choose. But, I think I chose wisely.
After that we talked more in the driveway as she dropped me off. It was nice to talk to somebody who might at least somewhat understand what you're going through. Although, everyone is different with this thing. Interestingly, I went back out to Elmer's for a late dinner. Found a new fave there, too. It was their pot roast dinner. The beef gravy was probably the best part of it, but the rest was good too.
Tonight, Dad and I went to a place called the Boat Shed. She had a gift card that I think was given to her for her presentation at a medical assistants' meeting. Pretty cool. The dinner in total, after the gift card and without the tip, ended up being $6. That's $6 for 2 people...
That's really good. The only downside really was getting there. It's a bit weird. We ended up having to go down a long staircase, and it's literally right on the water. It was also raining, which made things a bit slick. At least they had a railing for the stairs. I got their smoked salmon. It was decent, but needed a touch more flavor.
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