Tis' the season.

I love the Holiday season! I have always had such awesome memories from my childhood about them. Some might think it's early but the we put the tree up tonight. I guess I'm just really excited about Christmas this year because of being a dad and sharing it with Henry. I love the idea of starting new traditions and making lasting memories for him. It was fun to dress him up for Halloween this year but that might be a memory that he is grateful to not remember in years to come!





In a couple of days we will be flying to Kansas to celebrate Thanksgiving with my side of the family this year. We all are pretty pumped! If I am honest part of me feels a little bummed about the Holiday season this year. I have a huge sweet tooth and with me changing my lifestyle to not indulge as I have in years past, I know it's going to be tough to turn stuff down. I had a really hard time in the store the other day walking through the candy aisles.

I just have to keep telling myself that there will be good alternatives for me to have that won't mess my stomach up. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on alternatives that are scd friendly. If I indulge I know what the end result will be.





I have many things to be grateful for this year. I hope all of you have an fun and safe time in whatever way you choose to celebrate this year!!

Turning the Corner

After a week of following the SCD I feel as though I am finally pulling out of this latest flare. By that meaning last night I slept the best I had in weeks, diarrhea is letting up along with pain, and my energy level is getting better. As grateful as i am to have a place where I can vent and share about my UC, it is awesome to be doing a post about what IS working.

Bone broth, bone broth and more bone broth. I cooked up a batch of this the other day and have a cup or two in the morning and evening. In my desperation to get the maximum benefits of this I found myself scraping the marrow from the bones after finishing cooking it. My understanding of the nutrients and befits to the gut that are in the marrow is why I did this. I had made bone broth in the past, and while it seemed to help I realized that I wasn't getting maximum potency from the bones themselves. In all of the broth recipes I have found the factor of extensive simmering needed to break the bones down has failed to be addressed. My friend Shelly, who is studying to be a ND helped me understand this. She has her own blog describing her discoveries and journey in healthy foods.

I have been sticking to the SCD diet very strictly and am feeling a LOT better. in addition to this I take cod liver oil with each meal and a daily pro-biotic. I have set some goals for myself in regards to getting off prednisone. I want to be adhere to my GI's recommendations with my med's but at the same time, they haven't helped. I think I may have tapped into something that may work much better than the medicine. I feel like I can be open with him about this but he is really old school and is going to stick to what he is trained in when it involves treating UC. Have others had similar questions regarding their own treatment methods?

In focusing more on my diet I realize that foods are just a piece of the puzzle. I am researching different avenues to try and tacke my UC from all angles. By that meaning, stress management and maitaining peace of mind and quality of life overall. My son Henry has been a lot of fun lately and has played a big part in managing my stress. I also am getting more involved with writing and hopefully filming short films. This has been a passion of mine for a while and I realize I have been in need of a creative outlet.

One thing I don't want this blog to be overly focused on is the "problem". I want you readers to know about other aspects of my life and plan to share about Henry's adventures with daddy as well as my creative endeavorer. My lovely wife Brittany has here own blog, Hairy Babies. She does such an awesome job of telling our story of being parents for the first time. Stop by and have a look, I know it will brighten your day!

Alright...I've had it.

Sooooo since my last blog post which was back in July there has been some major changes in my life. The smallest, and biggest at the same was the birth of my son! I have loved being a dad. While it has had it's share of challenges it has been awesome thus far.

It was a week ago Friday that I was admitted into the hospital for the weekend. I had been maintaining at a really crappy place with my gut for a while and that Friday things came to a head. Earlier that week I had gotten scoped. The results of which my GI said was "moderate" colitis. I couldn't help wondering, as crappy as I had been feeling, what would he describe as "severe" colitis?

Anyway, it's like they say, drastic times call for drastic measures. I had heard some about the SCD a few months back. At the time the commitment was not there. I just couldn't bring myself to cut out some of the stuff that the diet was requiring. I also had been being proactive with my UC and had, for the most part, been doing pretty good.

One of the signs that the medicine I had been on was not working was finding them in the toilet shortly after taking them. Which led to....

I have since had a change of heart. Nothing like a hospital stay to bring that about don't ya' think? I just want to feel better and I am very weary of my ornery colon. am a few day's into the diet and can already tell a difference. One thing I like so far is that the recipes seem to be easy to follow and pretty tasty. I have a big sweet tooth so I have been relieved to see that there are alternatives. Especially with the holiday's here!

Despite feeling exhausted 90% of the time, I am hopefully optimistic about this diet. I have heard of many people having good success with it. Is anyone currently on this diet or had experience with it? I would love to hear others experiences.

Hit me with music....

Ever since I can remember, I have loved music. Somewhere floating around at my parent’s house is a picture of me at a very young age holding a Mickey mouse guitar. My dad is where I feel like I inherited this.

It was not until my 21st birthday did I get my first guitar and start taking lessons. While I did fall in love with the guitar from the minute I started playing, I found myself wondering how many potential guitar players had given it up when confronted with playing ”bar” chords? I have stuck with it though. It is one thing that I have stuck with and not given up on. I can tend to be a really at starting things, but often don’t follow through with them. If there is one thing I could snap my fingers and change about myself it would be that. I really hate that about myself.

I believe I have mentioned that me and my wife Brittany are expecting a baby boy. The due date is July 22nd. While I could not be more elated about this “minor” detail about my life has got this old brain doing a lot of introspective thought recently. After all, in just a few short weeks my life will be forever changed. This brings me back to music and guitar.

I will be 32 in August. Music has been something that has been such a passion for me. No matter how hard I have tried, it seems to be a switch that cannot be shut off. Part of me feels like I have completely missed that boat or opportunity. Whatever that would have entailed, I don’t know. I should just grow up and fall in line, right? After all, aren’t what most 32 year olds doing is falling in line, being average, working the nine to five only looking back years later to see missed opportunity after missed opportunity.

I am not saying that I want to ignore every responsibility that I am faced with because of chasing some pipe dream, or having a little peter pan syndrome going on. What I am saying is that I firmly believe that there is a balance to be found in all of this. That is what I am looking for. In the conversations I have had about this with my wife as well as the ones that go on only in my head, there is one question that nags at me. Do most people feel this way and don’t talk about it. or am I just selfish and day dream too much?

One thing is that will change in about three weeks is that I will finally meet my son! Between the added responsibility that this will bring and their not being enough hours in the day, I have a feeling that any guitar playing in the Klein house will taper off for a season. Or who knows, maybe that is what will help get him to sleep! Either way I want to not let this love of music that was passed down to me fall by the wayside and not get passed on.

Oh, and before I forget As I promised in my last post here are some new photos of stuff around Richmond. Here are a few of the
the famous tennis player, Arthur Ashe. He was from Richmond and had quite and influence on a lot of people. One thing that cracks me up about this statue is that it looks like he is beating the children with a tennis racquet, while withholding books from them.




Or is it just me?