Hello!
Most of my friends and family know that my youngest daughter, Abbie, was diagnosed a few months ago witih Crohn's disease and some of my lovely friends suggested I start a blog on this subject and how we manage daily life which I think is a fantastic idea. It's kind of like keeping a diary for all to see and follow and I hope that if even just one person can benefit from our experiences then it'll all be worth it! :-)
It's been a long process to get to this point we're at now in our lives and we're still learning about Crohn's. I think it's one of those illnesses that needs careful research, an ear firmly planted on what the specialist's have to say and a bit of trial and error too......I say trial and error because with this disease we've been living on a day to day basis, trying not to look into the future because it's so uncertain and Crohn's is not something that can be completely controlled but happily it can be carefully managed.
Abbie has had alot of questions about her health and her future and I'm happy to say that she speaks to a psychologist on a regular basis because of this, which helps her organise her feelings. For a 9 year old it's been tough, being so poorly, in and out of hospital, so many questions and some with no answers and of course the drugs she must take. Taking steroids has been the hardest I think because they changed her physically but for me personally I find the drug Imurel the hardest as she has to take this for the rest of her life and it's basically an immunosuppressant ( it lowers the immune system because Crohn's is basically the immune system attacking all or parts of the digestive system ). This of course puts Abbie more freely open to other illnesses, making a common cough and cold tough to handle. Eyesight can be affected too and so we must go for a yearly eye check and growth and bones are also affected and so extra vitamins are required....it's all go and I have a running joke with the pharmacy across the road that my house now has so many drugs in it that if they ever run out of anything they only have to pop over here for it! ha ha
I think that's enough for now, I've explained things on a very basic level, but I want to use this blog to share our experiences and some of the recipes and ideas I've come up with in order to help Abbie :-)
So, from the curiosity of some of my loving friends, I will start with my wonderful yoghurt machine!!
What an amazing little device.....it's the best thing I've ever bought and initially did so because I can make yoghurt over 24 hours which reduces the lactose content quite significantly ( hopefully aiding Abbie! ) This fantastic machine was well worth the money and probably the best thing I've ever bought! It's under £20, makes 1 litre of natural yoghurt in 6 hours ( if you're not worried about lactose of course ) and is just so easy and cheap to use.
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/electric-yoghurt-maker/F/product/3440_3441
This is the exact one I bought and I can't praise it enough. Once my yoghurt is ready ( and we do love to have some warm and straight from the container!! ha ha ) I add maybe some sugar, brown or white, sweetener, honey ( you can use anything or nothing!! ) and any kind of fruit I fancy! You could add pollen to it which helps the tummy and in fact, you can experiment and do whatever you fancy! I've even frozen it and we've had yog-ice!!
My latest experiment involved a couple of teaspoons of sugar and a whole load of raspberries, YUMMMMMY!!! So easy.
To make the yoghurt itself I pour in 1 litre of UHT milk into the container, add 2 teaspoons of dried milk ( this isn't necessary but I read somewhere it helps to thicken and so far it works a treat for me! ) and 1 little pot of natural live yoghurt - I buy 4 for under 50 centimes here in France. Of course, once you've made your first litre of yoghurt you can save a pot full to use for the next batch and so on.......
Sooooooooo easy and delicious!
I will post on here regularly to keep our little on line diary alive and with more delicious recepes and ideas I use for Abbie's diet. She can basically eat most things and alot of it is common sense ( think about what kinds of foods give a normal person a bad tummy....spices, acid fruits etc ) and depending on what stage the illness is at and whether it's calm or flaring up, you have to think about cooking fruits and vegetables instead of eating them raw but living with Crohn's isn't as bad as we'd initially thought :-)
Life is for living and sometimes a person has obstacles put in their way but there's always a way around those obstacles, stay positive!
Bye for now :-)
