CAC!

Since the awesome experience of my first colonoscopy, my symptoms have not gotten any better. I'm taking 12 pills a day and still having all the same stomach garbage as before. I called my GI today and she told me that the results of the biopsy showed Chronic Active Colitis, which I'm calling CAC. I could still have Crohns Disease, but they're not sure yet. I don't even know how you test for Crohns Diesase, but I don't want it. So, my GI put me on a steroid to get the inflammation under control ASAP. The side effects of steroid therapy all sound awful, including the dreaded weight gain. That scares me and is compounded by the fact that working out has been no fun with the bum hip. The good news is I'll be on a low dose, and decreasing that dose after 5 days. I used to get so embarrassed when my Mimi would ask me if I'd had a "BM" that day. Who knew that 15 years later I'd be keeping a journal about it.

Here we go.

I decided to start blogging about my health issues so that I can keep everyone abreast of what's going on, and track everything my doctors are telling me and how I'm feeling about it. For me lately, when it rains it pours. In late September, after a run on a treadmill during a work trip, my right hip started hurting. It wasn't that kind of soreness pain that I'm used to as an athlete, it was an "uh-oh something's wrong" kind of pain. Plus, it didn't go away. After lots of back and forth, and one super lame diagnosis, it's been determined that I have Femoral Acetabular Impingement. Also, in late fall of 2008 I started having some, ahem, digestive issues. Just like my hip, the issues never went away. Once I saw blood in early 2009 I made a doctor appointment. After lots of blood tests, some humbling stool samples, and a colonoscopy, they diagnosed me with either Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's Disease. I'll find out what it is officially when they complete the biopsies from the samples taken during my colonoscopy. It's been quite a lot to process.