Posted by NickD (209.83.95.15) on March 05, 2000 at 09:21:46:
Living with CH's, mental disease, and Crohn's for some time now as generated questions regarding what's going on. Docs tell me that in Crohn's the immune system is over reacting and attacking the digestive system perhaps why prednisone is a common treatment for both CH's and Crohn's, I read all three chapters of Wilson's Principles of Internal Medicine regarding mental disease and it was one massive snow job, never saw so many words written but so little said, they could have condensed the three chapters and simply said, we don't know crap about the brain so we just drug the hell out of the patient so he/she won't hurt themselves or someone else, this is a hell of a way to live, but we don't know what else to do. They did however introduce the term "chemical imbalance" that sounds more professional than nuttier than a fruitcake.
Crohn's is equally frustrating, why is the body over reacting and attacking itself? Are there triggers, eating the wrong kind of foods, my son has been lucky in the respect that his disease only occurs after the stomach, some get it from the throat down, the entire disease is a mystery and the key treatments are surgery, diet, and a ton of medications that don't seem to work. Crohn's does not kill, but starvation does, when my 6'2" son got down to 102 pounds, needed TPN to survive.
I think CH's are also an over reaction, I feel that an EPA so called safe level of toxins are entering our bodies and our first mechanism of defense is to generate histamine, now why? I am also a ragweed suffered, but the histamine is clear and pours out by the gallon, this was particulary bad when I was helping my uncle havest his crops in the fall before the first frost, man when that first frost came, the drainage would stop instantly. One neuro I talked to also got headaches when driving in Chicago stalled traffic on those super hot windless days, but he said nothing like a cluster, so why do our bodies over react to this toxin?
I sure don't care for the treaments we have, prednisone has helped me as it has anti-inflamitory properties, the problem with any pill or injected medication is that it does not go directly to that area that is causing the pain, high blood pressure pills may have helped, but think my heart would have stopped pumping first before the effects of the medication would have reduced the pressure in the infected cells, same with pain killers, just want to kill the pain in that small area and not in the entire body, after my accident, I had to get off of some very strong pain killers as my brain was fooled and I was over stressing my injuries resulting in further complications, better to feel the pain and take precautions there and then. Pyschotropic or mind altering drugs really suck, sure they help with the pain, but screw over your mind as well, you, or at least I can't function as a human bean on these drugs, had some very bad experiences including a job loss.
With my allergies is was great going into the clinic and getting that scratch test to learn my reactions, beer and ragweed were the two, the few times I drank a beer, my nose would get all stuffed up and ragweed is highly seasonal, gee just by not drinking beer and installing a good central with an excellent air filter made the hayfever system unnoticed, wore a high grade face mask when helping my uncle harvest, wasn't 100%, but made it bearable.
Be nice if there was such a test for clusters, was standing next to an 85 year old friend downwind while watching a dozer and the exhaust fumes started to trigger a CH, while my 85 year old friend didn't even smell the exhaust, had to walk upwind and the cluster tappered off. So why do we over react to stimulants or triggers, I did not invent the word trigger, but was told by a neuro that I have great respect for to learn my triggers and stay away from them, he was very correct in this, but in this world, trying to earn a living, it's not always possible. I was a general manager of a large plant, but went into business for myself so I could set my environment, pay wasn't as good, but money does not mean crap when you are constantly in pain.
CH's nowhere compare nowhere to the physical damage as other diseases such as cancer, Crohn's, MD, AIDS, you name it, identifying my triggers greatly helped me but also imposed severe restrictions in my life style. If there is anything good about CH's the pain is a body defense mechanism and that pain is telling us that something is harming our body and we should get away from it, I have no idea why the signal has to be that strong, I do know that many co-workers that joked about my condition are dead, hell I was never sick a day in my life they would say, next day a friend would call in, so and so died last night, stroke, heart attack, so if there is anything good about clusters, we may learn what is interfering with our bodies and stay away from it so that we may survive to live long lives if that makes any sense. Other diseases make no sense at all, they just kill, so could there be just a slight benefit of having CH's?