recent wins
I've been having a better time lately and felt like writing down some good stuff that happened because I am very grateful for it and want to focus on it. :)
- My medication is slowly working as intended; I have less and less symptoms, my ultrasound showed healthy looking intestines. The swelling is gone. My calprotectin levels are showing no signs of inflammation (< 50). In a few weeks, I will ideally have no symptoms anymore and be in remission.
- The drug is a bit risky and I needed to be monitored with weekly blood tests to make sure my liver or kidneys aren't failing and there is no bone marrow suppression. I was able to "graduate" to monthly tests now because everything looked good.
- I've been able to further taper down the Prednisone and will likely be off of it at the end of the month :) I had to be on it for 5 months, so I can't wait.
- I can finally eat some foods again that I haven't been able to tolerate in a while; especially tomato.
- I am able to go back to the gym! I've been taking it slow with just walking on the treadmill in different speeds and elevation for an hour, but recently also started running on it and trying out the elliptical. First time still hurt my inflammation spots from being shaken so much, but the second day I remained painfree.
- I started riding the bike to the gym. I got my mother's old bike three months ago and fixed it up, but was too sick to use it. Now I finally feel well enough and it's actually fun. I haven't ridden a bike in 10 years so the beginning was goofy and a little dangerous, but now I'm fine.
- My apartment complex had no proper storage for bikes so I suggested they add some and management actually implemented it within 3 weeks. Now thanks to my e-mail, we have a proper bike rack.
- It was my dead dog's birthday and we planned something nice for that day - went out to our favorite cafe for breakfast, took a long walk in the forest where we used to walk him and where he enjoyed to swim in the lake, and then later had a game evening with friends.
- I got an amazing massage at the massage parlor :)
- My girlfriend baked super tasty flatbread.
- I was able to successfully launch a project at work that involved juggling the needs and wishes of different groups of people and it seems like we have reached a state where everyone is happy with it.
- I got nice e-mails from bearblog people. I'm glad you enjoyed my post!