After watching “Heroes” last night I was struck with a thought because of some of the characters on the show… One of the characters can read minds. Two of the other characters on the show are Spanish. They have not yet come across each other, but my thought was… when he tries to read their minds will he be able to understand? Will their thoughts be in Spanish? Or are thoughts simply concepts without words associated to them. I think we use words when we think… at least I believe I do.
What do you think?
For the past few months (aside from other standard Crohn’s symptoms) I have had some dry eyes and red spots appear from time to time. Not painful or anything like that, but annoying none the less. So, I decided to look into it and found it was a side effect of Crohn’s disease which I was not aware of…
“Eye conditions that can occur with CD include conjunctivitis, episcleritis, uveitis, iritis and keratopathy. Most eye conditions will improve when progress is made in treating the underlying CD, but some may require treatment. Conjunctivitis, or “pink eye,” is an inflammation of the tissue covering the eye and inner surface of the eyelid and may be treated with antibiotics. Uveitis is the inflammation of the middle layer of the eye wall and symptoms include light sensitivity, pain, redness, blurred vision and headaches. Uveitis is commonly treated with corticosteroids; if left untreated it could result in glaucoma or detached retina. Inflammation in the white of the eye is called episcleritis: symptoms include pain and reddening, and treatment is with a vasoconstrictor or corticosteroid. Iritis is inflammation in the iris and symptoms include pain, light sensitivity, blurred vision, redness, decreased pupil size, and floaters. Steroids and antibiotics may be used to treat iritis. Keratophaty is an irregularity in the cornea that does not cause pain or loss of vision, and is therefore usually not treated. ” (this snippet was taken from http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/faqscd/a/crohnsfaq.htm)
I thought it was good information to pass on… When I have time I will research some of these eye conditions and post them.
As most of you know I have Crohn’s disease. When I found out a few year back, I did a lot of research on the disease and was proactive in finding out about treatments and medicines. This was quite helpful in dealing with the disease. It let me accept it and move on to what I could do about it. Once things calmed down I was able to get back to enjoying my family and friends again. I also (thanks to Lynn) became a little more active and participated in a few of the ccfa.org “Guts for Glory” walks to help raise money for research.
Recently, “Hello Lady” (aka my Mom – inside joke) forwarded a link to to me of a funny and interesting blog that someone with Crohn’s Disease has been writing. Now, I have been thinking about doing this myself for some time now, but just have not had the time. Well… with this kick-butt blogging tool by WordPress.org, it is a lot easier than one would think. So, I figured it is time to start sharing my experiences, the interesting information I have found and try to act as a pseudo-resource for others with Crohn’s.
It has been an interesting journey so far and there have been a lot of good (and gross – thanks Ken and Kier) jokes along the way. Hopefully this will have a positive impact and help others with Crohn’s as well as myself.
Enjoy and feel free to comment as you wish.
-Ben
