We're Open

I'm happy to say that we're back, and the Manor is open once again. Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes and support during Jason's surgery. The web site has been updated. The newsletter has gone out. It's good to have him back.

A Little Less Mellow Yellow

I've enjoyed this last week of soapmaking. Having the web site closed while Jason's been recovering has afforded me the time to play a little more.

I mentioned back in September that I would be kicking up some of my classic staples. Now it's Lemon Poppo Mint's turn. I've added some tangy May Chang essential oil to the Lemon and Peppermint blend and swirled the bar with some green nettle leaf.

It smells heavenly and I think it looks awesome.

Update on My Hero

"It's President's Day Weekend at the end of the week," said husband techy guy, while printing off a few soap labels for me yesterday.

"I know..." says me. "I wish you were driving, then we could go out." I carried on wrapping the bars, and piling them up on my workbench. I've been in America for the best part of ten years, and I still can't get enough of our days out. I do adore New England. It reminds me of back home in so many ways, and I never tire of visiting the many picturesque towns and villages it holds.

"So, how would you like it if I took you somewhere good on Thursday?" And he walked through, handing me a few sheets of Ooh La Lavender.

"Don't be silly," I said with loads of love in my heart for him. "It's gonna be another ten days at least before you can get back behind the wheel again."

"Oh, I wasn't thinking of driving anywhere. I was thinking more of taking you somewhere." and he looked over at me with a big grin on his face. "Like... into everyone's email box with a Presidents Day Weekend newsletter."

I love my husband!

Yes... Jason is up and about. He's printing, though for much shorter stints than I am used to. His staples were removed last Thursday, and he's been managing to sit for a short while in the computer chair. He's eating well, still a little sore, and he's definitely bored.

Looks like he's really on the mend. I may be opening on Thursday. How can you not love this man!

State of Grace

Meet Grace.

Rich olive oil, sunflower butter, and mowrah butter... all stirred in with a heavenly scented blend of rose geranium, ylang ylang, and patchouli kissed with fragrant jasmine and sun ripened raspberry. A wonderfully moisturizing layered silken soap, drizzled with pretty ribbons of pink.

She's the newest bar at The Manor. Coming soon...

Little Waft of Calm

Soap making is therapy - and then some!

Part of Jason's recovery at home is having to sleep apart. I am terrified of bumping into his sore tummy while we're both asleep... so he's in the bed, and I'm on the couch. Not that I'm grumbling too much. It means I have the company of telly all night long.

This morning I woke to a silent room. The TiVo DVR was downloading something or other from the base unit up in the sky. I think that's how it all works. It receives messages from a satellite, and updates almost weekly with new bells and whistles. I daresay Jason will enjoy himself with the remote when he's up and about, checking all the new at his fingertips. Me? I wasn't so thrilled.

Half asleep, I took a look at the clock... 4.10am. Now, don't know about you, but I'm one of those who wakes early. No alarm needed... usually around 5.00am. Needless to say, I was awake and cursing technology. I mean, in this day and age of satellite thingies, wouldn't you think they'd find some way of talking to your DVR that didn't involve putting your television to sleep for half an hour?

So, my morning cup of Tetley British Classic Blend in hand, I padded down the stairs and headed for my workshop. Ahhhh, my old friend. By 4.40am I'd opened the various pails of oils, and an hour and half later, I'd gotten sixty pounds all weighed out into my pans, ready for some serious soaping.

On the menu today is:

Oooh La Lavender and Oatmeal
She She Shea and Lavender
Lavenders Wild
Golden Jojoba and Oatmeal

It feels so good to be back in the saddle. I'm hoping the smell of Lavender wafting through into the house will help soothe Jason's pain a little. If nothing else, it'll certainly help relax him for the day.

Tummy Trouble

Yesterday, Jason managed to sit up for a short while. The night before, he'd managed to sleep in the bed. Since his surgery, he's been somewhere inbetween. Kinda reclined, stacked with pillows so he's neither sat up or lay down.

When we got home from the hospital on Wednesday, the bed was impossible. In order for the surgeon to get to the bowels, the tummy muscles have to be sliced through. I have to say, the surgeon did a remarkable job. He used laparoscopic surgery, with hand assist. That's where they use little robot thingies through small incisions, and then make a larger incision just big enough for the hand to remove what needs to be taken out. The tiny incisions are negligible really, and the larger one is about three inches vertically under the belly button, sealed with eight shiny silver staples. It is incredibly neat and tidy beyond belief. But it hurts when it scrunches up to sit forward, and hurts again when it is stretched to lean back.

It's funny how our comprehension of things is simple when dealing what we can see. When Jason sits up, I can see the skin around his wound wrinkling, and scrunching together... it must hurt. When he lays down, I can see the stretch of everything as it lengthens to accommodate the body's full recline. Again, ouch! But behind the scenes, something else is going on that I can't see. In order to sit up, or lay back the tummy muscles have to be employed... and Jason's tummy muscles have been sliced. It's gonna be a good few months before he'll be back to normal. Strange. He's had bowel surgery, and his bowels are working fine now. No pain with that. Who'd have thought.

Crohn's disease is like that. It's an inflammatory bowel disease. It's classed along with IBS, ulcerative colitis, and other "tummy" troubles. It's often mistaken for IBS, because of what you can see... heartburn, tummy pain, diarrhea. But it's what you can't see that diagnoses it as Crohn's. And by the time you get to know what's really happening behind the scenes... it's too late.

Many with Crohn's relate it to food. They find that certain foods put them in a flare. Many others relate it to stress. They find that when they're stressed, they end up in a flare. A flare is the term used for an episode of typical Crohn's symptoms. Extreme tummy pain, incredible cramps, bleeding, vomiting, weight loss, high temperature... and the need to take a sleeping bag into the bathroom, because the diarrhea you experience has you in there all day long. Or night. And that's just what you can see. What you can't see is what's really going on behind the scenes.

Crohn's isn't just any ordinary inflammatory bowel disease. (If there is an ordinary one, that is. ) It's one of those weird auto-immune things. What's really happening is that the body recognizes food as an invader, and goes into attack mode. It also recognizes bacteria as an invader, and launches an assault. All this causes white blood cells to accumulate in the lining of the intestines, producing chronic inflammation, which leads to ulcerations and bowel injury. Unlike other ulcerative bowel conditions, the Crohn's ulcers don't just form on the top layer of the intestinal lining... all layers are often involved, and treatment is difficult to say the least. Sometimes, the ulcers are so invasive that they tunnel their way through to other parts of the body. These tunnels are called "fistulas", and are a non-too-pretty complication of the condition.

There is no cure for Crohn's. Basically the body's system doesn't work properly. It doesn't like food, and it doesn't like bacteria. Both are essential to the workings of the human body. As the disease progresses, the normal anti-inflammatory meds are no longer enough, and the GI guys have to break out the serious stuff... the steroids to attack the inflammation, and the immune suppressants to put the immune system to sleep. Meanwhile, the ulcers have scarred the bowels so badly, that various sections are rendered damaged beyond repair. These sections narrow under the inflammation, and the first that many Crohn's sufferer's know about their true condition is emergency surgery for a blockage.

Jason was fortunate to have his Crohn's diagnosed by a brilliant GI doctor right here in Springfield, MA. At the time, we had no idea just how on the ball this guy really is. Although Jason's probably had Crohn's since childhood, it was only diagnosed six years ago. He's spent most of his life in pain... eating like a sparrow, avoiding events where food was to be had. Avoiding traveling in anyone's car other than his own, because he can find the rest room when he needs it... not when the driver decides it's time to get off the highway. And sadly, ducking and diving the slings and arrows, cheap shots, and sarcasm from those ignorant of what was really going on behind the scenes of the life known as Jason.

It's funny how we have comprehension for what we can see. Jason's had bowel surgery, so there must be something wrong. For Jason though, he's had this something wrong for most of his life. And the symptoms were there for all to see. But now, he's had major surgery, and that can be comprehended. It lends validation to his condition. Now it's okay if he doesn't want to eat. Now, it's okay if he declines an invitation to an event. Now, it's understandable. He has Crohn's.

Hello? He's always had Crohn's.

Cutting Through the Mee-Maw

It's three days since Jason was discharged from the hospital, and he's really doing well. Having endured pretty much a lifetime of living with Crohn's disease, this last flare-up which began in May 09, couldn't be brought under control, and he ended up where two thirds of Crohn's sufferers end up... with major surgery. Most folk with Crohn's keep it to themselves. And those with Crohn's who are out of the closet, don't really go into details. Consequently, it's one of those conditions that is greatly misunderstood, and largely ignored.

I remember being a child, standing by my grandmother's side on our walk to the market one Wednesday morning. We'd bumped into a friend of hers in the street, another old lady, and the two women were gabbing. (These are English slang terms... "bumped into" meaning we met someone along the way, and "gabbing" means non stop talking, usually about other people.) During the course of the conversation a neighbour was mentioned. She'd been in the hospital, and had an operation. My ears pricked up, and I stopped looking around aimlessly and came over all attentive. And then the weirdest thing happened. The other lady, while freely jawing about the situation suddenly tailed off mid sentence and her mouth moved but no sound came out. We call this mee-mawing back home. Where you mouth the words, but your voice is AWOL. Course, this always happened with the old folk when kids were around. And it always happened just as conversation was getting interesting. They'd been talking about the neighbour being in hopsital and having an operation. It'd be six months before she'd be back to normal. Poor woman. Well, you know what's wrong with her, don't you. She's had a... and the mee-mawing began, accompanied with the most curious distortions of the face, forehead, and eyebrows.

It's really weird how an absence of information always causes the mind to go into overdrive. Being human, we tend to try to fill in the missing pieces. In the main, for most of us, this strange pastime of ours is usually without malice. But the missing pieces we fill in are invariably inaccurate. My young innocent mind boggled as to what could possibly be wrong with the neighbour, and why it was such a secret. Not for any kind of nosiness though. But more out of a fear of one day going into hospital and having them do something to me that meant I'd be ill for at least six months. It would be many years later as a young adult woman, that I'd discover this type of mee-mawing among gabbing women, was usually where a hysterectomy was involved.

It's strange, but once armed with all the information (and of course, being old enough to comprehend what such an operation means to a woman), I was then able to actually feel the correct kind of sympathy with an understanding. I daresay, back in the day, hysterectomies were so frequent among older women, because of the quietness that surrounded them. I do believe that as the ways of the 1940's gave way to the fifties and on through the 1960's to the seventies... we began to understand more as medicine advanced, and became more open to discussions about women's health. Today, breast cancer is screened for, as is ovarian cancer and many other "women's" stuff. Through a willingness to be open, understanding came forth. And through this we have been able to leave the stigma of certain conditions behind and advance.

Jason has had a bowel resection. He's barely 35 years of age. This type of surgery abounds with myths and misinformation. It's a classic for mee-mawing. Mee-mawing, though very well intentioned at times, feeds into the imagination and perpetuates ignorance. With his permission, I am trying to blow the lid off a condition whose sufferers feel like lepers, and consequently live a life without understanding, and a life that often appears to those around as being anti social at times. They often withdraw from full social interaction, because well... you just don't go round telling folk that your insides are shot-at and you need your own personal rest-room. (Shot-at is another good old English slang term, meaning "in a hopelessly bad condition".)

He's doing very well considering that surgery was only a week ago. They removed around ten inches from the terminal ileum, which is the end of the small bowel. It's a common site for Crohn's, and it's usually the last resort when all other medication has failed to arrest the flare-up. They rejoined the section without incident, and although it's gonna be many months before he can bend properly, or lift anything significant, he will heal well. Just to diffuse one mee-mawing myth, if I may... he hasn't been given a bag. Yes, he's had a bowel resection, and though it might be hurting like all hell right now for him, his bits and pieces still work fine. It would appear that bowel surgery is no longer in the dark ages. There are magnificent surgeons out there, who are bringing Crohn's into the 21st century.