Hi all,
My fiancee has been suffering from UC/Crohns for the past 4 years. He was originally diagnosed with UC in the summer of 2006 at 20 years old. After spending a few days in the hospital, he was released and had fully recovered from his flair in a month or so. He was on many medications that kept the flaring under control.
In 2008, he switched doctors due to location changes, and his new doc diagnosed him with Crohns. The doc started to wean him off his meds in the spring of 2009, since the doc thought that he did not need to be on all of them. However in the fall of 2009, my fiancee started to flair again. He was hospitalized three separate times during the winter of 2009-2010 and tried various medicines. He had allergic reactions to steriods, Remicaid, etc. In the spring of 2010, was re-diagnosed with UC by a different doctor. Unfortunately, around the same time he lost insurance coverage, and so he began on a clinical trial for UC since it was a free service. His situation has been so severe, however, that he has seen little to no improvement from the clinical trial. Instead, the clinical trial has given him some sort of arthritis that makes it painful for him to walk and be on his feet. In November of 2009, he weighed 210 pounds and now in August of 2010 he weighs in at 138 pounds at 6 feet tall.
We have been engaged since March 2009 and were supposed to be married in June of 2010. We decided in March of 2010 to put off the wedding to allow him to focus all of his energy on getting well. He has not gotten any better and struggles with depression. Luckily, we were just notified that he qualifies for financial aid from the hospital and was also given a Medicaid card. While these are wonderful blessings financially, we are having a hard time staying positive since his situation has been so bad for so long. He is meeting with a GI surgeon at the end of August to hopefully get the j-pouch surgery process started.
I am looking forward to reading all of your stories and learning from your experiences. While I myself am not suffering from UC, I am finding that I need to be around other people who understand these sorts of GI issues. It's hard to always be a positive support for a loved one when sometimes there seems to be little hope of things getting better.
Thanks for "listening."
UCfiancee
My fiancee has been suffering from UC/Crohns for the past 4 years. He was originally diagnosed with UC in the summer of 2006 at 20 years old. After spending a few days in the hospital, he was released and had fully recovered from his flair in a month or so. He was on many medications that kept the flaring under control.
In 2008, he switched doctors due to location changes, and his new doc diagnosed him with Crohns. The doc started to wean him off his meds in the spring of 2009, since the doc thought that he did not need to be on all of them. However in the fall of 2009, my fiancee started to flair again. He was hospitalized three separate times during the winter of 2009-2010 and tried various medicines. He had allergic reactions to steriods, Remicaid, etc. In the spring of 2010, was re-diagnosed with UC by a different doctor. Unfortunately, around the same time he lost insurance coverage, and so he began on a clinical trial for UC since it was a free service. His situation has been so severe, however, that he has seen little to no improvement from the clinical trial. Instead, the clinical trial has given him some sort of arthritis that makes it painful for him to walk and be on his feet. In November of 2009, he weighed 210 pounds and now in August of 2010 he weighs in at 138 pounds at 6 feet tall.
We have been engaged since March 2009 and were supposed to be married in June of 2010. We decided in March of 2010 to put off the wedding to allow him to focus all of his energy on getting well. He has not gotten any better and struggles with depression. Luckily, we were just notified that he qualifies for financial aid from the hospital and was also given a Medicaid card. While these are wonderful blessings financially, we are having a hard time staying positive since his situation has been so bad for so long. He is meeting with a GI surgeon at the end of August to hopefully get the j-pouch surgery process started.
I am looking forward to reading all of your stories and learning from your experiences. While I myself am not suffering from UC, I am finding that I need to be around other people who understand these sorts of GI issues. It's hard to always be a positive support for a loved one when sometimes there seems to be little hope of things getting better.
Thanks for "listening."
UCfiancee
