Logan Crumrine: Living in Remission (E93)

Enjoy this interview with Logan Crumrine, a Crohn’s disease warrior of more than 30 years, advocate, and writer.

Logan was first diagnosed in 1990. For years he fluctuated between states of flares, semi-remission, clinical trials and surgeries, and then went into complete remission for over 15 years! But remission came to an end in 2012 and he spent the next few years fighting for his life and eventually filed for disability. Today, he’s now in his second year of remission and living life to the fullest. 

Some of you will remember Logan as one of my repeat guests. He shared the first part of his story in episode 29 of this podcast in July 2019, and came back a year later in 2020 to talk about his experience and knowledge about going through the process of filing for disability. 

Today, he’s back to update us on his journey and share what it’s like to now live in remission.

From the show:

Stephanie: What kind of tips do you have for other people who are finding themselves newly in remission and still afraid to let go of the habits that they've held onto for so many years as their safety net?

Logan: I think the best advice would be that you've kind of got to do your own walk in that. You've got to kind of let go of those things as you feel comfortable. I still carry supplies in my backpack, but I don't carry as many. I don't carry an extra change of clothes, so my backpack has gotten down to just some undergarments in there and some stuff to clean up if I need to.

It's a much smaller kit, but again, I'm still learning. It's still automatic for me to put all that stuff on when I'm going out. And I think it's just, you just kind of have to challenge yourself and push yourself. It helps too that I have Leah with me, who's an incredible partner who reminds me, ‘hey, you know, you made this trip a couple of times without anything. Why don't you try it again?’

Or I'll be able to share with her that I didn't even get ready like I normally do for a trip. And then it's kind of an epiphany almost to say, ‘oh wow, we don't need that stuff all the time anymore.’

Stephanie: You've shared on social media a few times about struggling with Crohn's and depression. Can you talk about how you've coped through some of the hardest times and how has remission affected your overall mental health?

Logan: I think remission has helped my mental health and has benefited it. I still struggle with depression and sometimes, some days, it's absolutely debilitating. Right now, my depression seems to be presenting itself with insomnia. So I can be tired at seven o'clock and think, okay, I'm going to head to bed around nine and then I'm up till two. So it seems to be presenting that way.

I think being in a place with more sunlight has helped. Seasonal depression affected me really bad in Washington because where I lived in Washington, from about October to March, it's very dark and very gray. It's nice to be able to look out the window and see blue skies and sun, I'm trying to get back to exercising because that's so vital to mental health.

Stephanie: You have shared on social media about your fitness journey and just getting to a place of better overall health, what were some of the baby steps or the ways that you started to get back into that as you were feeling better?

Logan: I think that, and for the record, my hiking and walking come and go, like any kind of fitness thing, I do really good for a while and kind of back off for a little while. I think that one thing that I had to do is realize that I have to start with what I can do, even if it's five minutes of getting outside and taking a walk. I started when I was starting to get my health back. I was just literally doing laps around the cul-de-sac. And that's all I could do, just walk around the cul-de-sac very slow with a cane. It was very difficult for me to even get out and do anything. And now, I mean, wher