I guess we're about due for an update over here.

I've been off the Specific Carbohydrate Diet now for more than a week, and haven't noticed a single consequence of eating all of these delicious carbohydrates. On the other hand, on Tuesday I missed my morning doses of Asacol and Prednisone, and by the end of the day I was feeling like it. The hip pain had started to creep back in, and my knees felt kind of sore.

On the bright side, my GI asked me to start stepping down on the Prednisone. All week I've been splitting pills and I'm down to 7.5mg a day. I also have an appointment to see him on the 7^th. (I think. I still need to call and confirm that!) No doubt he'll continue stepping me down on the Prednisone, as it's not a long term treatment, but I do worry that after I'm off of it completely, or maybe even before that, the pain will come back. But other than that, I've had nothing to complain about.

If nothing else, I've learned to incorporate some much needed nutrition into my diet in the form of fruits and vegetables. Even though my choices of tolerable F&V's is limited, some is much better than none.

I've been putting on all the weight I lost on the diet, too. I ended up losing a total of nearly 10 pounds, and I've gained about 7 or 8 of them back so far. Even after I get all 10 back, my goal is to put on another 10 or 15, just hopefully in a healthy manner. I'm fine in the mid-section, and I hope my body knows that and sends some upstairs to fill out in the chest & shoulders some, and some downstairs to add some insulation to my chicken legs.

It's been a little bit more than two weeks since I started the specific carbohydrate diet, and with another two weeks left in the experiment I suppose it's time for an update on that topic.

Most days I feel much better. Of the last five days, three registered at a 0.5 or a 0 as far as hip-pain is concerned. Other symptoms are secondary - and were proportionately scant. The problem is, I don't think it's because of the diet. The other two days of the last five - yesterday and today - are coming in at about a 2 and a 2.5 respectively. On Monday night I think I might have missed my evening dose of Asacol, and this morning I took my Prednisone about a half hour later than normal... I've been a little absent minded recently.

And because of the coinciding of the return of my symptoms and my medication flubs, I'm inclined to believe that it's the medication that's helping - not the diet.

That's not to say the diet doesn't have its merits. I'm already eating far healthier than I was before the diet - and I intend to continue that habit with or without the rest of the diet. I'll continue to try new foods and eat fruits & veggies.

But if the past two weeks are any indication of how much the diet will help me after two more, then it's only a matter of time until I remove it's restrictions. (And on that day I'm going to eat a sugar sandwich and wash it down with a tall glass of milk!)

My dad's mom sent me a book about (and called) The Makers Diet which somewhat resembles the SCD. I've read the first few chapters, and the chapter on the diet itself, and decided that if the SCD doesn't help me, then TMD probably won't either. It also doesn't help that while TMD allows certain foods that SCD doesn't, its restrictions seem much more difficult to comply with (ie: goats milk cheese from grass-fed goats). So while I appreciate the thought, it's probably something that's going to be shelved for now.

Physically, I feel great. The G&G walk was a breath of fresh air, and inspired me to try to exercise more often. Megan and I setup our treadmill in the basement, and I intend to use it a few nights a week. And until the last couple of days, I couldn't ask for a better condition to be in.

For anyone interested, here's a few pictures from the Guts & Glory 5k in Philly this last weekend. I have a small photo album up on my other site.

This first one is my mom, my wife Megan, and myself:



The participants gathering at the starting line:



And our finishing time:



I thought about taking a picture of the port-o-potty placed at about the half-mile point, because of the thought about how often some of us might need to stop to use it during the race, but decided against it in the end. ;o)

Probably partly thanks to having our housewarming party on Saturday, I ate like a pig this weekend. A dozen deviled eggs (with home made mayo), SCD legal peanut butter brownies, meatloaf (with home made ketchup), and probably a pound of cheese. I also discovered that (SCD legal) apple cider and vodka is pretty good - probably a lot better than the one mixer suggested in the book: club soda.

This morning and yesterday morning both I came in at 136 pounds even. If I'm going to fluctuate, I sure like the ups a whole lot more than the downs.

I'm still sucking at keeping on top of my spreadsheet, especially when it's inconvenient. During the week its something I do during the first hour or so of work, it's just part of my routine, and it works. Weekends and really busy days are another story. It's tough to remember how much you weighed Saturday morning on Monday morning. But I'm trying.

One of our house warming gifts was a two-pound bag of almond flour that my mom picked up at Whole Foods. Apparently they use the stuff in all of their baked goods (secret ingredient?) - and since they don't sell it in bulk packages in the store, the lady made up a price ($3-something a pound?) and sold it to her like sliced meat from the deli. What a find!

So probably this week some time we're going to experiment and try to use some of it to make pasta. I told Megan that if she does it before I get home she has to take pictures (otherwise I will) - and if it turns out well I'll be sure to post them here and on curecrohns and we_got_guts. At some point we're also going to be making some muffins... and I'm looking forward to the days when I don't have to eat a hard boiled egg and selected fruit for breakfast.

We also have our first batch of yogurt fermenting right now - ETA 6:30 or so tonight. If that turns out well, and we can continue to get cheap almond flour via my mom, then continuing the diet shouldn't be too hard at all.

I forgot to weigh myself yesterday morning, so last night I checked before bed and with my estimated adjustment for clothes, I came in right at my average for the week, at 137.4. This morning, to my amazement, I'm down to 135.4 (no BM yet).

I don't know whether to hope the scale is wrong, or to worry that I'm not eating enough... whatever (fat?) to keep my weight up. Last night after picking at a cesar salad minus dressing and croutons (so, lettuce and parmesan cheese), I had a nice juicy steak and went out of my way to eat the fat attached to it, and some shrimp, and I also had Megan's leftovers - fat included. When we got home I topped it all off with a handfull of bacon.

I'm also on Prednisone which, by all accounts, is supposed to have you gaining weight - not in the most flattering places, albeit, but gaining none the less.

I guess I should re-read the introduction to the diet in the book. I'm kind of worried that you're not supposed to be on this diet without the yogurt portion; and unfortunately we've not yet found a way to make it. I doubt it's the fault of the scale, because Megan hasn't reported abnormal weight loss; so for now I'll just continue to eat every legal thing I can get my hands on. Luckily I have half a bulk box of raisins here, and my boss is planning on taking us out for lunch, so the lunch I brought will be a good afternoon snack, assuming I can find something legal while we're out.

That's sarcasm, by the way.

My company used to have Aetna HMO health insurance. As of 9/15, we're on Keystone HMO - a subsidiary of IBX. Ready for the stress dump? Here we go.

We got our new insurance cards in the mail yesterday - after I got home from work and got the mail. I guess 12 days isn't so bad. They had given us some partial information about our plan on the 18th, and information on how to print out a temporary ID card from the IBX website on the 20th.

Hours prior to opening the letter from IBX with our new cards, I called my PCP's office to check on the status of a referral I requested to get an x-ray that my GI requested. (When I called for the referral on the 15th she said she would call me back once it was in the system and I could go get the x-ray -- I never heard from her.) She said there weren't any active referrals for the x-ray, so we started talking about getting a new one. She asked when my appointment was, and I replied, "I'm going to Paoli hospital - they don't make appointments, it's just walk-in's." To which she replied, "If you have Keystone you can't go to Paoli hospital." Wonderful!

So now in addition to trying to get everything straight with our new insurance provider (as well as the dental insurance company that for whatever reason thought I was born in 1952 and unmarried), I also have to figure out where I can go in the event of an Emergency, and whether or not I want to continue seeing my current PCP. I like him very much. He's a smart guy, and our personalities click in a way that makes me think that were he 20 years younger or I 20 older we would be close friends. But his office is about a 20 minute drive from our house without traffic, and now I can't go to the hospital across the street from there. Megan recently found an office that she seems to like and that's relatively close to our house, so I suppose I'll check them out. I don't want to have to break up with my current PCP though. And all of this makes me wonder if my GI is in-network. Sometimes I have my doubts about him, so I wouldn't be heartbroken to have to look around for a new one, but for the most part he's a smart dude and 8 times out of 10 he'll take whatever time I need to talk to me on the phone or in person about whatever I want.

I know switching insurance is bound to happen and is just "part of life," but add to that the stress of maintaining this diet (yay frustration!); and decorating our house to make it look like we've had it done for months - when really we're just getting as much done as possible before the house-warming party this weekend; and commuting long hours that, while they provide the great experience of working in the city and doing work that I absolutely love, limit the time I get to spend at home (with the wife) to three or four hours a night.

I'm not one to dwell or cry, but it feels good to at least get this off my chest. And now that I've done that, I can call my GI to (leave him a message letting him know that I want to) discuss the diet and the possibility along with the pros and cons of raising my dosage of prednisone.

And once I figure out what doctors I'm going to see, and where I can get an x-ray done, I've got to call back and get another referral, and then go (presumably, after work) one day and have it done.

Apparently one of the attorneys that my mom works for wants to put me in touch with someone he's connected to at NIH to talk about... I have no idea. I'm certainly open to it and all for some free advice.

It's been two weeks since I wrote here, and I wish I could report that "no news is good news" - but unfortunately it isn't. I've just been buried under a pile of life.

I've had marginal improvements. I've been on Prednisone now for what will be two weeks tomorrow. It's already pretty much a solid part of my routine so it feels like I've been taking it for months and I had to go check to see when I said I would be starting it. I suppose it's helping a good bit, but I think I'm going to call my doctor some time this week or next and talk about raising the dosage to see if it can get rid of more or all of the pain. I've still been relying pretty regularly on Tylenol - an average of 1.5 times a day, I guess. Sometimes twice a day, most days once in the morning with all of my other pills, and some days not at all. But one thing's for sure, I haven't taken more than the recommended dose!

I've also taken big steps to improve my diet. I'm still not "officially" on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, mostly because we haven't come up with a good way to ferment the home made yogurt that the diet heavily depends on. But with one or two exceptions I've eliminated bread, pasta, starch, and refined sugar from my diet. I've been eating lots of meat, and, (this is the shock and awe part) been trying lots of new fruits and vegetables.

At this point I know that I can tolerate just about any type of apple enough to get some sustenance out of it - but golden delicious and macintosh are my favorites. I know that I like raisins, and that (green) grapes taste a lot like apples whose center is slimy instead of crispy. I don't think I'll be excitedly cheering next time I have grapes, but I'll eat them. I also plan to have one or two red ones at the grocery store to give those a shot. I had a small piece of an orange and will probably give it a more thorough test-drive this week, and my last run-in with a banana didn't end well.

I've known for a while that in a pinch I could eat peas (ironically the one vegetable my wife doesn't care for), carrots, lettuce, fresh spinach, and corn - which isn't allowed on the SCD. I now know that I vehemently dislike yellow squash, and didn't much care for the zucchini squash - but at least I managed to swallow that one.

The Chart. Yyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhh. That thing. I filled it out for one day and then it kind of fell by the wayside. I know, I suck. I guess it does say a little something about my condition, though. If I felt like this disease was a tremendous weight on my shoulders I would certainly have more conviction about following through with the little things like the chart. I guess, as of today, I'm back on it. And I'm going to leave the gap there to remind me that I was a slacker and didn't touch the chart for 20 straight days.

I continue to lose a little bit of weight here and there. Today I came in at 137.4, which was surely due in part to my haircut last night. I sometimes feel like I'm constantly hungry, but in reality there are always at least two or three hours after a meal where I'm not hungry at all, assuming I ate enough. And that I found my bike-lock.

Lastly, I'll put it out there that I've finally gotten around to starting my team for the Guts & Glory 5K. If you're so inclined, you may make a donation (via credit card) here, or I guess if you're one of the few people I know in ARR ELL (RL: Real Life) and you want to come walk with me, you can join the team. It is kind of ironic that one of the side effects that my Crohn's causes me is difficulty walking and I'm attending a 5K run/walk. (Definitely walk!)

It's time to confess...

For the last month, probably a bit longer, I've been taking a lot of Tylenol. As in, I'm approaching the 100,000mg mark (in the last 30 days). Sometimes, when the pain wasn't bad, I wouldn't take any. Other times, when the pain was really bad, I'd take as much as 2,500mg.

Thank goodness I talked to my GI yesterday. He told me that the lowest recorded lethal dose of Tylenol is just 3500mg, which, is only 7 of my 500mg pills... which sounds like a lot... but I was taking 4 or 5 sometimes.

No more of that!

After talking to the doc last night I decided to give the Tylenol a rest for as long as I could hold out to try and get it all out of my system before putting more back in. I do enjoy having a liver. I limped around all night last night, slept with a warming patch (like a glove warmer, only with a sticky side) stuck to my butt in the spot that I could most closely guess was the center of the pain, and after an agonizing, and probably amusing to watch walk from the train station to work this morning, I took the recommended dose: 1,000mg (2 pills).

Instead of risking my life for marginal relief, the doc wants to put me on 10mg of Prednisone daily - one of the medicine's he had originally offered me - for pain relief. I've read lots of good and lots of bad about Prednisone on we_got_guts and curecrohns, so I guess I'll give it a shot. As far as I'm concerned, things can only get better; and I really want to get this under control before having kids. I don't even want to imagine what life would be like if I couldn't run around and play with them.

Hopefully they'll call in the prescription today and I can start taking it tomorrow.

And as if that wasn't enough, I woke up with symptoms of what's probably a cold.

Yesterday we bought a scale. I don't know why, but for as long as we've lived together (almost a year and a half) we haven't had one. Neither of us were intentionally watching our weight, hoping for it to go down (or in my case, up).

This whole time I've been living a lie.

For the last year and a half I've solemnly believed that I was 6 feet tall, and 145 pounds on a light day, 150 on a heavy day. That's considered skinny, I guess. My collar bones poke out, my ribs are distinguishable from the front, and if you need something that's pinned behind a refrigerator and 2 feet away, its my scrawny arms you come looking for. I've also been told for as long as I can remember that I have "chicken legs", and that I should (quote, un-quote) "eat a hamburger."

One halloween in college I dressed up as a girl, and I wore a size 6 skirt.

When I buy underwear, I have to shop for "small". (32" waist) I guess I'm fortunate that I'm at least shopping in the adult section; though I do wish Spiderman were an option for folks my age.

It's official, I'm 141.4 pounds now.

Sunday afternoon I edged the yard and cut the grass, and ever since then my stomach has been uneasy. I can't tell if I have gas or if I'm hungry, and neither eating or... farting... relieves it. And I've done a fair bit of both. This morning I had difficulty eating my pop tarts on the train. They didn't technically make me nauseous, but they were close. Lunch was very appetizing, so I've got high hopes that the food thing is just a fluke and everything will be back to normal shortly.

And speaking of food, I left my copy of BTVC with the wifey today, and we've already decided that I'll start on the SCD diet on 9/18, so that I can enjoy whatever food and drink are available at the wedding we're going to this weekend, and so that we don't have to add in the stress of starting a new diet to our anniversary camping trip the following weekend.

I made up a chart to track the symptoms I deal with regularly, along with my weight, and whatever major events have been going on, so that I can make correlations to how those might affect my symptoms. I figure if it's helpful to track that stuff during the diet, I should track it for a little bit of time leading up to starting the diet, so that I have a good basis to notice change.

If you've got really, really good eyesight, you may be able to tell from that image that I'll be participating in the Guts & Glory 5K on October 7th. I'm still trying to come up with a team name, though.

On Friday, as my train home pulled into the station, my cell phone rang. It was my GI, and he wanted to talk about my symptoms and answer my questions. Great! Except that I was totally unprepared for the call and forgot all of my questions I wanted to ask him.

I did get to explain the pains I've been having, and that the Tylenol just wasn't doing enough; and he prescribed Asacol, which I started Friday night and have been using twice daily since. My first impressions of the drug are great. About 20 minutes after my first dose I stood up and noticed that I didn't have any discernable pain in my hip! Maybe it was psychosemmatic, or some sort of placebo effect, but whatever the reason, my hip didn't hurt and that makes me happy.

Since then I've noticed that my pains start to come back an hour or two before my next dose, and today I noticed one of the pills in a bowel movement. According to the paperwork that comes with the prescription, you're supposed to notify your doctor if that happens, so I called his secretary and left a message, just now.

Overall I guess I'm happy with Asacol so far, because it does seem to have a good effect. I just hope that we'll be able to fine tune my dosage so that the effects don't wear off between doses.