Hello!
I'm a 20 year old college Junior. I was initially diagnosed with ulcerative colitis my senior year in highschool in 2009. This news was devestating, but also good to know what had been causing all of my pain and discomfort. I was put on a pretty standard UC regiment of asacol, mesalamine enemas, and . This seemed to help and clear up my symptoms. My follow-up colonoscapy showed significant improvement from the previous one.
When I went away to college in the fall, however, things pretty much flew downhill. Within two weeks, I began having horrible symptoms far worse than I had ever experienced before. I was in excruciating pain, horrible nausea, constant trips to the bathroom, large amounts of blood, fever... the works. I was hardly able to get out of bed and pretty much dragged myself to classes. After a trip to the ER and a continued decline, my mother came to pick me up from school.
Within an hour of being home, I went back to the emergency room where I was admitted with a double kidney infection and a severe UC flare. After several days of no improvement, they did a sigmoid scope which revealed horrendous inflamation (suprise, suprise). They continued my steroids and other meds and took me off food. The next day I experienced a sudden piercing excruciating pain that caused me to collapse and scream in pain. When the GP doctor finally came and sent me to x-rays, it was discovered that I had a puncture somewhere in my intestine and would need emergency surgery. The surgeon found the hole in my cecum and was able to repair without losing much of my intestinal tract. I was put on 4 different antibiotics and an anti-fungal and had a lovely battle scar. I spent the next few days recovering until I began experiencing more horrible pain... long story short, I had c-diff. I was quarenteened, put on more meds, etc. They eventually put a pic line in because I had spent so long without food. Eventually, after 2 and a half weeks, I was given the ok to go home with my pic line and administer antibiotics and TPN through my pic line. I slowly began my recovery. I was also rediagnosed with Crohn's Disease during this time.
About a month later, I had more excrutiating pain.. writhing on the floor screaming kind of pain (a "10+" on the pain scale) and vomiting several times and pack to the ER. I was readmitted to the hospital and they discovered I was back in a flare and had c-dif once again. I had a new pic line put in pretty much immedietely and was taken off everything by mouth. I spent a few more weeks in the hospital until I was finally released with vancomyacin by mouth and flagyl through my pic line. I eventually came off of those as well as my steroids and was started on remicade. I spent about 2 years on remicade as well as pentasa and imuran and did fairly well with only one bad flare in spring, 2010 and a few minor flares.
This past fall (2011) I had a pretty major flare and was almost admitted to the hospital. I spent a few months on prednisone, but am finally off. My doctor also recently switched my to Humira. I finished my start up doses and had my first "regular" injection a few days ago.. so far so good.
I still have my good days and bad days, but overall I am doing well. I have also learned to cope with the disease and accept that I will always have to be aware of it and take care of myself. I am certainly not letting CD or anything else hold me back from my dreams. I'm currently a full time student with a part time job. I'm doing great in school and am planning on applying to and attending veterinary school once I complete my undergraduate degree.
I'm a 20 year old college Junior. I was initially diagnosed with ulcerative colitis my senior year in highschool in 2009. This news was devestating, but also good to know what had been causing all of my pain and discomfort. I was put on a pretty standard UC regiment of asacol, mesalamine enemas, and . This seemed to help and clear up my symptoms. My follow-up colonoscapy showed significant improvement from the previous one.
When I went away to college in the fall, however, things pretty much flew downhill. Within two weeks, I began having horrible symptoms far worse than I had ever experienced before. I was in excruciating pain, horrible nausea, constant trips to the bathroom, large amounts of blood, fever... the works. I was hardly able to get out of bed and pretty much dragged myself to classes. After a trip to the ER and a continued decline, my mother came to pick me up from school.
Within an hour of being home, I went back to the emergency room where I was admitted with a double kidney infection and a severe UC flare. After several days of no improvement, they did a sigmoid scope which revealed horrendous inflamation (suprise, suprise). They continued my steroids and other meds and took me off food. The next day I experienced a sudden piercing excruciating pain that caused me to collapse and scream in pain. When the GP doctor finally came and sent me to x-rays, it was discovered that I had a puncture somewhere in my intestine and would need emergency surgery. The surgeon found the hole in my cecum and was able to repair without losing much of my intestinal tract. I was put on 4 different antibiotics and an anti-fungal and had a lovely battle scar. I spent the next few days recovering until I began experiencing more horrible pain... long story short, I had c-diff. I was quarenteened, put on more meds, etc. They eventually put a pic line in because I had spent so long without food. Eventually, after 2 and a half weeks, I was given the ok to go home with my pic line and administer antibiotics and TPN through my pic line. I slowly began my recovery. I was also rediagnosed with Crohn's Disease during this time.
About a month later, I had more excrutiating pain.. writhing on the floor screaming kind of pain (a "10+" on the pain scale) and vomiting several times and pack to the ER. I was readmitted to the hospital and they discovered I was back in a flare and had c-dif once again. I had a new pic line put in pretty much immedietely and was taken off everything by mouth. I spent a few more weeks in the hospital until I was finally released with vancomyacin by mouth and flagyl through my pic line. I eventually came off of those as well as my steroids and was started on remicade. I spent about 2 years on remicade as well as pentasa and imuran and did fairly well with only one bad flare in spring, 2010 and a few minor flares.
This past fall (2011) I had a pretty major flare and was almost admitted to the hospital. I spent a few months on prednisone, but am finally off. My doctor also recently switched my to Humira. I finished my start up doses and had my first "regular" injection a few days ago.. so far so good.
I still have my good days and bad days, but overall I am doing well. I have also learned to cope with the disease and accept that I will always have to be aware of it and take care of myself. I am certainly not letting CD or anything else hold me back from my dreams. I'm currently a full time student with a part time job. I'm doing great in school and am planning on applying to and attending veterinary school once I complete my undergraduate degree.
