Quote:
Originally Posted by LisaJohn
Hemorrhoids
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Yup. If you don’t have a bowel disease, and the blood is bright red, that’s the ticket.
I’ve been bleeding for decades. In my case, it’s the lining of my gut is being ulcerated from Crohns. I lose enough blood (I digest some too) I get anemia. I just finished five iron infusions. I get two colonoscopies a year. I wake up in a hospital about twice a year.
I remember the first time. I was doing a keynote speech for a huge conference. In the green room I filled the bowel with blood. I didn’t know I had the disease. I was FREAKED. I had to buck up and to the speech. They were paying handsomely. (I think $10k IIRC). ****ing terrifying.
In Afghanistan I got food poisoning and puked so violently I broke a blood vessel in my neck. So I was like a blood sprinkler from both ends. Disturbing. Corpsman looked like he was going to faint.
It doesnt always happen but sometimes it goes for months. An amazing quantity. Large clots plop out. Disgusting.
One more thing. People think Crohns is “the pooping disease” as in the chocolate sprints. Some have diarrhea 15-20x a day (my poor 80 yo mom
) because the disease is attacking the large bowel.
But the disease does way more. We get rheumatoid arthritis. We get mental problems, skin psoriasis, severe fatigue, sometimes confusion.
No everyone has a bag (very few). We take cancer drugs to tamp down our immune system to stop the attacks. It works pretty well.
Mine attacks my small bowel so food can be slow moving through because of narrowing and rings of scar tissue from ulcerating. More importantly the special cells that absorb nutrients are replaced with regular scar tissue.
I worked in the oil field and took a lot of nsaids. They destroyed my gut. Now I can’t absorb nutrients. My immune system is attacking my small bowel, my joints and my optic nerves. I’ll be legally blind by 65 or so.
Much of your brain chemistry is in the gut. Serotonin is made in the gut. People who’s guts are ****ed up, have depression and anxiety. And huge fatigue. I can’t sleep so when aimpost crazy stuff, that’s the ambien talking. Sometimes I go on prednisone then I get manic.
Don’t get it confused with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) IBD is (inflammatory Bowel Disease). The difference is the former is inconvenient. It’s not a disease. It’s caused by food in an otherwise healthy system.
The latter, inflammatory Bowel Disease is not food related, it is progressive (gets worse):and incurable. It kills you. Somehow your immune system decided to attack your own body. I’ve had six inches of small bowel cut out in emergency surgery. It will happen again. I was just in the ER Monday with severe abdominal pain. They gave me steroids, morphine and fluids and sent me home. I’ve been on a liquid diet all week. (No booze)
This disease is seriously life altering. We look normal so people don’t get it. I see people with cancer and their friends rally around them, buying groceries, driving to doctors appoints, doing home repair.
We get none of that. I drive myself to chemo. Nobody every helps. I had a singer one say she would come hang out to keep me company. She didn’t I don’t expect anything but when I’m down, I long for help that never comes.
It’s a disease that flares brutally then can go into remission for long periods. I’ve been flaring for almost two years. Sometimes like most of this week I was incapacitated i still managed to work.
I get stuck by needles more than 250x a year. My infusions to control the disease are $25k every six weeks. It takes five hours at the cancer center.