I WENT OUT FOR DINNER!!!
Good evening!
Guess what?! I went out for dinner!! To a restaurant!! With friends! And I ate all kinds of fun food, and even had my very first snail. Probably my last, too, because meh, but I WENT OUT FOR DINNER and wasn’t worried about what I could or couldn’t eat, because I can pretty much eat everything now. I started a new immunosuppressant at the end of October, and apart from one extremely painful side effect that is gradually dissipating, I’ve been well.
So if you’re suffering from IBD, and your life is the pits because you can’t go anywhere, or do anything, and you’ve tried a whole load of other medications that should work but don’t, or you’ve tried to eat, like, three things that more or less keep you safe, but you’re skinny as a rake and stressed out of your mind (been there, done that: sweet potato, courgettes and lamb chops for about 5 months), but you’re wobbling about immunosuppressants because they are “heavy” drugs, and you’ve heard scary stories about side-effects (I heard them all. Also, this is the longest sentence in the history of Substack, but I don’t care), all I can say is GO FOR IT. Get your life back. Life is too short.
I went through three and a half years of absolute hell health-wise. 2025 was the worst – I couldn’t go anywhere. Yes, some of you may have seen photos of me doing a poetry reading in August 2025, but I hadn’t eaten since lunchtime the day before and was (almost!) high on Immodium!!! And my house was two minutes away in the car in case of emergency.
Any other outing I went on last year was because we had guests, and I had taken cortisone for a couple of days so that I could function.
To give you some background, the first immunosuppressant I was put on in April last year didn’t work. We gave it just over six months, but there was no change in my collagenous colitis. So I was switched to another, and it immediately kicked in.
I am cautious, and still fragile, but I feel like I finally have my life back. I often joke that the only muscle I have left is my brain, so as soon as my other little niggle clears up I will go somewhere for a few weeks by the sea and do intensive physiotherapy to gently bring my body back, and build up my strength and stamina. I used to be very athletic (I rode dressage at a high level) and did a lot of Pilates, so I have good muscle memory. It will take time, but I don’t mind.
Tonight was a big night for me. Tapas with friends and family in a lovely restaurant in a little town in Catalunya.
Simple, but perfect.
It made me happy, so I wanted to share!
With love and gratitude,
Francesca xx