Medicines, Money, Questions, & Stress

So today is infusion day, Yippee skippie!!

I also received a phone call from my pharmacy & my Pentasa needs to be refilled.  I refilled it, but I'm nervous to pick it up & be told once again that it will cost me over $200.  I qualified for charity care through my hospital & have been receiving 100% coverage for all DR visits, infusions, & specialty tests since last June. This worked out perfectly because my surgery, all CTs, MRIs, & 4-7 hospital stays were taken care of. However, it does not cover pharmacy costs & I'm left to pay Pentasa out of pocket after insurance.  It's a lot of $$ & my income just got cut. So my life is on a severe budget. Why does being sick have to be so costly?  I have to reapply for charity care before my next infusion or else I won't be able to afford Remicade either. Prior to being covered it was costing me after insurance $350-500 every 6 weeks. That's $ I don't have! Needless to say I'm sweating some things. I'm lucky that currently minus this momentary stress related flare-up my Crohn's seems to be under control.  The reason it's in check is from my medicines & now I may not be able to afford the medicines, so if I can't afford the meds I go back to crazy flare-ups. This is a vicious cycle & when I think I'm ahead I fall behind. Well can you see why I'm having a stress flare-up?!? Plus things got worse with the family member & now we aren't speaking at all, which may be beneficial for a cool off period.  We're both so emotionally invested.
Fellow Crohn's Casualties this next part is for you. I don't go see my gastro for a little bit & calling him doesn't really help.   I'm curious about a few things & I'm looking for your answers to my questions.
1) During a flare-up when you have diarrhea & you've emptied the bowels, but still feel the need to go, has anyone ever had a mucus substance come out w/ some blood? Does anyone know what this is? My Dr. says he's only concerned if its a large amount of blood because blood in my stool is a constant.
2) Has anyone found anything to settle or lessen the abdominal cramping pain?
3) Has anyone had any luck with writing to a pharmaceutical company to supply meds? Specifically Shire which is the parent company to Pentasa? I was on Shire's website & they don't even have contact info that's close to me. Closest one is Massachusetts & their headquarters are in Ireland & all that's listed are mailing addresses.
4) I was told by my Dr. to not work out seriously, like lift weights or run long distances, which is ok by me because I hate to run.  Does anyone have any exercise tips that are not strenuous to keep my body in shape besides walking?

I believe that's all the questions and stress related talk for now. I hope everyone has a blessed day & thanks for reading, I was able to cut 45 minutes out of my infusion time.
 Take care!

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!