Boom - Welcome 2020!
So life has kind of been crummy recently. I'm not exactly sailing off into the sunset of 2019 & making a roaring entrance to 2020. I’m ending it in the hospital now, after a small bowel obstruction weeks ago that led to an extremely thickened mucosal wall in both my entire large intestine & small bowel. I thought it was Endometriosis - I was dead wrong.
Crohn's is becoming more active
My disease is active, getting worse and less and less under control with the help of my biologic and oral medications. I’ll probably end up getting my self-injection at a higher frequency dose. But, of course, this falls in the middle of New Year’s and everything will “start over” including my deductible and insurance requirements.
Not ready for a new year and new insurance challenges
This also means the ALL of the prior authorizations I just waited 5 weeks for will all have to be re-authorized. It’s a game of playing chicken & it’s not fun at all. I’ve realized that IBD is not a thing of convenience. It’s December 31 and I’m officially late for everything in 2019, but still not ready for anything in 2020.
I don’t know what this year will bring, but I'm hopeful it will bring more options to treatments for Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. I hope that medications are more accessible in 2020 and that we wouldn’t even have to talk about being able to afford prescriptions like these. I hope that there are fewer prior-authorizations and that there are more options for oral meds soon for people who have a hard time injecting or going to the hospital for an infusion.
I know this year will be valuable. I will learn a lot about IBD between the conferences I attend, patient seminars I’ve been to and plan on going to again in 2020.
Fighting for inflammatory bowel disease
I know I will likely win & lose a lot of battles with issues of my ongoing Crohn's disease. Some might be different fights than what they've looked like before. Some might be my disease taking my body for a ride and me just trying to gain back control of the wheel. Some challenges might look like insurance and authorization troubles of accessing the same or even newer meds to you. Some challenges might involve physically going on The Hill and fighting for the things we need to be able to survive in our society moving forward' with chronic illness. Everyone's challenges and motivations serve them their own purpose. But make sure you're also filling your cup when you're serving others.
The unpredictability with IBD is absolutely hard on anyone. I wish you a great 2020 & a healthy one to boot.
What are some of the things you wish to get out of 2020 you weren't able to get done in 2019? Do you leave those things in the past?
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