I was contacted by the Jeanenne of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Buffalo because my journal came up number one for "crohn's buffalo" and they are having some walk on May 20th. I will post more about it when they send me the info.

In light of the ranking, I figured I should post a positive crohn's post for any other crohnies out there look for positive inspiration.

The truth is I don't think about it much anymore because I don't have any symptoms anymore since I had my appendix out last year in April (e:paul,44050). You can tell because I haven't posted about it since.

During the last year I have also been taking Lialda a form of mesalamine. It has no side major side effects for me so far and is a million times more manageable than when I was on asacol. With the asacol I used to take 3 pills, three times a day. I would worry all the time about remembering the pills and thought I needed to take them with food so it messed up my whole schedule. I think the worrying made it all worse.

With the Lialda I take 3 pills once in the morning with water before breakfast. Nothing to worry about all day.

The great news is that either I am just doing better minus the appendix or the Lialda is a freakin' miracle. My life is totally different to when I think about my life during that flare up I had in January of 2008. I really thought I was gonna die.

During the year I also wen tto the gym a lot, put on like 20 pounds and eat really well.

The only downside is the Lialda costs $900/month. Luckily, I have really good health insurance that pays for all but $15 of it. I mean it seems worth so much if it is in fact what is making me better but at the same time that seems like such an extreme about of money and cost prohibitive for so many people.

I keep wondering if I can go off the medicine since it has been a year since I had symptoms. I should probably go and see the doctor but the last time I saw him he told me I would need to take it forever and as long as I have health insurance, that is okay with me.