Daily Archives: August 7, 2019

Let’s do this! December eminently is a month of looking back on the year gone by. 2018 was a year of health challenges for me. Sometimes it seemed to go uphill a bit and in the summer, it suddenly went downhill, rapidly and unexpectedly, resulting in  a sigmoid/fistula resection in October, due to an ongoing (3,5 years) flare […]

A new year! I wish all our readers a healthy 2019 and I hope your wishes will come true. My personal wish for 2019 is getting more energy then last year. Halfway through September I had a sort of crash. My energy was very low and my body was protesting a lot. An injury to […]

Wow! On February 11, we welcomed our 500rd visitor on our page. Thank you so much!  Making and uploading vlogs under the header movement, is still a challenge. Please bear with us, we will get there! Also in February, we made a Facebook page. So, hop over and visit us there too. Liking en sharing is caring. We will announce new blogs  on there and we will also give tips and pointers. Then over to the nitty gritty of daily life. Basically, I was doing so well after surgery. I was working out at my physical therapist, I picked up swimming; I was happy like a fish in the water. And then, halfway through January, I suddenly became beyond  tired. Going from bed to couch as a true couch potato. After a few days, colon trouble started again and I had to get myself into the ER. Sigh. I was so hoping this would  all be over after the resection of last October. Big and tearjerking desillusion! The CRP (the inflammation marker) did not confirm inflammation. But, I almost  never make fever and also my CRP never rises significantly, not even when severly  inflamed. This makes it difficult to come to a correct Western diagnosis, because of their  protocols. So, every time, I have to tell them to test sugar and cholesterol. And low and behold, those markers were rising. Sigh again. There was also trouble with my vitamin B12. They were trying to scale back on the shots, but once every two months turned out not to be enough for me. Actually, it was a very bad idea to scale them  back right after surgery, because, anesthesia eats B12 so to say. After the shot at the beginning of February, some of the much needed energy came back. The shots will be given every 6 weeks now. Wait and see what happens, see if my body agrees with those 6 weeks. A blog on B12 will follow, since this vitamin influences so many bodily processes and so many ailments can be connected to a lack of vitamin B12. Also in January, the doctor that threw me out of the hospital last July with a perfora- ted colon, finally called and made excuses for her late reaction to my complaint of  August. She had been busy and was forgetful. Pffft! She also made excuses for the fact that she made a huge mistake by discharging me from the hospital in July. At the end of January, we met up, had a face-to-face talk, more excuses, we  discussed the operation report and she ordered a CT-scan. I did not have a CT scan after surgery, so I really liked this suggestion. The CT-scan will take place March 14. Geez, they must be really busy at radiology! I am still trying to get more and more fiber in my diet. Every day it is a finding out, a trying out, which foods agree with my intestines. My dietician put me on the Fodmap diet. You can read about Fodmap under the header Food & Drinks.  Fodmap is most commonly used with IBS (irriable bowel disease), but it can also work for other kind of colon trouble. By the way, you can read about IBS under the header health. The first phase is elemination: all foods that are high in Fodmaps are taken out, with the purpose of giving the colon a rest. After 6 weeks, you can start adding foods […]

The month March started with a few days of Carnival. Carnival is a Christian celebration that preceeds the 40 sober days leading  uo to Easter and is mostly celebrated in the south of Holland. In our village, a number of cafes were closed and we actually have one cafe and the community center left. The result is that is is packed with people everywhere. Apart from pleasure, it […]

In March I had my CT-scan with dye and an appointment with my GI specialist. I was so scared! And I was over the moon to hear that there was no leackage and that there are no inflammations at the moment. I did a happy dance with my Dwarrel pug-man when I came home! There are a lot of adhesions though, […]