According to Ali G it is Respek.  According to another IBD blogger, Mary Claire, it would be Resiliency.  For me it is bigger then both of those words put together.  This week, I heard the “R” word officially for the first time since getting Crohn’s Disease…Remission.  My colonoscopy was back in February and I knew I was healed more than the previous year.  Sadly the pictures didn’t save so I couldn’t actually see the results.  This week was my first appointment with my GI since then.  After a little chit-chat and a quick exam, he went on his computer, pulled up the scope results, and mentioned how there was no Crohn’s activity and that I was in remission.

Needless to say I was a little shocked.  I knew I was doing well.  I don’t show many symptoms these days.  I didn’t know I was completely in remission though.  I was so happy.  But like all things, the moment has now passed.  Of course, I am still happy, but just because the Crohn’s is in remission, doesn’t mean I still don’t get symptoms.  Because this is such a nasty disease, even if my intestines are healed, I can still show signs of the damn disease.

The first sign is my joint pains.  Both my knees and my knuckles get bad arthritic pain at times.  Then there are the mouth sores that come on at any given time.  Next are the skin problems like rashes and pimples.  The list can go on and on.

But what does remission mean..to me.  Well, it actually means a lot to me.  For the first time in a long time, my medicine is working.  After years of throwing poisonous medicine into my body without any results, I switched over to a non-conventional drug.  2 years after starting the med, I am in remission.  I would say it is working perfectly and scientist really need to start studying the role Naltrexone can play in IBD.  Another great thing in all this is that my doctor is also convinced that LDN works and might start giving it to other patients.  I was his first and his guinea pig.  I would say the test has been successful.

Another thing this means to me is that diet does in fact play a role in IBD.  For years I ate what I wanted and never healed up.  Along with the change in meds, I also went gluten-free.  It has been a bumpy road in my gluten-free journey and I really have to fight some cravings every now and then.   But ultimately it really has helped in my healing process.

Now, please just know, I am not saying that if everyone took LDN and went GF that they would achieve remission.  Everyone is different.  What works for one person not might work for someone else.  My results may not be typical.  I don’t know since there are no studies showing a correlation.  So please, don’t stop your current therapies to try mine just because I got results.  Whatever you are doing might give you the results you need.  If you are not there yet, be patient.

So for now I will sit back and enjoy what this word means to me because I know like so many others know…that this feeling can go away at any minute.