Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Stress from family and Crohn's

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day Weekend, and took a moment to remember why we all had a long weekend.  My boyfriend and I went camping, we just bought a 5th wheel this year, and this was our first outing of the year.  This was suppose to be a weekend of nothingness.  Just to relax and unwind.
Well, that isn't what happened.  & I ask you to read at your own risk.  There's potty talk involved.
My weekend was ruined because of family drama.  It got so bad at one point that I was nauseous and I'm emotional, but this was an all new emotional point.  I've never had such a profound flare-up due to stress.  I understand that stress exacerbates Crohn's but this weekend I learned to what extent.  Sunday afternoon is when everything went down with one of my family members, and I tried to calm myself down.  So I stepped away from our company, and went inside our camper for about 20 minutes.  When I had finally composed myself I returned outside, but I had the worse abdominal cramping, and I had spiked a fever in those 20 minutes. 
I knew that the stress that had just been added to me would make itself known eventually.  Typically when I would stress prior to this situation I'd get abdominal cramping and diarrhea but it would subside after an hour or two.
That was not the case.  I spent the rest of the evening with abdominal pain and a fever.  The emotions had also drained me.  I went to bed on our last night of camping at 7:45pm.  I slept until 11pm and then I tossed and turned all night battling a slight fever, abdominal pain, and disgusting gas.  At 6am I just barely made it to the bathroom. It was nice that we had a private bathroom in our camper, but the whole camper smelt by the time I was done.  I would compare my bathroom use to that of when I had my colonoscopy.  I couldn't leave the bathroom for an hour...it was absolutely disgusting, and I wish I could leave because of the smell.  Once I had emptied out my bowels I still had some minor cramping, but the fever subsided.  I had expected their to some Crohn's repercussion, but I really had never had it be that extreme before.  We packed up camp after I was done using the bathroom, and tried to leave as quick as we could.  I didn't want to be there anymore, and the fun of our weekend had deflated like a balloon.
I know life has its ups and downs, but what went down with one of my family members is a huge down.  I trusted them whole heartily, and I was thrown by the way side for all the wrong reasons.  My mini-vacation was ruined, and not only my time but that of my boyfriend and others we went camping with. 
Now that my flare-up has subsided except for the obnoxious gas, I will move on. I am resilient, and like a Phoenix I will rise from these ashes.  Take care readers, and here's to better days!

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