Nikki

Nikki's page

me!

I live in the UK, in between Cambridge and the Norfolk coast, 30 miles away from Sandringham.

I have one son,Tom, who's 22.

I live with my partner Dave, Travis our springer spaniel, Charley our 'lively' cocker spaniel and Nim and Spring our cats.

We have a nice 3 bedroomed house which is close to town and 10 mins walk from where I work.

Dave, Charley and Travis

Tom with his girlfriend Hannah

Travis and Charley

Nim

I have one younger brother, Neil, who has 3 gorgeous girls - Lucy, , Francesca and Chloe. He's a website designer (check out his amazing work at www.neilbarnes.com) .

My mum lives close by. I lost my Dad nearly seven years ago to lung cancer.

Dave works at the local brewery (very apt!) and I work at an infant school as a teacher. At the moment I have a class of 30 4 and 5 year olds. Here in the UK, children start full time education when they're 4. I love my job but wish I had more time to be doing what I was trained to do - be with the kids, but our government likes to continually dish out new regulations which entail more and more paperwork!

me with my class

I've had Crohns Disease since 1988. I suddenly started to lose blood - no other symptoms - which scared me to death! After numerous tests and months of waiting, I was told what I'd got.

Initially I was put on Salazopyrine but I suffered a severe allergic reaction so was given Asacol. During major flares over the years I've been on our friend Pred and have also tried Imuran and Budesonide.

In January 1999 I decided I'd had enough of drugs that didn't work and which gave me horrible side effects so I gave up wheat and all meds and became a lot better. I was lucky it worked for me, looking back I realise that it was an unwise thing to do, without my doctors permission! But work it did and although I still have the odd minor flare or scare I'm much better than I used to be.

Leaving a stressful marriage has also helped! Stress has been a major factor in my disease - home and work. So anti-depressants have helped enormously with the stress and have helped me cope with the CD, too.

So I suppose I generally consider myself to be in remission. I also think that over time you resign yourself to a life that you know will never be 'normal' but having been through the worst of times - this will do!

2005

some photos of tourist spots in the town where I live