Monthly Archives: November 2012

I wore myself out today working on a project for the BY HAND blog. Go check it out over there and I’ll be back here tomorrow.

Lots of people have asked if we would be doing t-shirts for The Shepherd and The Shearer. I set up a Cafe Press shop last night, mostly because I wanted this iPhone cover with my silhouette on it, because it’s awesome.

There are a variety of t-shirts, tote bags, water bottles and coffee cups and 100% of the profits will go to The Shepherd and The Shearer Scholarship Fund. And Cafe Press has a 15% off coupon code, good through 12/10/12, on orders of over $50. Enter SHOPUP in the promo code box at check-out.

Speaking of The Shepherd and The Shearer, we have about 50 spots left in this kick-ass project. We also have 11 spots left in our the 2013 Juniper Moon Farm Sock Club.

I am currently reading The Case of the Missing Servant: From the Files of Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator (A Vish Puri Mystery) and it’s so good that I’ve already ordered the next two book in the series. It’s sort of in the tradition of the Alexander McCall Smith series The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Light reading for sure, but entertaining.

My friend Kris and I are planning a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland this summer.

I am taking so much comfort in Harney & Sons Fine Teas Hot Cinnamon Spice 
these days. It drink it all the time at the farm, and it helps make me slightly less homesick just smelling it.

Speaking of cinnamon, I posted a recipe for the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted over at the BY HAND blog.

Finally, I think it would be wrong not to share this handsome picture of Jack with you. Isn’t he lovely?

I had an appointment with a brand new doctor today, a gastroenterologist. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that no hilarious story ever starts with the word “gastroenterologist” in the first sentence.

I took some awesome pictures while I was waiting in the exam room, though. Maybe when this is all said and done, I’ll do a one woman photography show entitled, Pictures I took in Exam Rooms While Waiting to See Doctors. You will, of course, want the oversized, four-color coffee table book that goes with it.

So, it turns out that it took a long time to diagnose my diseases because my symptoms came all backwards and out of order. I can officially tell you that I have Crohn’s Disease, with a possible side of Sarcoidosis*. On Friday, I’m having a colonoscopy and an endoscopy to check for granuloma.

I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I am feeling about all of this and I can honestly say that I am simultaneously relieved, embarrassed, pissed off and excited.

I’m relieved that specialists in their field’s have found incontrovertible medical evidence that there is something physically wrong with me. One of my biggest fears was that I would end up with no diagnosis or end up in one of the catch-all categories that sick people are put into when no diagnosis can be found. I think that would be terribly frustrating, and that I would worry that people didn’t really believe anything was wrong with me.

I’m embarrassed that at least one of the things wrong with me has to do with digestion. I’m a bit of a prude when it comes to bodily functions. I generally don’t find fart jokes funny. Crohn’s Disease is pretty icky. I figure posting photos of a digestive tract here is step one towards getting over this.

The anger isn’t anything specific or intense, just a general feeling that I have Things to Do and this isn’t something I have time for. “Why me?!?”, etc.

Mostly though, I am excited that I am starting treatment on Monday to get all of this nonsense under control. I’m going to be taking injectable drugs called Tumor Necrosis Factor Blockers along with some drugs that make them work better. Hopefully I’ll be in remission quickly and then it’s a question of staying there. That’s all really good stuff.

I have received so many lovely, supportive emails from blog readers who are worried about me and my weirdo health, so I wanted to post an update here letting you know that I am okay. I’m on the road to Wellville. This feels very much like the beginning of something good.

* My gastroenterologist asked me if I’d ever heard of Sarcoidoisis and I was like, “Um…yeah. About once a week on House. It’s always the first thing they rule out in the dying guy.”