Blood tests seem to be a regular in my weekly routine now…. and its only going to get worse from here.

Last Friday I had the mother of all blood tests… I was shocked I had any left after they finished. The blood test I had was so rarely ordered that the person taking my blood had to read the instructions for taking the test and what vials she needed (it seems different ones do different things – who knew). Anyway – she was lovely, that is a consistent theme with the public hospital staff. I asked her what he was actually testing for and she very simply said “everything”. She elaborated to say that he was testing for every infections disease known to mankind as well as the commonly deficient vitamins in Crohns Disease. The best part of all this was I as in and out in 30minutes – which is record time for me at the moment, second best, it was my first free test. Consequently I got home an hour early to sit with the “numb one”. This is the name I will be calling my partner every month until the end of the year… you see, it’s not just me with the strange and exotic condition, oh no. His jaw is sitting in the wrong place – he has a malformed jaw. This has lead to his bottom jaw pushing up into his top jaw and causing quite a nice amount of damage to all of his teeth – and when I say all, I mean ALL. The holes were getting so bad that they were not only visible (very visible – I mean you could see them when he was talking to you) and he was in pain. The reality that he had to get them repaired before they started falling out of his head hit home around the time that all my shit hit the fan. I swear if we were animals, we’d both be put down.

That being said, he is half way through his dental reconstruction and I am totally in love with the public health system at the moment. I realise that it has its problems, they are very understaffed – that is obvious from sitting there waiting for a consultation. But they have good people there – people who know what they are talking about and actually take the time to sit down and talk to you. They explain what they are doing, what they are testing for, what the medication is for and answer any questions that you have without treating you like you are an idiot. All this has put me at ease – I finally know what direction I am heading in and why I am heading in it. It’s amazing what asking a few questions instead of jumping to conclusions will do. Asking questions helps to clear your mind of any pre-conceived ideas, which without the proper information may be entirely incorrect. There are reasons for everything, sometimes you never know until you ask.

Life outside of Crohns land has been more of the same, we have been busting our rears making sure the outside of our house looks as presentable as the inside – not that neatness really matters when it comes to having a place valued. The threat of having to sell is at bay for now – thank god, because it’s the worst possible time in the last 2 years to put your home on the market. So – we are going to go back to our original plan and try to refinance with a better bank. BankWest is perhaps the worst financial institution in all of Australia. We went with them so we could borrow our mortgage insurance rather than pay it straight up – and because they were one of only 2 banks who still had a lending criteria of 5% deposit. Our low deposit was a curse. The interest rate with our bank is a whole percent higher – which equates to about $200 a month. We used our grant money along with Bunnings vouchers and a donation from the parents to put a patio on the house. Naturally we signed the quotes before we entered Crohns land or jaw reconstruction world and naturally we couldn’t wiggle out of the contract without a steep penalty, which would make it impossible to ever even consider again. We wouldn’t have been able to refinance for at least 5 more years and we may have even lost money if we went to sell without it. It was a hard choice – cause it literally cleaned us out – but it was the only choice. I hadn’t lived like we have over the last few months since I kicked my ex out. We started making lists for shopping, making meals that last at least 3 days each, stopped driving anywhere, stopped seeing anyone and stopped drinking. Yes, two of the most avid drinkers on the planet put a cork in it. The first drink I have had since Australia Day (which is January the 26^th for all the non-Australians) was on Saturday night when we went to met our friends daughter for the first time. Aside from the cutbacks Stocker has worked public holidays for the extra cash and I have been, on average, freelancing 10 hours a week for the last month as well as my normal works overtime. Coming out the other side, I have to pat us both on the back – cause the last 6 months sucked – we have done a lot of things we don’t like, but I guess that’s what you have to do in those situations. Things are looking so much brighter now, as I said, taking the hard road may pay off sooner than we expected. There is a chance we might be able to refinance just over 12 months from the day we took the loan – and therefore be rid of BankWest for good.

You will notice above I said “we” were busting our rears? And its true, since being off the Sulfasulazine I have had a new lease on life – most importantly I haven’t been waking up wanting to end it. It’s been a nice break – sadly its not to last. I will be starting the maintenance treatment (costing $33.30 – I had no idea what I was missing all this time!) called Imuran. It’s designed to block my immune system and keep me in remission. It has a lot of dangerous side effects as well (seems all the right drugs do) and I will be visiting pathology every week for a blood test till the end of the year. That alone sends a chill up my spine – but better than having my liver fall out for something other than binge drinking.

My second consultation was today – and there is more to tell, but I have a job to apply for. If I make it to Friday, it will be 7 weeks since my last flare up, and that will be my longest remission period in 2 years. I am trying not to get my hopes up, but that is a record I would truly like to break.