Hello,
I'm looking for some "what would you do if you were in my shoes"
opinions.

I have about 100 hours as a private pilot, but I have not flown since
2000. I would like to get back into private recreational flying, and
I'm trying to decide what to do about my expired class III medical. I
have no aspiraitons of getting a commercial rating, now that I have
little bit of money, I just want to get back into fun flying around the
patch and weekend trips to cool places.

Here's the situation...and yes, some of you may consider it to much
information, my apologies in advance:
in 2002, I ended up in the emergency room with a terribly painful
abscess in the rectal area, after about a year, including 5 surgeries I
was pretty much all better. During this time, I was diagnosed with
Crohn's disease through circumstancial evidence (symptoms, etc.) and
some barium x-rays. (basically, the doctors felt they had to have some
sort of reason for this abscess that wouldn't go away) During that
year, they had me on all sorts of different drugs, which really just
made me sicker. So, in 2003, after switching to a new surgeon and
doctor, I was feeling good and basically told them that I didn't think
I had Crohn's and that I didn't want to take any more drugs. So, I
stopped taking the drugs and have been doing great ever since.
In the last few months I finally had a colonscopy. The doctor took
biopsies and found no signs of Crohn's at all. he was very suprised by
this, as even in patients who's Crohn's disease is dormant, it still
shows up on the biopsies. This was the first time I had a colonscopy,
which by many is considered to be the only definite way to diagnose
Crohn's. I also had more barium xrays, and a capsule endoscopy (you
swallow a little camera pill, and it takes pictures all the way down),
both of these tests also showed no signs of Crohn's disease. For those
not aware, Crohn's disease is a digestive/immune system disease that
can lead to a host of problems in those systems. Having it means an
automatic referral to the FAA for your medical certificate.

So, here's the question...do I go ahead and go in for the Class III
medical exam, which will result in a referral to the FAA and risk a
denial? Or shall I just shoot for flying within the Sport Pilot rules
and regs and use my drivers license as my medical. My understanding is
that this would be legal, becuase As long as I don't currently have a
condition that would preclude me from flying, the dirvers license is
all I need. I'm not worried about the restrictions of the sport pilot
(2 passnegers, restricted aircraft, day flying only, etc.), but If I
could get my class III that would be nice, so that I woudn;t have to
even think about the restrictions.

Any thoughts, opinions, experiences or comments would be welcome!

Thanks

ndrkk