I have a subject to discuss here with ya'll. I have nowhere else to turn with this subject so please hear me out. I was diagnosed with Crohn's 22 years ago and since then, I have been flare-free and not had to be treated for it.
About 2 months ago, this flare started and is still raging on, but seems to be getting a little better now. I've missed almost 3 weeks of work, had to go in the hospital for a day for dehydration, now taking several hundreds of dollars a month (after insurance) of pills, and now suffer moderate depression.
We live on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. We have smelled the burning oil and the oil fumes since it started. Some days you open the door and it smelled like I was at a busy truckstop. Some days it smelled like a chemical. Other days you might not smell it at all. On the bad days, we ran our 3 air filters all day and night on High. I have mild asthma so we have to keep them around, but not always running. My son and I both had headaches and naseau on the days we would smell the oil heavily. He has been in and out of the doctors on antibiotics, prednisone, asthma inhalers, Advair inhaler. They worked, but he is still left with a rattle that won't go away.
We love Gulf seafood. It is one of the reasons we live here. When the oil slick started moving closer, we decided to stop eating Gulf seafood all together. My addiction to it is so great, that I could not do without it for long and it wasn't long before I was eating shrimp, crabs, and trout again. Was about this time that my bleeding started and would continue nonstop for about 5 weeks. Then I went downhill fast. Diarreah, cramps, naseau, pains, confusion, night sweats, fevers. It's been real fun! Thank goodness for the antidepressants that keep me functioning again instead of wasting away on the couch in pain. I'm still in pain, but I FEEL so much better.
So with all of this said, could it be possible that I have been directly effected by the oil spill? Which route would it have used to get me? Would it have been the fumes we were smelling, or would it have come from eating the "FDA approved safe" seafood? Either way I may never know because the fumes are gone now and I'm not eating anything that comes out of the Gulf now. I have been eating farm raised shrimp from Texas that is great. No problems at all with them.
I just wish that all of this never happened, but since it did, I just wish that it all gets over soon. It really pisses me off to think that if this was brought on by the oil spill that I will be the one left to pay for the problems it has caused me and my son. I do know of a friend of my wife's that also has Crohn's and is going through a real bad flare here too right now.
Well thank you for reading and any advice.
About 2 months ago, this flare started and is still raging on, but seems to be getting a little better now. I've missed almost 3 weeks of work, had to go in the hospital for a day for dehydration, now taking several hundreds of dollars a month (after insurance) of pills, and now suffer moderate depression.
We live on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. We have smelled the burning oil and the oil fumes since it started. Some days you open the door and it smelled like I was at a busy truckstop. Some days it smelled like a chemical. Other days you might not smell it at all. On the bad days, we ran our 3 air filters all day and night on High. I have mild asthma so we have to keep them around, but not always running. My son and I both had headaches and naseau on the days we would smell the oil heavily. He has been in and out of the doctors on antibiotics, prednisone, asthma inhalers, Advair inhaler. They worked, but he is still left with a rattle that won't go away.
We love Gulf seafood. It is one of the reasons we live here. When the oil slick started moving closer, we decided to stop eating Gulf seafood all together. My addiction to it is so great, that I could not do without it for long and it wasn't long before I was eating shrimp, crabs, and trout again. Was about this time that my bleeding started and would continue nonstop for about 5 weeks. Then I went downhill fast. Diarreah, cramps, naseau, pains, confusion, night sweats, fevers. It's been real fun! Thank goodness for the antidepressants that keep me functioning again instead of wasting away on the couch in pain. I'm still in pain, but I FEEL so much better.
So with all of this said, could it be possible that I have been directly effected by the oil spill? Which route would it have used to get me? Would it have been the fumes we were smelling, or would it have come from eating the "FDA approved safe" seafood? Either way I may never know because the fumes are gone now and I'm not eating anything that comes out of the Gulf now. I have been eating farm raised shrimp from Texas that is great. No problems at all with them.
I just wish that all of this never happened, but since it did, I just wish that it all gets over soon. It really pisses me off to think that if this was brought on by the oil spill that I will be the one left to pay for the problems it has caused me and my son. I do know of a friend of my wife's that also has Crohn's and is going through a real bad flare here too right now.
Well thank you for reading and any advice.
