Day 96– 15th September 2010

Last night I managed my 2 hour swim at Falmer without much difficulty, which was good. I was going for 3 hours, but didn’t get there until 3pm, so time just ran out. But 2 hrs was a good swim. I took a Maxim gel after an hour and even though I didn’t feel particularly any stronger, I also didn’t find it offensive at all.

This morning I woke up a little later than usual 6.00am, which was annoying and I was really tired. Also my stomach really hurt, which was definitely the Crohns; after 22 years you really get to recognise it. I almost rolled over shut my eyes and went back to sleep, but the pain, mixed with the guilt of not swimming, made that thought last about 60 seconds!

The sea was not rough like yesterday, but it was really choppy, which made it a good workout. Fiona joined us this morning, which was lovely as I don’t get to swim with her much. We swam all the buoys, around the pier to the next buoy and traced back again. Going around the pier felt like we were in a washing machine; just seemed to spend an age going in circles without moving, but when we got passed that nonsense the rest of the swi was great. The temperature definitely has dropped, but it’s still comfortable; not looking forward to the single digits though!

Chrohns disease is a funny thing; although funny I guess isn’t the right word! My point is that whilst one can certainly take a lot of medication to try to control the pain, in reality the medication can end up causing so many other complications (in my case it caused my osteoporosis, gave me eye problems, hand & feet problems, joint problems etc etc); hence why about 5 years ago I flushed all my medication away and now take nothing for any of my conditions. If only I had realised the effect that swimming, especially sea swimming, could have. When I went into the sea today I was in a fair bit of pain (probably 6/10 on the pain scale), however, 10 minutes into the swim (and since finishing the swim) I was/am pain free. No pills, no tears, no whinging; just a decent swim in the sea and all is well. Maybe others should try it!!