The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that my blog has changed. In place of a spine in the background, there is now a rather attractive image of the human digestive tract (believe me, there were plenty worse I could have chosen from!) Also, my strapline is different. This is because a new element has been added to my already complex health picture: Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Most people, myself included, would never think to connect digestive system pathology with arthritis. The two conditions seem completely unrelated. In fact, how they are related is still something of a mystery, but what is known for sure is that approximately 20% of people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease also display some form of arthritis, which is often in the form of spondylitis (arthritis of the spine). There is a good summary of the condition to be found here:
http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/enteropathic-arthritis#1
My personal story is that recently I have been experiencing severe diarrhoea, abdominal pain and weight loss, which eventually culminated in an admission to the Royal London Hospital for a week in mid-December. Although the diagnosis is as yet unconfirmed, it is most likely to be Crohn's Disease, one of the two main types of IBD which can affect any part of the digestive tract. Mine appears to be in my small and large bowel, which as you might expect has caused a lot of difficulty in absorbing nutrients from food. The gastroenterologists have treated the inflammation aggressively with steroids, which appears to have helped; I am now waiting to hear as to the confirmation of the diagnosis and the extent of the inflammation via biopsies and scans undertaken during my time in hospital.
You might think that all of this is yet another blow to my health situation. It is indeed a lot to take in, and there are still many uncertainties with regards the disease extent and severity. But in fact, I had been warned by my rheumatologist in Bath that something like this might happen. He looked at my family history of Crohn's and the arthritis with which I presented to him and joined the dots correctly. I am almost looking forward to walking into my outpatient's appointment with him in January and telling him the news - it appeals to my Dr. House-like sense of diagnostic completion!
For now, this is a brief update post in between resting and Christmas festivities. In the future, I am hoping to write more on my blog about my experiences in hospital, living with IBD and the balancing act required to treat both Crohn's and the associated arthritis. For now, I would encourage you to read and learn more about IBD via the following website: www.nacc.org.uk. Perhaps due to British squeamishness about all-things toilet-related, IBD seems to me to be an under-recognised condition which is viewed as something of an embarrassment. I want to raise the profile of my newly-diagnosed condition and thereby hopefully help people understand what it is like to live with IBD, thus hopefully improving attitudes to those who suffer from Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis.
But in the meantime, have a Wonderful Christmas! And don't eat too much :-)
