Most Recent Test Results

Well....I wish I had good news, but I don't. Last Tuesday, I had some blood work done, and my sediment rate was 107. Hemoglobin was 10.2. So ultimately, inflammation has not reduced in the past month and I'm anemic again. Arrgh. But my appointment with Dr. Sigmon gave me more focus on holistic healing than I have ever had.

This nasty disease has 50-80% ending in surgury:( Treatment starts with aminosalicylates. This is basically one of the meds I was given when I was first diagnosed, mesalamine, and may help reduce inflammation. According to Dr. Sigmon, it only works in 25% of Crohn's patients.

The next level of treatment is oral steroids. This also is one of the medications I was given when I was first diagnosed. Budesonide is the one I was prescribed. It's an immune suppressant. Without going into a huge amount of explanation, the pyramid of treatment is shown below. A Crohn's sufferer will usually start at the bottom of the pyramid, and as the body develops a tolerance for the medication they have to go to the next level of treatment.

Hopefully you live a full life before you reach the top level:-(

When I arrived at my doctor's office, I really thought that Dr. Sigmon would be mad because he recommended that I start taking Asacol the last visit approximately five weeks ago. And now here I arrive after not taking his advise. When I explained to him that I didn't start taking the medication, and that I was trying to control the symptoms by diet, I really expected him to get mad at me. But he didn't.

I explained a little bit about the diet I was on, and mentioned candidly, that it was very boring. His response was, "but you're likely the healthy person I've met today."

Ultimately, I decided to stay on the holistic approach because that visit convinced me that if I go with the medical route, it likely will end in surgery. If I stay on the holistic route, I will likely become healthier and add year to my life. As your body battles this disease for years on the medical route, you take years off of your life. But on the holistic approach, the diet itself is so healthy, you add years to your life, and once the ulcers are healed, my life will be back to being close to normal.

I don't wish this disease upon any one. It is nasty, and it sucks that I have to deal with it, but my visit with Dr. Sigmon that day just reinforced how I need to stay focused and committed to my diet and holistic healing.