I suppose I should preface any of my posts by making it clear that there is a lot of information out there on Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in general. There are books and websites that focus on areas ranging from what to expect when you’re newly diagnosed to different diets that are recommended to treat the symptoms.  This is not one of those, though I may post information about these subjects from time to time.  By no means am I attempting to discourage you from reading any of this information, as I firmly believe that informed decisions are a hell of a lot better than uninformed ones.  I would strongly advise anyone with IBD to read as much and as often about the disease, research and treatments as you can.  Read the monotonous stuff about medical trials.  Read the studies on the effects varied diets have had on the symptoms.  Read about alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, massage therapy, medicinal marijuana and chiropractic care.  Find good doctors that you trust (we’ll cover that in an upcoming post).  Ask questions.  Lots of them.  Be open to trying things that may sound a little strange.  And most importantly, pay attention to your body.  Keep a journal as you try new things, and record the results so you can step away from the emotional and physical trauma of the disease to simply look at the facts.  What worked?  What didn’t?

In its simplest form, this blog is an attempt to help others not just live with IBD, but to do so with an open mind, a sense of humor and a spirit that changes how others outside the community view the disease. Things I post here are things that I have found tremendously helpful over the years, and things I want to share with you, in the hopes that you may find them useful.

There are times for all of us with IBD that will be relatively calm and “normal”, and others that will have you curled into a ball on the bathroom floor, begging for mercy, death and anything else that would take away the pain. Regardless of where you may be on that continuum, I hope that you’ll pop in from time to time, whether it’s to get some information, have a good laugh at my expense, or to share something that you’ve found helpful along the way.

One final note I’d like to mention is that any products or services I may comment on or write about here are simply my opinions on things I have found helpful. I am not paid by companies to endorse their products, these are simply things that worked for me.  On that note, welcome to my site!!!!