I am a 54 year old male and have had stomach problems my whole life. The past few years it was mostly gas cramping, daily diarrhea and pain. I take pretty good care of myself, and was fine living with these symptoms for the rest of my life. I had two previous colonoscopies. The first one about 15 years ago showed hemorroids and the one I had about 5 years ago was clean even though I had all those symptoms. Like I said, I was prepared to live like this, that was until a few months ago when out of nowhere I had a pain in my stomach that I never had before. it was more like contractions. They would come and go. then my stomach started to blow up. i fought it as long as I could but by the time I felt like I had swallowed a basketball I had to drive myself to the emergency room. They did a CT scan on me and I had a blockage. I never had this before. They had planned to admit me, but the blockage cleared while I was there so they let me go home. I live in kind of a small town and made an appointment with a gastroenterologist. It would take two months before I could get in to see her.
In the meantime, i started experimenting. I went gluten free. After a month or so, my diarrhea which occured several times a day, went down to about maybe once a week at the most. I still had some pain and cramping but be cutting out the gluten i was able to solve one problem on my own. Finally I got into see the gastro doctor who scheduled me for a colonoscopy. I expected it to be clean like my last one but it was not. She said I had crohns and hemorrhoids. I was kind of happy to have some diagnosis but knew she was going to put me on some type of drugs. I do not like taking any medications. She prescribed pentasa which when I went to pick up was $900 so I did not take it. Then she prescribed Delzicol which was $400 for the month. I was not happy about that but I figured I would try it for a month. I am currently a few weeks into it. I have not noticed any changes. i was already feeling better by changing my diet. I will probably not take the delzacal once it runs out. She also put me on Prednizone. it did not agree with me. I was wired and jittery all the time and could not sleep. After a few days I stopped it.
I am only going to allow myself to try one drug. I just picked Entocort. I read that it is milder than prednizone and works directly in the gut. I am going to give it a shot and see if it agrees with me. After my obstruction scare though I was able to make myself about 60% better by going gluten free, and almost dairy free. I have just a little cheese now and then. I also take higher doses of fish oil with higher EPA, tumeric, and a intestinal powder formula that has lots of l-glutamine, aloe and several other herbs designed to support the intestinal lining.
I have read some of the horror stories from others with crohns. I do not know if there are both mild and severe categories, but I hope I just have a mild version. After a short term trial with Entocort I will see how I feel, but will continue on with my dietary changes. I was surprised how easy it was to give up gluten. By just doing that you force yourself to make better eating choices.
Does anyone else consider themselves to have what they feel is a mild version of crohns and that they have been able to keep the symptoms in check with diet and supplements or am I fooling myself. So far I have been doing it. If it were not for that damn obstruction I would not be in this position.
In the meantime, i started experimenting. I went gluten free. After a month or so, my diarrhea which occured several times a day, went down to about maybe once a week at the most. I still had some pain and cramping but be cutting out the gluten i was able to solve one problem on my own. Finally I got into see the gastro doctor who scheduled me for a colonoscopy. I expected it to be clean like my last one but it was not. She said I had crohns and hemorrhoids. I was kind of happy to have some diagnosis but knew she was going to put me on some type of drugs. I do not like taking any medications. She prescribed pentasa which when I went to pick up was $900 so I did not take it. Then she prescribed Delzicol which was $400 for the month. I was not happy about that but I figured I would try it for a month. I am currently a few weeks into it. I have not noticed any changes. i was already feeling better by changing my diet. I will probably not take the delzacal once it runs out. She also put me on Prednizone. it did not agree with me. I was wired and jittery all the time and could not sleep. After a few days I stopped it.
I am only going to allow myself to try one drug. I just picked Entocort. I read that it is milder than prednizone and works directly in the gut. I am going to give it a shot and see if it agrees with me. After my obstruction scare though I was able to make myself about 60% better by going gluten free, and almost dairy free. I have just a little cheese now and then. I also take higher doses of fish oil with higher EPA, tumeric, and a intestinal powder formula that has lots of l-glutamine, aloe and several other herbs designed to support the intestinal lining.
I have read some of the horror stories from others with crohns. I do not know if there are both mild and severe categories, but I hope I just have a mild version. After a short term trial with Entocort I will see how I feel, but will continue on with my dietary changes. I was surprised how easy it was to give up gluten. By just doing that you force yourself to make better eating choices.
Does anyone else consider themselves to have what they feel is a mild version of crohns and that they have been able to keep the symptoms in check with diet and supplements or am I fooling myself. So far I have been doing it. If it were not for that damn obstruction I would not be in this position.