After the inital diagnosis, colonoscopy, and confirmation of Crohn's, my battle with medicines began. I remember a lady at our church praying that all I would have to do was take pills! Well, God answered that one - I eventually was taking anywhere from 15-19 pills everyday. I felt like some type of druggie! For those of you who don't know me very well, I don't do pills. I barely would take anything unless absolutely necessary. My biggest pill experience was trying to remember to take a daily vitamin or antihistamine during allergy season.
I was put on Entocort EC - 3 pills 1 time a day to start. This is a steroid, but it's supposed to be non-systemic - meaning it only releases in the digestive system and isn't supposed to cause all of the nasty side effects like a regular steroid would. My biggest issue with the medication was that it caused dizziness.
Later on - perhaps 3 months later, I was also given Pentasa - which is supposed to help induce remission. I also had to drastically alter my diet. Doctors will tell you that it shouldn't matter what you eat, but experience told me otherwise. Crohn's disease is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in your intestine. It was obvious to me that certain foods aggravated my condition. Not knowing where to start, I thought let's go bland for a while. Well, I kind of got sick of eating food that is basically all white. White potatoes, chicken noodle soup, bread, etc. got old real fast, like less than a week. I decided to purchase a couple of books to help me out. On Amazon.com, I found two great choices for me: Eating Right for a Bad Gut and 100 Questions and Answers About Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. They were very informative and comprehensive books.
My next post will be about what my diet consists of.
