Hi,
I'm pretty new to this forum, found it from a google search. I wasn't even looking for a forum because I never even would have imagined that something like this existed.
My experience with Crohn's began around Sept of 2008, just as my 4th (final) year of undergrad was starting. I thought that it was going to be a great year, I had a lot of extra-currics lined up and was even involved in the leadership in quite a few of them. I was also going to be working in a lab for research project. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction and I couldn't wait to graduate. For many months, I never really thought of the symptoms that I was experiencing as being symptoms. I'm pretty good at bearing with pain and so when I started experiencing the pain, I thought it was just from stress because that had happened before when I was in high school. There was also diarrhea often, but I never thought much of it. My friends noticed that I was losing weight, but I told myself it was nothing to worry about, just proably from stress and not sleeping enough. I was always really really exhausted and always really cold to the point that I would wear a jacket, hats and mitts in the house.
After exams, I finally went to see my gp because I finally weighed myself and realized that I had lost over 20lbs and so that definitely seemed like something was wrong. Thankfully, I was able to see a GI within a relatively short period of time and had all various testing done. I'm was actually in a course that was talking about pathophysiology of diseases and right when I was in the midst of all these tests, I was actually learning about some of them in class. I didn't know if I should be glad that I knew what was going on or if I should be sad that I had to experience it. Finally, after the scopes, I was told that I had Crohn's. It came as a HUGE shock and really sucked because I found out the week before my bday. I had only heard about it once prior to my diagnosis, when I was volunteering in emerg, and a teen came in because of a flare up. My family had never ever heard of it, and my mom was pretty much in confusion and just didn't know what to do. I know she did a lot of Internet research to try to find out about it and try to figure out how to help me.
For the first time I wasn't sure if I could complete my courses, I didn't know if I would graduate as planned. And then in a couple of my classes we even talked a bit about Crohn's and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I found that after learning about my diagnosis I was more emotional - small things would set me off and make me cry. I had a lot of difficulty staying awake in classes and at night to finish my assignments. The pain would make me want to just curl up and wait until it went away. I realized that I couldn't just run around all day like I used to. Just taking the bus would tire me out, especially if it was rush hour and there were no seats.
I did manage to complete my courses and graduate. I had to learn to delegate a lot of my roles and ask profs to extend deadlines. During the beginning of 4th year, I had applied for med school and even got an interview which happened when I was really feeling out of it, but I went. I didn't get accepted and I was really disappointed and then that summer I started re-evaluating things. A lot of people felt that I shouldn't pursue medicine because of my health condition, but I couldn't let go of the dream. After much thought, I decided to give it one more shot. Apply again, and if it wasn't meant to be, then I would continue on another path. So, after a long long long long process, I received the exciting letter. =) I made the decision to go for it, but I still have uncertainties. I'm in remission, but what if it gets worse? I'm trying not to let the uncertainties get to me and even writing this out on the Internet seems to make everything a lot more real...
I know it's a long post, sorry about that, if you got to the end, thanks for reading.
I'm pretty new to this forum, found it from a google search. I wasn't even looking for a forum because I never even would have imagined that something like this existed.
My experience with Crohn's began around Sept of 2008, just as my 4th (final) year of undergrad was starting. I thought that it was going to be a great year, I had a lot of extra-currics lined up and was even involved in the leadership in quite a few of them. I was also going to be working in a lab for research project. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction and I couldn't wait to graduate. For many months, I never really thought of the symptoms that I was experiencing as being symptoms. I'm pretty good at bearing with pain and so when I started experiencing the pain, I thought it was just from stress because that had happened before when I was in high school. There was also diarrhea often, but I never thought much of it. My friends noticed that I was losing weight, but I told myself it was nothing to worry about, just proably from stress and not sleeping enough. I was always really really exhausted and always really cold to the point that I would wear a jacket, hats and mitts in the house.
After exams, I finally went to see my gp because I finally weighed myself and realized that I had lost over 20lbs and so that definitely seemed like something was wrong. Thankfully, I was able to see a GI within a relatively short period of time and had all various testing done. I'm was actually in a course that was talking about pathophysiology of diseases and right when I was in the midst of all these tests, I was actually learning about some of them in class. I didn't know if I should be glad that I knew what was going on or if I should be sad that I had to experience it. Finally, after the scopes, I was told that I had Crohn's. It came as a HUGE shock and really sucked because I found out the week before my bday. I had only heard about it once prior to my diagnosis, when I was volunteering in emerg, and a teen came in because of a flare up. My family had never ever heard of it, and my mom was pretty much in confusion and just didn't know what to do. I know she did a lot of Internet research to try to find out about it and try to figure out how to help me.
For the first time I wasn't sure if I could complete my courses, I didn't know if I would graduate as planned. And then in a couple of my classes we even talked a bit about Crohn's and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I found that after learning about my diagnosis I was more emotional - small things would set me off and make me cry. I had a lot of difficulty staying awake in classes and at night to finish my assignments. The pain would make me want to just curl up and wait until it went away. I realized that I couldn't just run around all day like I used to. Just taking the bus would tire me out, especially if it was rush hour and there were no seats.
I did manage to complete my courses and graduate. I had to learn to delegate a lot of my roles and ask profs to extend deadlines. During the beginning of 4th year, I had applied for med school and even got an interview which happened when I was really feeling out of it, but I went. I didn't get accepted and I was really disappointed and then that summer I started re-evaluating things. A lot of people felt that I shouldn't pursue medicine because of my health condition, but I couldn't let go of the dream. After much thought, I decided to give it one more shot. Apply again, and if it wasn't meant to be, then I would continue on another path. So, after a long long long long process, I received the exciting letter. =) I made the decision to go for it, but I still have uncertainties. I'm in remission, but what if it gets worse? I'm trying not to let the uncertainties get to me and even writing this out on the Internet seems to make everything a lot more real...
I know it's a long post, sorry about that, if you got to the end, thanks for reading.
