Basic, Simple and Healthy . . . Mike McCready from Pearl Jam

So when I came up with the idea for this blog, one of the people who I wanted to get in contact with is Mike McCready, the lead guitarist for Pearl Jam.  I've always like Pearl Jam, I guess it's ingrained guys who grew up in the 90's.
In 1993 I would have been in grade 7 or 8, and one day I found a grey unmarked cassette tape.  It was mix tape that someone had made, and dropped in the school, and being curious I kept it and played it when I got home. From what I recall there were only two songs that stood out*, Cannonball by the Breeders and Daughter by Pearl Jam. I'm not sure if it's the song itself or because that song was my first taste, but to this day it is my favourite song by Pearl Jam.

Now beyond being in Pearl Jam, there is a specific reason that I wanted to hear from Mike, and that is because he has Crohn's Disease, the meaner brother of Ulcerative Colitis. The main difference between the two is UC is specifically contained in the colon, whereas Crohn's can attack anywhere in the digestive tract.

Mike has been using a couple of methods to control Crohn's, through medication and by following the Specific Carb Diet. Unfortunately SCD didn't really do much for me, but there are lots of people that has helped, (there is a chance that I didn't give it long enough).  The diet is very strict in terms of what you can eat, take a look at the legal/illegal list.

So I sent an e-mail to his management company and ask them to pass it on, which they did and the next day I had a response.

Mike wrote:
"Jason,  First of all have you tried Humira? It might be something to look into before surgery. I am obviously not a doctor, but there are many options out there. I would suggest something that will make you feel good about your body. Maybe fish with rice and a vegetable? Take care, Mike

Yes it's short, but I've noticed a trend when I've asked people for suggestions. They seem to fall into three groups**.
The first recommends that generally have the term "the hottest you can find" attached to the description.  The idea behind that has been to make my colon "pay" for the last couple of years.
The second very often recommends something extravagant.  either it's decadent, complicated or very unhealthy.
The third group seems to recommend  something that is healthy in some way, either physically nourishing or nourishing to the soul.

The majority of people I've talked to with Crohn's give suggestions that fall into the third category.  I'm not sure if it's because of the strained relationship that Crohn's patients have with food, but it seems very likely.  Most of those suggestions involve some sort of food that they themselves can't eat.  Having a salad comes up a lot.  Salads as healthy as they may seem are big no no for a lot of people with IBD.  There will be another post in the near future where I share those suggestions.

Now Humira,  the medication Mike is on, was something that I was looking into, but like Remicade it is an expensive medication.  To get on Remicade I had to apply for Gov't assistance to help pay for it.  Unfortunately in Ontario, the provincial gov't thinks that surgery is a far better option than Humira, as such they will not help pay for Humira for people with Ulcerative Colitis, so unless I win the lottery I'm out of luck.

Normally I'd try to give a set of links on how you can cyberstalk the person who helped out with a suggestion, but I can't seem to find much of an online presence for Mike.  So in addition to the link for the Pearl Jam site, I'm providing links to a few other sites that you should look into supporting.

The official Pearl Jam site is here.

I also recommend checking out the following links:
Advocacy For Patients With Chronic Illness
The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America
The National Association for Crohn's and Colitis (UK)

 *The reason can say only two stood out, is because here we are 17 years later, and I can only remember those two songs.
**There is actually a fourth group, and they are people who have had the same surgery I'm going to have. That response seems to be "It doesn't matter, once you have the surgery you'll be able to eat whatever you want".

Jason

In excellent shape for a man in his fifties

Yesterday I got the results from my physical last month.  I was half expecting to be told I was in excellent condition for man 20 years my senior.  I was pleasently suprised to find out that aside from the UC, I'm in fairly good condition.  Blood pressure is normal, no sign of diabetes , cholesterol is a bit on the high side, but you can't win them all.   Now I was expecting the worst, but for a tubby 30 year old smoker who lives a fairly sedentary lifestyle, I really got the best outcome possible.

Between the end of May and the end of August, I was in really rough shape.  I was admitted to the hospital once a month, each stay for roughly a week. All related to my colon in some way.  In that period of time, I've had my medication upped twice, blood clots in both legs, 3 blood transfusions, a massive flare-up and serum sickness from a new medication they tried me on (every major joint in my body seized up)*.  Anyway work grew paranoid, and decided that over the summer I was placing my job before my health and they thought I was going to die on them (presumably sitting at my desk running a report on market share).  So my first day back after the last hospital stay, I was pulled aside by my director and told me that he, the VP and President of the company talked and were placing me on reduced hours for the next 3 months.  So effective immediately I was only allowed to come into the office two days a week, and was not allowed to log in from home.  That was the beginning of September, at the end of this month I go back to work full time.

So as I write this I am sitting in a dive bar eating breakfast**.  It's actually closer to 1pm, so you could call it lunch.  The place is called Sneaky Dee's.  It's a dank, grungey Tex-Mex bar. The tables and walls are covered in graffitti, the booths have skeletons painted on the seats where people would sit.  The food isn't great, it's decent but it's cheap and plentiful.  I live about 2 blocks from this place and it is my favourite bar in the city.  The place is always packed and I dare you to find a bar where you can get a massive nacho platter and 3 pitchers for less than $45.

For years I have passed by this place and there is a sign on the window advertising a breakfast special. Two eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast for $3.25, Monday to Friday 11am to 4pm.  Now I have been passing myself off as a productive member of society for quite some time now, as such managed to find a big boy job that I still don't think I'm qualified for. So I've never been able to partake.  Today (being one of my many days that I don't work) I rolled out of bed at the crack of noon, and after looking in the fridge and finding only beverages, condiments  and the building blocks of food, I decided today would be the day that I take advantage of the special (with a coffee and tax it's less than $5.50).
With Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease everyone has certain foods that cause flare ups and massive pain when they eat them.  Why do I bring this up?  Well this place is referred to by many names, one of them is Sneaky Disease.  One of reasons why I love this place is the same reason  that some people hate it.  It's dank, dark, grungey and really it looks like you could get food poisioning by walking past  the bar.  I have a senstive digestive tract for obvious reasons.  There are some brands of soda that I can't drink without it causing massive pain***, but I know that no matter what I order here it will not cause issues.  For me it's a safe place.

* Did you know that there are drugs stonger than morphine, but weaker than heroin?  Well there are, and I was on them (it was wonderful).
** Using WordPad and lamenting the fact that people now know how to make their WiFi password protected.
***Oh Tahiti Treat, I miss you  so much.

The Fat Sandwich (the greatest thing to come from the Garden State) . . Daniel O'Brien from Cracked.com

This next suggestion comes from Daniel O'Brien, assistant editor, senior writer and columnist over at Cracked.com.  I used to read Cracked when it was still a physical magazine, and yes the first time I bought was when I went to the store and they were sold out of MAD.  Then I found myself buying both magazines. Until they raised the price to $2.25, and as a child without any sort of income I stopped buying them and switched my full allegiance to comic books (until that "Death of Superman bullshit, when I had to buy 5 different comics just the follow the story line, at that point I just stopped).  I was told that Cracked was revived as a website, I checked it out periodically, however I did not start making it a daily event until I came across Dan's article 'Watchmen' Fan Cordially Invites Fox to Eat Several Dicks. When I eventually got back to work after the holidays I forwarded the link to every comic book fan in the office. From that point on I became a regular visitor. It was that article that made me a fan.

So this post is rather long, I had decided early on that I was going edit the suggestions that I received to shorten and remove the "sorry to hear about the colon etc." parts.  However I can't bring myself to do it for this one. Almost every word is pure gold.  

Daniel Wrote:

"First of all, I’m very sorry about the Ulcerative Colitis. My colon and I don’t always get along, but I can’t imagine life without him. That really sucks, brother, but at least it looks like you’re handling it like a total champion.

Meanwhile, food. You’ve come to the right place, as I think about food, let’s say, all day every day.

Philosophically, it makes sense for your last meal to be something wildly unhealthy for you, right? Any time you decided to not eat something because it was too fatty or had too much sugar or too much bacon or whatever? Those times are gone. This is your last meal and all bets are off. My knee-jerk, then, is a delicious and filling yet impossibly unhealthy meal, and for that I’d like to direct your towards the Fat Sandwich.

As an undergrad in Rutgers University, (New Brunswick, New Jersey), I had a lot of these fat sandwiches. A fat sandwich is just an impossible amount of food in a sandwich. (Menu here) You can put whatever you want on the sandwich, but here are a few to get your mind in the right place:

Fat Darrel: Chicken fingers with two mozzarella sticks, French fries, lettuce, tomatoes and marinara sauce.

Fat Vavavoom: Cheesesteak with two mozzarella sticks , French fries, bacon, marinara, lettuce and tomato.

Fat Blunt: Cheesesteak with pork roll, egg, mozzarella sticks, French fries, mayo, ketchup, lettuce and tomato.

Fat Phillipino: Cheesesteak with chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, gyros meat, French fries, white sauce, lettuce and tomato.

Fat R.U. Grill: Double cheese burger with mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, bacon, egg, French fries, mayo, ketchup, lettuce and tomato.

And they look like this:

They’re incredibly tasty, incredibly filling, and INCREDIBLY terrible for you. Just awful. I used to eat them two at a time, because I hated myself, I guess.

Meanwhile, as long as you’re in New Brunswick eating fat sandwiches, you should head over to Tumulty’s on George Street. You can grab a beer, and they have decent burgers and sandwiches but, honestly, the thing to get at Tumulty’s is the buffalo wings. They have the best buffalo wings on the entire planet. I moved from Jersey a few years ago and I miss those wings every single day.

Hope this helps.

Best,

-Daniel"

Now some notes on this.  

1)Daniel scores points for providing multiple suggestions. Not only am I mildly salivating, but my heart is starting to hurt from just reading the descriptions.

2) What is a "pork roll"? Is it some sort of classy "pig in a blanket"?

3)After checking out the menu,and seeing that the average price for one of these Fat sandwiches is $5, it reaffirms my belief that in America everything bad for you is cheap and plentiful. Which is why I love America.  If this place sold cigarettes and whiskey I would make it my new home.

In addition to his Watchmen article, his article on his article on the phenomena of "Icing" is another suggested read..

Daniel can be found at Cracked.com , writing his column Dan Dan Revolution  as well as starring in the on going serial Agents of Cracked.or you can follow him as @DOB_INC on Twitter.

- Jason 

Gin Soaked Boy

I have yet to meet with the surgeon, and beyond Isabel, no one that I have written to has sent a response so I have no news on either front, however something is starting to set it.

Now aside from the obvious duty of the colon, it's secondary function is to reclaim water from food.  Now seeing as mine only partially works, I already get dehydrated a fair amount. Once it's gone the risk of dehydration is even higher.  The main cause of hangovers is dehydration.

Once I have the surgery I will no longer be able to drink heavily.  Now drinking is something I am good at, I always have been.  I don't drink daily or even weekly, but when I go out I like to have a few.  Shortly after being diagnosed,I found out (the hard way) that I am prone to hangovers. I've gotten hangovers while remaining completely lucid and sober the night before, it's the curse of having a high tolerance. (On vacation there was an occasion where I managed to open and close a bar, keep in mind the hours of operation were only from 9am to 6 pm, but I still did it (Cuba, 2007- Brisas Santa Lucia))

So in addition to providing my colon a last meal, I think I'm going to need to go on a some sort of drinking binge.  Not a multi-day bender (I am a semi-productive member of society after all), but a night to a remember that I probably won't.

Any suggestions as to what and/or where I should be drinking?  Keep in mind location really doesn't matter, if the suggestion is awesome, I'll try to make it happen (The sharing of drinking stories is encouraged)