Lost Ticker Tape

So I now had a clinical diagnosis, this internal war raged on and I was given steroids to reduce the swelling of my liver, get my body under control and immunosuppressants to well, suppress my overactive immune system (I would rather have an overactive imagination than immune system it would be much better but hey, can't get everything you want!). I can take on the world! Oh, okay, maybe not...my knees hurt. Do you remember I spoke about being on steroids before? Well, that was a drop in the ocean compared to 18 months of steroid induced highs and lows and side effects. The highs made me feel like I could take on the world! Come on world, I am up for some mischief! This was frankly bollocks, I wasn't fit to take a trip to the shops some days never mind take on the world. The lows/side effects were feeling like I would never get better, having clearly visible shakes, pain, nausea,  gaining weight and having a moon face however the weirdest was becoming more hirsute. Th

Ding! Ding! Round 3!    Living with Crohn's Disease became just part of the day-to-day, intermittent periods of feeling like my insides were trying to come out of my body were the worst but they seemed to come and go. That was until I was 26. I began feeling entirely exhausted in June 2009, a familiar but overwhelming exhaustion. I doubt I will ever forget the (now ironic) words of the gastroenterologist who, when I told him I was so exhausted I found going to work difficult, told me 'it's just part of having Crohn's Disease, just count yourself lucky that you are not worse off or permanently on steriods'. Two and a half months later I was vomiting daily, unable to keep anything substantial down and feeling wretched. I thought my Crohn's was playing up but I was still vomiting after 10 days and I was losing weight quickly. When I started to get pain in my left knee joint, I couldn't sleep at all and every inch of my skin itched I knew somethi