{"id":989,"date":"2013-05-02T12:05:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T16:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vg-ford.com\/?p=989"},"modified":"2013-05-02T12:05:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T16:05:39","slug":"lifepersonalillness-living-with-a-chronic-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/?p=989","title":{"rendered":"(life\/personal\/illness) Living with a chronic disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those who may not have heard, I went into the hospital Friday night and stayed there until Tuesday night. \u00a0I have Crohn’s Disease<\/a>, and although most of the time I have it very well controlled, even I can get flares. \u00a0And this was a major one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I haven’t had a flare this bad since before I was married (nearly 15 years ago, in fact). \u00a0Most of my friends tend to forget I have this disease, because I try not to make a big deal about it (it’s my problem, after all, not anyone else’s) and because for the most part, it’s not a problem. \u00a0I know what I can and can’t eat (most of the time). \u00a0I know I need to take care of myself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, I got complacent. \u00a0I forgot I was sick, and worse, I forgot that stress just makes Crohn’s worse. \u00a0It’s been a rough spring – work is busy, life is busy, and I’m busy. \u00a0I like being busy, for the most part. \u00a0But it got to the point where I overwhelmed myself, and the only way my body could stop me was by putting me in enough pain that I had to drag myself to the emergency room.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was diagnosed with a raging UTI, a fibroid, a budding fistula, and a swollen bowel. \u00a0In addition, I hadn’t eaten more than 500 calories total per day in the last week (I’m JUST now getting to actually eating real food again), and I was dehydrated. \u00a0This is just from not taking care of myself. \u00a0The GI doctor I spoke to in the hospital said if I hadn’t come in (and I had to be pushed by my manager to do so), I was probably about 2 days away from blowing a hole in my small bowel. \u00a0 That’s a recovery time of 4-6 MONTHS (if I’m lucky).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So I’m recovering. \u00a0Work has been fabulous, and I’m applying for Short Term Disability. \u00a0I’m going to take this time to relax, to write a bit, to catch my breath and let my body heal. \u00a0And hope that this time, the lessons don’t begin to fade after time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those who may not have heard, I went into the hospital Friday night and stayed there until Tuesday night. \u00a0I have Crohn’s Disease, and although most of the time I have it very well controlled, even I can get flares. \u00a0And this was a major one.   I haven’t had a flare this bad …<\/p>\n

>>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,12],"tags":[78,7,60],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-personal","tag-health","tag-life","tag-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}