Like having a different body...

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I've been very busy with work, but I just wanted to write to say it's going great! It is like having a different body. I can't believe how much better I cope and how much more energy I have. I really had to go back to my old situation to compare.

I'm wondering if inflammation in the gut can cause some emotional instability beyond the stress of being sick all the time (e.g. being nervous gives "butterflies in the stomach" but can chronic butterflies and moths and birds and elephants in the gut go the other way and disrupt emotional pathways....) Of course, pred never helped either.

There have been no crises. And all kinds of things have gone wrong that would have been crises for me in the past, when the copy machine being out of paper would feel like a crisis ... so even when the bank made an error and entered one of my checks for $10,000 more than it was and bounced it, I took it in stride.... and all the computers being missing from the classroom was no big deal either (I thought they'd been stolen, but IT moved them).... etc...

I'll write a separate post about my pouching issues. Just wanted to say hi. Oh, I turned 50 last week, and had a very nice day... need to change my signature.

So happy to read this!  I know exactly what you mean, although my emotions have been really tested lately, not so much at work, but by my own children. 

Anyway, happy birthday!  I turned 37 on Monday and have to change my sig too.  It was the first year in 15 birthdays that I could have a taco dinner and ice cream cake.  I felt like I was livin' it up! 

Yes, I do agree that emotional instability can result from flaring up. It's a very upsetting thing because life becomes unstable. We cannot depend on a very essential thing happening in a way that can be managed with no effort. We are "upset". And not for 15 minutes, but for the length of the flare, while everyone else does n't give a thought to going to the bathroom, they just do it and forget about it. If we flare, it takes up our entire conscious life.
The stupidest most offfensive thing I heard during my entire UC experience was from the first GI (before I left for my present GI) who wrote my first pred perscription and he said: "The pred makes people a bit euphoric, so it's really good for collitis patients, they're so depressed all the time."
My present GI told me he has had many transfers from this GI. Duh.

Happy belated birthday too and happy to read your post. With the exception of a hip/back problem (hubby hurt it playing golf 2 weeks ago) he is overall doing very well and when he looks back at how it used to be, this is a 100% improvement.

Blue, I forgot to write earlier, it being just after waking up, that I'm delighted to read your new sense of life, and I think you really put into words what we want back when we go through this entire rigmarole.

Btw, history of depression and lousy childhood can result in higher rates of any disease. I still think that anyone who has an UC or crohns has enough reason to feel depressed about life. None of us asked for us and none of us deserve it.

You're back at work, it means you've survived and triumphed over it and came full circle. See, everyone, it really does work.

A good amount of your body's serotonin is produced by your guts. I've read numbers as high as 90%. It's no wonder so many of us deal with depression. I don't know if it's a chicken or egg thing (inflamed gut leads to decreased serotonin or low serotonin leads to inflamed gut) but I feel like it is definitely there.

Happy Belated Birthday!!! Woot woot!!