We all (well most of us) take pills at some point in our life for one thing or another such as headaches,toothache, menstrual cramps you name it! before I got my diagnosis of Crohns Disease I never imagined that I’d have to take tablets everyday for any reason. after being given a diagnosis of IBS I was given Buscopan which worked for a short period of time, I was even given it in the form of an injection a couple times when I took myself to A&E of course the relief was short lived because  as I am now aware I was suffering from a bit more than just abdominal cramps. I was even taking charcoal tablets at one point because we thought it might have been severe trapped wind as I was also getting back pains (of course that didn’t help).

As you know I was eventually diagnosed with Crohns in 2008 I was then put on Prednisolone 8 tablets a day! I was quite surprised at how many pills i was having to take but naively thought once I’d finished that course that would be it and I’d be sorted….but nope that didn’t happen and I went on to have surgery and you know what the result of that was from my first post! Since then the pills just kept coming lol I was on antibiotics after catching a hospital bug following my first surgery (I may talk about that at a later date) Iron tablets, vitamin D tablets, Folic acid, more steroid treatment and Azathioprine! im pretty sure ive probably missed a few out some where but yes at some points I felt like a walking chemist lol

It can be hard to keep track of all the different medication and they don’t exactly always have the easiest names to remember…or pronounce lol after my second surgery I decided after a little while that I didn’t want to be on medication because I was concerned that it may have been having an affect on my fertility (yep I feel another post coming on!) I was advised against it but I refused their advise because after all (even though they are qualified) it is my choice and I am allowed to make this decision, that was in 2015.

but like most things good and bad, it came to an end

I did well without medication no flares or anything, but like most things good and bad, it came to an end this year and I went back on Azathioprine after experiencing signs of a flare up and blood results that confirmed this, if I’m honest the signs were probably there from the year before as  I had lost a significant amount of weight with no explanation (red flag!!) so back on Azathioprine I went.

All was well for a while but then I had a pretty bad flare up that lasted a while and wouldn’t settle so we discussed the possibility of trying biologics if things didn’t settle down unfortunately it didn’t improve and I ended up being admitted to hospital (Here I watched the Royal wedding) had more blood tests which showed that I was still in active flare so the decision was made to start me on Humira.

So far everything is going well I’ve not had any noticeable side effects yet from the medication although I do have to be very careful not to put myself at risk of infection so if someone have a cold I should try to avoid too much contact with them (so far so good), I inject once every 2 weeks and still continue to take my Azathioprine, I still have issues with vitamin D (yep more pills) but we’ve been having some good weather recently so that should boost it up a bit! and!! I also found out I was anaemic so I’m also taking Iron tablets for that!

It really can be a mountain of pills at times but in the end I’m grateful that I have a solution as there are many people suffering with illness and unable to find relief! or people taking a mountain of pills too but not feeling any much better.

One thing that does help me through most days is just trying to keep a positive attitude (doesn’t always work) and not focus too much on the negatives as the negatives are probably what will have the most effect on my health overall!