So, I'm laying in bed having a bit of a pity party tonight waiting for a Vicodin to kick in and figured... what better time to finally join the forum and chime in! 
My name's Kris, I'm 27, and I'm in my second semester of an accelerated nursing degree program at Duke University. I was diagnosed with Crohn's in September of last year, two weeks after starting the program. What timing.
My initial presentation took me through the ER as I've had several abdo surgeries (TAH '05, later lap for adhesions that led to a tuboovarian abscess and suspected bowel perf and major laparotomy as a result in early '08) and the campus NP was worried about obstruction. Had been having waves of LRQ pain, no bowel movements for several days, fever. They did a CT, found inflammation, admitted me, scoped me, and voila! Crohn's!
(Of course, now I know that it was likely an early Crohn's flare that caused the pain that we pinned on the adhesions that led to that lap that led to the abscess that led to the surgery/ICU time... oops. Wish they'd caught it back then.)
I'm apparently one of the small minority who doesn't experience excessive diarrhea with the disease.... instead, when I'm flared, I won't 'go' for days and then the dam will break, so to speak, in a truly agonizing fashion. Massive cramping, pain, and hours of bathroom runs going from fully formed to pure liquid. Then nothing for days, and repeat... all the while with LRQ pain ranging from tolerable and intermittent to truly whimper-inducing in severity. I also tend to run fevers and get arthralgic. I feel like our occasional less-than-lovely gero patient! Achy, cranky, and obsessed with my bowels!
My initial flare was controlled (mostly) with Entocort/budesonide and Lialda/mesalamine, but tapering off the Entocort was truly hellish... so much nausea, vomiting, fatigue. And to add insult to injury, I flared right back up (this was in December) and failed to respond to a reinitiation of the Entocort regime. So, we've started me on Imuran/azathioprine and I've been on that and prednisone (dreadnisone!) for the last two weeks. I feel like a cracked out squirrel 24/7, haven't slept more than 3-4 hours in a night in weeks 'cause I can't get to sleep until around 3am and have to wake at 6:30, am basically a zombie (a very, very, very irritable zombie, the kind who would probably eat something besides your brains first just to make you scream louder), and worst of all, the LRQ pain and bowel pattern has started to resume in the last week or so... so... pardon my french, but... f*ck me! What next?
(I actually will know the answer to that soon, I see my GI on Wednesday, but like I said, pity party. Feel free to join, bring cake. Or a salad if you really want to see me cry. I miss lettuce. And raw broccoli.)
Hm, what else. Ohh, I had a doozy of an anal fissure pop up in October or so, that was a fun couple of weeks jamming cardizem ointment up the pooper a few times a day, but that stuff's a miracle. Something else new is going on right now, too, have had a few instances of fairly significant leakage lately esp. during physical activity, but it's been bloody not fecal, so that's something else that I'm sure will require investigation of the "lay on your left side and bring your right knee up" variety. I think my GI gets to see more of my ass than my boyfriend does.
Basically, I feel ill to *some* degree most of the time, I'm in a ridiculously intensive/stressful degree program that requires a 60-80 hour a week commitment most of the time, and I feel like an 80 year old woman in a 27 year old's bloaty 'roided body. Yee-haw!
In all seriousness, I do generally have quite a good attitude and sense of humor - being in the medical field means this is all a learning experience as well as a life one. And if you've gotta be sick while in school, at least nursing instructors Get It. It's not fun but I've found a bit of a support group on Twitter and I read the forums here quite often, and I look forward to chatting with y'all more.
My name's Kris, I'm 27, and I'm in my second semester of an accelerated nursing degree program at Duke University. I was diagnosed with Crohn's in September of last year, two weeks after starting the program. What timing.
My initial presentation took me through the ER as I've had several abdo surgeries (TAH '05, later lap for adhesions that led to a tuboovarian abscess and suspected bowel perf and major laparotomy as a result in early '08) and the campus NP was worried about obstruction. Had been having waves of LRQ pain, no bowel movements for several days, fever. They did a CT, found inflammation, admitted me, scoped me, and voila! Crohn's!
(Of course, now I know that it was likely an early Crohn's flare that caused the pain that we pinned on the adhesions that led to that lap that led to the abscess that led to the surgery/ICU time... oops. Wish they'd caught it back then.)
I'm apparently one of the small minority who doesn't experience excessive diarrhea with the disease.... instead, when I'm flared, I won't 'go' for days and then the dam will break, so to speak, in a truly agonizing fashion. Massive cramping, pain, and hours of bathroom runs going from fully formed to pure liquid. Then nothing for days, and repeat... all the while with LRQ pain ranging from tolerable and intermittent to truly whimper-inducing in severity. I also tend to run fevers and get arthralgic. I feel like our occasional less-than-lovely gero patient! Achy, cranky, and obsessed with my bowels!
My initial flare was controlled (mostly) with Entocort/budesonide and Lialda/mesalamine, but tapering off the Entocort was truly hellish... so much nausea, vomiting, fatigue. And to add insult to injury, I flared right back up (this was in December) and failed to respond to a reinitiation of the Entocort regime. So, we've started me on Imuran/azathioprine and I've been on that and prednisone (dreadnisone!) for the last two weeks. I feel like a cracked out squirrel 24/7, haven't slept more than 3-4 hours in a night in weeks 'cause I can't get to sleep until around 3am and have to wake at 6:30, am basically a zombie (a very, very, very irritable zombie, the kind who would probably eat something besides your brains first just to make you scream louder), and worst of all, the LRQ pain and bowel pattern has started to resume in the last week or so... so... pardon my french, but... f*ck me! What next?
(I actually will know the answer to that soon, I see my GI on Wednesday, but like I said, pity party. Feel free to join, bring cake. Or a salad if you really want to see me cry. I miss lettuce. And raw broccoli.)
Hm, what else. Ohh, I had a doozy of an anal fissure pop up in October or so, that was a fun couple of weeks jamming cardizem ointment up the pooper a few times a day, but that stuff's a miracle. Something else new is going on right now, too, have had a few instances of fairly significant leakage lately esp. during physical activity, but it's been bloody not fecal, so that's something else that I'm sure will require investigation of the "lay on your left side and bring your right knee up" variety. I think my GI gets to see more of my ass than my boyfriend does.
Basically, I feel ill to *some* degree most of the time, I'm in a ridiculously intensive/stressful degree program that requires a 60-80 hour a week commitment most of the time, and I feel like an 80 year old woman in a 27 year old's bloaty 'roided body. Yee-haw!
In all seriousness, I do generally have quite a good attitude and sense of humor - being in the medical field means this is all a learning experience as well as a life one. And if you've gotta be sick while in school, at least nursing instructors Get It. It's not fun but I've found a bit of a support group on Twitter and I read the forums here quite often, and I look forward to chatting with y'all more.
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