well..

Okay everyone, I'm supposed to be the mentor...the one lifting others up...so I'm going to try and turn this around and make it a positive.

I am very lucky to have a good working relationship with my insurance group. Our director of benefits for the university system is a wizard. If he had a role in the national health care system, it would be in good hands. Honestly, he thinks out of the box, he considers expenses to the plan and the patient, evaluates potential efficiencies of resources including the time and family issues of the patient and creates very sound fiscal and human options for our members. He's a genius. Because of him, all my insurance issues were resolved and I was able to get my Remicade Friday - in Bozeman - with zero copay. The plan paid less, I didn't have to drive 90 miles for my treatment and my finances didn't take a hit. Win, win.

I was late getting this treatment, largely because of life happening and a lot of the happenings were really good...but I'm paying for it. When I went in for my infusion I had a fever - and I've been feeling Crohnsy for a couple weeks...low right quadrant pain, general soreness and fatigue, feverish, diarrhea (which is actually weird for me, but we can discuss that later). It's just tough right now. Work is super busy - last week was kind of the culmination so this week should be a little better; my family life is in a bit of a tough spot, and I'm still trying to save my house.

I mention this here only because it affects my overall stress load significantly and though Crohn's is certainly not caused by stress, we all know that when we are in a bout, stress seems to complicate things. Anyway, I found a bank willing to do a new appraisal for no cost to me, so that is something to maybe look forward to... I've been jerked around so much over a new mortgage for the last year that I'm not willing to get too excited about it just yet..but at least there is some miniscule amount of hope there.

So how is all this positive, well - I did get my infusion and I"m sure that it will help get me back to feeling good soon. I'm going on my low fiber low residue diet for awhile at least and will really be concentrating on listening to my body. I've been here before and I'll get through it. I"m super happy actually to have Team Challenge...there is a built in support group there and it means a lot. Maybe some of my teammates can find strength in knowing that we all have struggles and we'll get through them together. I haven't run in five days...which is a huge bummer for the spirit as much as anything. Two of those days I got some good exercise, just not running, but the last three I"ve been pretty much laid up. I'm going to take a walk later and see how that goes - getting outside always seems to be a big help. I see my GI on Tuesday so that will shed some light too. ONe thing I know, for me, is that exercise helps so I'll be back to running no later than Tuesday...as long as I can, I will.

SO I'm going to get going. Will rest up today, get the house and kids ready for school and work and be ready to tackle life with new zest come tomorrow!

Fight on, Team Challenge!