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So I've been less visibly active lately, although I'm also on a hot streak for avoiding mod action, so maybe that's kind of telling. Anyways, I felt like blogging a bit.
My son turned three recently. He's incredibly bright, he loves playing with random dead computer parts me and my wife have laying around, plugging them up. He's also a fan of playing little flash games, or puzzle games. At three, the kid is already demonstrating excellent accuracy with a gaming mouse. Even if he accidentally adjusts my old Sidewinder up to 2k DPI, which is pretty damn impressive.
It's pretty awesome, raising a geekling in this day and age. He'll sit and watch the Matrix, or Rocky 4, or other similar movies with me. Feel free to tell me I'm doing it wrong, kid knows context on the various language and knows not to use it, so I don't really give a fuck. Only an imbecile or the Amish would expect a modern American kid not to hear some abrasive language.
So for people who don't know, I was medically retired out of the Army shortly before my son was born for Crohn's disease. Right after I got out, while I still lived in Colorado, I did some rock climbing to stay in shape, but after I moved back to Texas, I started getting listless, went completely sedentary, and was generally letting the Crohn's win. Inexcusable after all the shit I've done in my life, but I was lazy as fuck.
That changed, however, early this year. I suddenly found out that a guy I knew growing up was teaching Tae Kwon Do nearby. I'd always thought about doing TKD as a martial art, but this was the catalyst I needed to get off my ass. So just this past Monday, I received my green belt, which means I'm able to start sparring. Great timing, because there's a local tournament coming up in November.
So now, with me being active again, and a green belt, my next goal is to make it to the third round of the coming tournament. It's double elim, so round three means I don't get my ass knocked straight out of the thing. So I'm in training. I mean, I already approached TKD from an attitude of training over practice, a mentality I'm familiar with from Infantry school, but now I'm really going to town.
In general, and with help from the wonderful TLHF community, I've fixed my diet. I've also slashed my caffeine intake. I recently went from body weight training to body weight with weight added, although I'm looking for a gym to start lifting for real. I'm taking things serious, in a hope that I can keep kicking my Crohn's in the ass. I'm hoping that if my instructor can help me get good enough to make it through the first few rounds of the tournament (the trophy is already at our school, since he won it last time, so I expect he can), that the conditioning I know how to obtain from my time as Infantry, my competitive drive, my intensity, can all make me at least a serious contender, despite being the minimum rank to even enter.
I've been a lot of things in my life. The skinny four-eyed home-schooled kid of religious parents. The kid who was always in trouble at the private Baptist school those parents sent him to for high-schooling. The kid who got in too many fights. The geek. The stubborn skinny kid who was too smart for the Infantry but did it anyway. A grunt who drank too much. The guy with Crohn's. A dad.
One thing I've never been, until that one brief span, however, was a quitter. It bothers me that I let myself quit. I've always been driven, and good at pushing myself past anything and everything to do whatever the hell I wanted, and get where I wanted. I'm stubborn, I'm driven.
Of course, TL has a few more things to consider me. The overly hostile tech guy for one. (I apologize for some of that, by the way. I think that was a combination of me being mad at myself for letting Crohn's win, and the stupidly high doses of steroids I have to take to keep the Crohn's in check, they mess with the adrenal glands. I think my recent streak of not getting banned is related to having a healthier outlet for hostility.)
Anyways, no matter what life throws at you, get the hell back on your feet, kick it's ass. If life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Invent a combustible lemon and burn life's house down!
This has been a bit less directed than I expected when I started typing, but fuck it.
 
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Jinglehell fighting!
Fuck the steroids, man. That stuff will permanently mess you up even though they do their job. I may have suggested it before, but if you can, try and find a way to get off of it. I hear Humira works wonders?
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On August 25 2012 00:07 WaveofShadow wrote:
Jinglehell fighting!
Fuck the steroids, man. That stuff will permanently mess you up even though they do their job. I may have suggested it before, but if you can, try and find a way to get off of it. I hear Humira works wonders?
Humira stopped working for me. I mostly do Apriso and cycle Prednisone when I flare, technically.
I tried that other stuff, Remicade, but it gave me absurd joint pain, to the point of not being able to get out of bed for a half hour, and limping all day, which doesn't work as the stay-at-home of a toddler. So now I do Apriso, with dicyclomine and tylenol for pain, various supplements, and Prednisone when it tries to flare, with calcium+Vit D to keep my bones from falling apart since the prednisone is terrible for your joints.
But yeah, Humira stopped working as effectively, and it was almost impossible to take, because I ran out of subcutaneous fat to stick it in. I'm pretty lean these days. 6'2", 150ish pounds, barely healthy body fat in the 8-8.5% range.
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One of my best friends with Crohn's had the surgery to remove some intestine, and he said it was one of the best choices he's ever made in his life. He used to have these extremely skinny, boney body because of appetite/digestion issues, for years, but now he's healthier than ever. Of course, if I recall, Crohns runs the risk of returning even after surgery, but he's been healthy for years now.
I'm no doctor, I can't say whether your circumstances match his or if surgery is even an option/necessary. Just thought I'd tell a little success story, is all.
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On August 25 2012 00:16 Nokarot wrote:
One of my best friends with Crohn's had the surgery to remove some intestine, and he said it was one of the best choices he's ever made in his life. He used to have these extremely skinny, boney body because of appetite/digestion issues, for years, but now he's healthier than ever. Of course, if I recall, Crohns runs the risk of returning even after surgery, but he's been healthy for years now.
I'm no doctor, I can't say whether your circumstances match his or if surgery is even an option/necessary. Just thought I'd tell a little success story, is all.
The surgery isn't viable for me. Mine is absurdly severe, and extends about as far as it can. Only places it doesn't reach are the sigmoid, (I think? tiny chunk of intestine right above your asshole) and the stomach. And for me, remission is just asymptomatic but still inflamed and ulcered.
I consider myself a success story anyways, though, because I'm still enjoying life, and still doing whatever the hell I want to do. Martial arts and rock climbing draw some funny looks from pretty much anyone when you mention them in conjunction with Crohn's.
Glad your friend was able to get rid of it, though, this is something I'd only wish on people I hate, and AFAIK, I haven't met your friend, so I don't hate them.
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Sorry to hear that. Glad you've found a discipline that helps you vent.
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If it's anything more severe than my ex-girlfriend's chron's, I feel ya.
I think you have the right attitude right now though, and you appear to have found a pretty good source of motivation. Milk it for what it's worth, and you'll get back to the life you want in no time. Good luck to you mate (:
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Anyways, no matter what life throws at you, get the hell back on your feet, kick it's ass. If life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Invent a combustible lemon and burn life's house down!
Sustainable development ftw :D
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On August 25 2012 01:22 ArcticRaven wrote:Show nested quote +
Anyways, no matter what life throws at you, get the hell back on your feet, kick it's ass. If life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Invent a combustible lemon and burn life's house down!
Sustainable development ftw :D
The lemon thing is a Portal 2 reference.
I recently replayed it. Then I used the updated map editor to make a co-op deathmatch map.
On August 25 2012 01:22 FiWiFaKi wrote:
If it's anything more severe than my ex-girlfriend's chron's, I feel ya.
I think you have the right attitude right now though, and you appear to have found a pretty good source of motivation. Milk it for what it's worth, and you'll get back to the life you want in no time. Good luck to you mate (:
Oh, I don't need a source of motivation anymore, now that I've started, just being stubborn works. Although getting to kick people in the head is nice too.
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Glad to hear you're doing better, and kicking ass irl. Jinglehell fighting!
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I've been on Remicade for about 2.5 yrs now and it has been the miracle drug for me. Like 4 or 5 days after my first infusion I was in 100% remission and then gained back 25 lbs pretty quickly. Luckily I have never had to do Prednisone as I've heard bad things about that. Anyways hope you're doing alright with it.
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On August 25 2012 11:13 Doodsmack wrote:
I've been on Remicade for about 2.5 yrs now and it has been the miracle drug for me. Like 4 or 5 days after my first infusion I was in 100% remission and then gained back 25 lbs pretty quickly. Luckily I have never had to do Prednisone as I've heard bad things about that. Anyways hope you're doing alright with it.
Remicade was excellent for my guts. Best thing that ever happened there. But I'm sure you know how most Crohn's meds can cause severe joint pain, Rheumatoid Arthritis style? Well, every bit of joint pain any other med had ever caused me focused in my left knee.
It was completely ridiculous. Mind you, I've got a rather absurd pain tolerance, and literally I had to lay in bed wiggling my knee for a while to be able to move properly to get up. It started 2-3 days after the second infusion, and lasted until 2-3 days after what would have been my third if I hadn't delayed it until I could talk to my doctor. He agreed that the timing was no coincidence, and took me off of it.
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Hi, sorry for the resurection but reading a story like yours give me some hope in fighting my UC with greater success then i have the last year.
I was diagnosed about a year ago with Ulcerous colitis, at first it was rather mild according to my doctor but during the year it's grown to become more severe. Havent had any hospital stays yet but running on steroids and Asacol with moderate success right now.
I've been powerlifting for about two years and have had what most people in the world would classify as a rather good diet, but since i got diagnosed i've been "stuck". I worked hard to clean up my diet and i'm out of ideas of how to modify my current diet to a more IBD friendly diet. So what i really wanted to ask you is, when you write "cleaned up my diet", what did you do? I know we all react diffrently to diffrent foods, "trigger foods" etc, but what foods have you found to be good for you and maybe even "helpt" you not flare-up? I've done quite a bit of research lately, but kind of want to hear someone elses road to a "good" diet.
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EPT
