Hello everyone!
I've been actively reading posts from the forum for some time but for some reason I never joined. But now here I am.
I'll tell you a bit about myself.
I'm currently 23 and was just diagnosed with Crohn's at the very beginning of August 2012, due to biopsies from a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. I've had some chronic GI issues throughout my entire life, including hospitalizations from jaundice and fevers from my bowels severely backing up. They always told my mother that I was born with a weak immune system and I saw an immunologist before I hit four years of age. They never pinpointed my GI issues (or if they did, other than my mother stocking up on Senekot, I'm uninformed about it); but I continued throughout my youth constantly sick with infections and other ailments, many of which led to hospital stays. There are so many times that I can recall waking up in the night drenched in sweat, going from unbearably hot to shivering in my own perspiration, and rushing to the bathroom where nothing would come out of either end and I would inevitably pass out on the floor just seeking some relief. Sometimes it would happen during the day also but it was all so infrequent and I was the kid who was "always sick" so I don't think any of us gave it much thought.
As I've grown into adulthood, I've noticed that my body would tolerate less things. I've never been a big meat eater and the intolerance I had for diary only grew worse. In 2010 I grew very sick suddenly (during a time of extreme stress) and couldn't seem to keep any food in my body. I lost 20 pounds or more in a short time and ended up in the ER, where they eventually just passed it all off as an ovarian cyst. However, the next week when i was there, there was no evidence of a cyst whatsoever. After this i decided to clean my life up a bit. I quit smoking, i took my sporadic vegetarian diet to another level and went vegan, stopped drinking so heabily and frequently, and really just had a lot of TLC and rest. My symptoms resolved and i was seemingly fine. But then, a month after, i started getting sores in the back of my throat. Disgusting pustules that made my throat so raw that they passed it off as strep even with a neg strep test.
The sore throat happened on and off and at times I even began to get a few sores in my mouth. I then went through a move to a different t city an hour away and then began having issues with my significant other. Eventually, I had dropped from my 121 pounds that i had stuck at after I had been severely sick the last time. I was horrified to find that I weighed only 109 pounds at five foot five. I joined a gym and started lifting and increased my food intake but to no avail. I soon saw my GP for what I thought to be my first hemmeroid. She then asked me a series of questions and then found partially digested blood in my stool. I was swiftly sent to a specialist who cried Crohn's right away and wanted to set up the scopes. Problem. I don't have medical insurance. So once again, I passed it off as something that could wait. Eventually over the course of 4-5 months my ankles started to swell sporadically. My knees would sometimes hurt and then the dreaded D began. My ankles eventually grew so full of fluid and swollen that they were more likely to belong to a pregnant woman or someone 3x my size. I ignored everything until the D had me racing to the bathroom after everything I put in my mouth, including water; and being at work most of the day, this started affecting my productivity. I eventually was secreting a lot of visible blood and my ankles/feet became so swollen I couldn't walk or wear shoes. I gave in to the doctor's wishes and went in for my scopes.
My scopes revealed that I had severe CD and it was obviously ulcerating throughout my entire system. Manifesting as the ulcers in my mouth all the way to my new horrifying rectal tag. I was put on a high dose of pred & started pentasa and then eventually switched to Apriso. Neither of the mesalamines did me any good and I couldn't get approved for their assistance. I ended up switching doctors within the practice and am currently on Humira, prilosec. The Humira has done amazing things in regard to feeling human again. But these past couple of months have been hard; I developed a perianal abscess which then became a fistula. I had a seton drain placed and my doctor was obviously not pleased that my CD was rearing its head against the Humira. I did the usual rounds of metronazidole and levaquin and then was put on azathioprine which I'm currently taking. Unfortunately now my abdominal pain is back and my heartburn is starting again as well. Which is where I'm currently at, waiting for the aza to reach full strength and hopefully get me into remission. I'm also about to start a run of the flagyl for the pain and low fevers I'm having.
That's been my battle so far. But its nice to know that I'm not alone in this fight! Thank you all for listening.
I've been actively reading posts from the forum for some time but for some reason I never joined. But now here I am.
I'll tell you a bit about myself.I'm currently 23 and was just diagnosed with Crohn's at the very beginning of August 2012, due to biopsies from a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. I've had some chronic GI issues throughout my entire life, including hospitalizations from jaundice and fevers from my bowels severely backing up. They always told my mother that I was born with a weak immune system and I saw an immunologist before I hit four years of age. They never pinpointed my GI issues (or if they did, other than my mother stocking up on Senekot, I'm uninformed about it); but I continued throughout my youth constantly sick with infections and other ailments, many of which led to hospital stays. There are so many times that I can recall waking up in the night drenched in sweat, going from unbearably hot to shivering in my own perspiration, and rushing to the bathroom where nothing would come out of either end and I would inevitably pass out on the floor just seeking some relief. Sometimes it would happen during the day also but it was all so infrequent and I was the kid who was "always sick" so I don't think any of us gave it much thought.
As I've grown into adulthood, I've noticed that my body would tolerate less things. I've never been a big meat eater and the intolerance I had for diary only grew worse. In 2010 I grew very sick suddenly (during a time of extreme stress) and couldn't seem to keep any food in my body. I lost 20 pounds or more in a short time and ended up in the ER, where they eventually just passed it all off as an ovarian cyst. However, the next week when i was there, there was no evidence of a cyst whatsoever. After this i decided to clean my life up a bit. I quit smoking, i took my sporadic vegetarian diet to another level and went vegan, stopped drinking so heabily and frequently, and really just had a lot of TLC and rest. My symptoms resolved and i was seemingly fine. But then, a month after, i started getting sores in the back of my throat. Disgusting pustules that made my throat so raw that they passed it off as strep even with a neg strep test.
The sore throat happened on and off and at times I even began to get a few sores in my mouth. I then went through a move to a different t city an hour away and then began having issues with my significant other. Eventually, I had dropped from my 121 pounds that i had stuck at after I had been severely sick the last time. I was horrified to find that I weighed only 109 pounds at five foot five. I joined a gym and started lifting and increased my food intake but to no avail. I soon saw my GP for what I thought to be my first hemmeroid. She then asked me a series of questions and then found partially digested blood in my stool. I was swiftly sent to a specialist who cried Crohn's right away and wanted to set up the scopes. Problem. I don't have medical insurance. So once again, I passed it off as something that could wait. Eventually over the course of 4-5 months my ankles started to swell sporadically. My knees would sometimes hurt and then the dreaded D began. My ankles eventually grew so full of fluid and swollen that they were more likely to belong to a pregnant woman or someone 3x my size. I ignored everything until the D had me racing to the bathroom after everything I put in my mouth, including water; and being at work most of the day, this started affecting my productivity. I eventually was secreting a lot of visible blood and my ankles/feet became so swollen I couldn't walk or wear shoes. I gave in to the doctor's wishes and went in for my scopes.
My scopes revealed that I had severe CD and it was obviously ulcerating throughout my entire system. Manifesting as the ulcers in my mouth all the way to my new horrifying rectal tag. I was put on a high dose of pred & started pentasa and then eventually switched to Apriso. Neither of the mesalamines did me any good and I couldn't get approved for their assistance. I ended up switching doctors within the practice and am currently on Humira, prilosec. The Humira has done amazing things in regard to feeling human again. But these past couple of months have been hard; I developed a perianal abscess which then became a fistula. I had a seton drain placed and my doctor was obviously not pleased that my CD was rearing its head against the Humira. I did the usual rounds of metronazidole and levaquin and then was put on azathioprine which I'm currently taking. Unfortunately now my abdominal pain is back and my heartburn is starting again as well. Which is where I'm currently at, waiting for the aza to reach full strength and hopefully get me into remission. I'm also about to start a run of the flagyl for the pain and low fevers I'm having.
That's been my battle so far. But its nice to know that I'm not alone in this fight! Thank you all for listening.
