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I’ve recently been in the market for a modchip for my xbox. I’ve had the thing for a few years, and never bought any games for it. It came with a few, including Halo, and I played that all of once and quickly got bored. (I really haven’t enjoyed any shoot-em-up type games since Doom2). We’ve used it as a dvd player for our second TV, and it’s worked out pretty well.

But I’ve got lots of hard disk space, and a new minidv camera, so I thought it might be nice to watch video stored on the computer on the tv. And music and photo slideshows would be cool too. There’s an open source project called xbox mediacenter that serves exactly that purpose. But, because it’s not an official microsoft endorsed project, in order to get the code to run, one has to install a modchip in the xbox. Ok, not such a big deal, they have ones that don’t require any soldering now. So I hunted around for the best price on the X-BIT solderless modchip. I found mod-chip.com and modchipman.com. I also found modchip.com, but they were the most expensive.

Ah, but they will match prices with an extra 5% discount, and shipping is cheap. So I placed my order. They were quick to verify the reduced price and process my order. I received an email stating that it would arrive in 4-6 business days. It’s been two weeks and the product hasn’t arrived. They haven’t yet responded to emails regarding shippping status. I decided to google for them and see what I could find, and I found this. Apparently they don’t have a very good reputation. They’re based in Austria, and shipping times are more like 20+ business days.

So, I don’t know when, or if, I’m ever going to get that modchip. And all because I thought I’d try and save a few bucks.

So, unless you’re in Europe, and maybe even then, I’d recommend staying away from modchip.com.

Update, March 4th, 2005: I received my x-bit modchip, whoohoo! Apparently I’m very lucky. After several weeks with no response from their suppprt, I was wondering if it would ever shop up. Umm, only problem is I have a v 1.0 xbox, and apparently the x-bit doesn’t go very well with 1.0 boxes, at least not solderless. I’ve got it installed, but can’t seem to get it to activate (always boots to Microsoft Bios). I guess I’m going to have to either try soldering, or get a different chip.

It’s not Ulcerative Colitis. It’s not Crohn’s. It’s Indeterminate Colitis. Although several aspects are much more like Crohn’s (skips, location), the biopsy results didn’t give a clear indication of one or the other. So, I’m continuing for a few months on the steroid, tapering off as I go, and starting Asacol for maitenence today. Hopefully with just the meds I’ll be fine, doc says it’s very mild, and I’ve probably had it for about 15 years or so (just didn’t have the blood). I’m also continuing on the low fiber diet, but I don’t have to be super-ultra strict. Yay!

Actually, that should be Crohn’s Disease (CD) vs. Ulcerative Colitis (UC).

If it turns out tomorrow that I’m not diagnosed with CD, I will be diagnosed with UC.

The two diseases are related in that they’re both auto-immune disorders of the bowel, and both classed as Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) — which is very different by the way from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is also sometimes called spastic colon.

In both cases (CD & UC) the cause is unknown. There is no cure for either. Instead at this point in time the goal of treatment is management and reduction or elimination (remission) of symptoms for as long as is possible. The symptoms and treatment for the two are very similar, and sometimes diagnosing between the two is very difficult.

There are three main things that set Crohn’s Disease apart from Ulcerative Colitis.

• CD can affect all layers of bowel tissue, UC only effects the inner lining of the bowel.
• CD can affect any portion of the GI tract (anything between the mouth and anus), UC is restricted to the colon (and sometimes the very end of the small intestine).
• CD can “skip” areas, having affected tissue, a length of healthy tissue, and more affected tissue, whereas UC is contigous.

Outside of those three primary differences, UC typically starts at the anus, rectum, or lower colon and extends up the colon (although I’m sure there are atypical exceptions), rarely extending into the end of the small intestine.

Crohn’s disease is almost the opposite, in that it typically affects the end of the small intestine down into the beginning of the large intestine (and this is apparently consistent with my colonoscopy) — however as noted above it can affect any portion of the GI tract. In fact there are at least 5 subtypes of Crhon’s depending on the region of the bowel involved and the symptoms incurred.

There does appear to be some kind of genetic link — according to the NIH & CCFA, IBD tends to run in some families, with about 20-25% of people with either having a close relative with an IBD. Your chances of having IBD go up about 10 fold if you have a relative with IBD, and 30 fold if that relative happens to be a sibling. But, if 20-25% have relatives with IBD, 75-80% don’t have any relatives with IBD. That indicates to me that the genetics involved are very complex, with more than one gene involved which makes it a lot more complex than a simple dominant/recessive chi square.

Indeed, the current theory is that a complex interaction between the immune system and an outside agent (an as of yet unidentified virus or bacterium) causes the immune system to “switch on” and for some reason it doesn’t “shut off” properly.

I spent most of last week in an out of the hospital. It was a rather embarrassing ordeal. I’m especially not very comfortable with the area of the my body involved, which is I guess why I’m writing this.

On Tuesday in the very early AM. I had some severe cramps and diarrea. I noticed that there was some bright red blood in my stool. I really didn’t think much of it, except the cramps were so bad I almost passed out. But they subsided to a tolerable level pretty quickly so I didn’t give it any more thought. Except that it continued until Wed. with the cramping, diarrea, & blood.

I called my general practitioner, who sent me to the E.R. @ Henrico Doctor’s Forrest. The pain I was experiencing was very similar to appendicitis, and he wanted me to have a CT scan to rule that out. People with sprained elbows were getting called back before I was. It seems they and every other hospital in the area were full because people coming in with the Flu, and they didn’t have any beds or doctors to spare. My doctor didn’t call ahead of time of course, so after waiting over 8 hours for care we gave up and went to the local doc in the box (Patient First). They seemed to think it wasn’t appendicitis, and that I’d probably be ok to wait until morning to see my GP so he could order the CT scan outpatient.

Finally talked to my GP again Thursday morning and went to Henrico Doctor’s Parham for the CT scan. We had to wait several hours again as my GP’s office had forgotten to get pre-approval from the insurance company. That was no big deal, had to drink some banana flavored barium crap, have some blood taken. Then came an IV. I don’t remember ever having an IV before. My Mother says I have, but it apparently it was when I was only a few years old. I don’t enjoy blood tests much less having things sticking out of me. So that wasn’t fun for me. But the results came back negative.

So, my GP says I have to have an endoscopy. I’m feeling better at this point, so it’s like… can’t I just go home? No, *sigh*. So he gives me this liquid I have to use the night before to clear things out so they can see better. I’m thinking they want my stomach empty so they can check for an ulcer, they’re gonna put a camera down into my stomach to take a look. I take the stuff, go lytely it’s called. Which cleared me out pretty good I must say.

So I arrive a bit early for the procedure and the nurse tells me to drop trou. Huh? What? They’re looking at my stomach, why do I need to take off my pants? He’s not looking at my stomach, he’s looking at my colon. A colonoscopy is a lower GI endoscopy. Oh, and since you mentioned it, sign the waiver to let us look in your stomach too, if we don’t find anything down there. And we’ll be sedating you through an IV and might need to stretch your esophagus.

Man, talk about a nightmare. I was very scared, and shocked (having not been told ahead of time so that I could start to cope with it). Being in my 20’s, never having had an invasive procedure, never having been put under except once, and that was by gas at the dentist when I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Let’s just say I wasn’t happy in any sense to be having this done. Fortunately I don’t remember any of it, they had me out pretty good. But (no pun intended) my rear end still… well it doesn’t hurt, it’s just very uncomfortable. Didn’t feel this way before the colonoscopy… that’s apparently pretty normal though. And I can’t really tell the difference between a BM and gas now, they seem to have the same “weight” to them.

The results aren’t final yet, but it is highly likely that I have Crohn’s Disease (An easier to read summary is here). Nobody’s sure what causes it, but there does seem to be a genetic component, although not always. It’s a chronic inflammation of the large and/or small intestine. It’s not caused by certain foods or stress, but can be aggravated by them. The main symptoms are abdominal cramps and diarrea. (Seems like eggs might be something that aggrevates it for me, as I always have bad cramps and diarrea 6-12 hours after eating eggs.)

Flareups can be treated with steroids. It does appear that the disease is auto-immune related, the body attacking itself… so I will probably have to take something to supress my immune system (oh great! not like I don’t get sick enough as it is!!)

This is what really scares me: Over half of everyone with this diagnosis has to have surgery at some point. The related surgeries include repairing an anal fissure or fistula, repairing a blockage or abcess, removing the most effected part of the small bowel, removing the entire colon (resulting in an ostomy). The removal surgeries are temporary fixes as the problem tends to move into neighboring areas of the bowel after an effected area is removed. Relief is usually 5-15 years. There is no cure. There’s also a greatly increased chance of cancer, both of the colon and the small bowel.

I’ll have the final diagnosis at the end of the week, and will probably talk to another GI specialist that’s highly recommended by my family for a second opinion, but at this point I’m pretty much resigned to this being my diagnosis. All this has put my stress level through the roof.

Good news is I got the ok today to eat solid food again for the first time in almost a week. I could’ve been eating earlier, but we were googling for “low residual diet”. Should have gotten the paper from Bonnie earlier. I’m on a low residue diet. It’s really odd in that I have to stay away from whole grains, nuts, most vegetables (especially uncooked), I thought fiber and veggies were supposed to be good for you?

I’m still absoultely terriffied.

Oh-well. I’ve probably lost about 15lbs in this past week. I know I need to drop some weight, but this is definately not the way I wanted to do it. Wonder if weight watchers will give me a refund?