For as long as I can remember, I've always had stomach issues. It was an every day part of life I never put much thought into. My stomach aches and bouts of diarrhea I always contributed to certain foods, that is, until September of 2011. For the next year, about every month, I was expieriencing crippling stomach pains, severe diarrhea, vomit and very high fevers. As I work with young children and do not have health insurence, I always chopped it up to catching "the stomach bug" mutiple times. Upon going to a health clinic, they diagnosed me with "gas pains" several times and said it would pass.
It always did, until September 2012.
I was spending one last day at the beach with some friends when my stomach started bothering me, as it usually did. By the time I returned home that evening the pain in my lower right abdomin had become frighteningly severe. I was unable to walk, and I just knew something was wrong.
Turns out, my lower intestine had perferated and I had a 6cm abscess. An exploratory laporotomy was performed (mid line incision, from just under my belly button to my pubic area) I spent five days recovering in the hospital. I was told that if I had no come to the ER when I had, the abscess would have burst and put me into shock.
The doctors were at a lose for what caused my issue. the surgeon said my intestines and colon did not "look Crohn's". Every doctor I was seeing through the Charity Care in my hospital kept saying the same thing. I was too young (still 22 at the time), too fit, and too healthy for something like this to happen.
It is now December, and after going through multiple batteries of testing, the GI doctor I was referred to HAS diagnosed me with Crohn's Disease.
Since my surgery, I am no longer getting those horrible stomach pains, but I am now in the bathroom 3-4 times a day having very severe diarrhea. This is very new to me, since pre-op the only times I would have such issues would be when consuming dairy or excessive amounts of greasy foods.
Not having health insurence has drawn out this process (as have other post op complications I've been having) and I am currently awaiting my next GI appointment to discuss medications for my apparent "mild" Crohn's.
Whew! That was a novel!
It always did, until September 2012.
I was spending one last day at the beach with some friends when my stomach started bothering me, as it usually did. By the time I returned home that evening the pain in my lower right abdomin had become frighteningly severe. I was unable to walk, and I just knew something was wrong.
Turns out, my lower intestine had perferated and I had a 6cm abscess. An exploratory laporotomy was performed (mid line incision, from just under my belly button to my pubic area) I spent five days recovering in the hospital. I was told that if I had no come to the ER when I had, the abscess would have burst and put me into shock.
The doctors were at a lose for what caused my issue. the surgeon said my intestines and colon did not "look Crohn's". Every doctor I was seeing through the Charity Care in my hospital kept saying the same thing. I was too young (still 22 at the time), too fit, and too healthy for something like this to happen.
It is now December, and after going through multiple batteries of testing, the GI doctor I was referred to HAS diagnosed me with Crohn's Disease.
Since my surgery, I am no longer getting those horrible stomach pains, but I am now in the bathroom 3-4 times a day having very severe diarrhea. This is very new to me, since pre-op the only times I would have such issues would be when consuming dairy or excessive amounts of greasy foods.
Not having health insurence has drawn out this process (as have other post op complications I've been having) and I am currently awaiting my next GI appointment to discuss medications for my apparent "mild" Crohn's.
Whew! That was a novel!
