What brings me here? My Story.

Well I was referred to a GI with nausea, bloating and quite some abdominal pain. After I told him everything he decided to do an ultrasound. The terminal ileum was thicker than usual, so he wanted blood (5 tubes that I saw) and told me he wanted to do a colonoscopy and gastroscopy, which will be on Tuesday 09-09. But he told me he thinks it very well could be crohn's disease.

If that's the case I hope that the treatment will give me a lot of freedom back. It was November 2008 that I apparently had appendicitis but they couldn't operate and I was in the hospital for 8 days. Kept having problems, but they didn't know why and in the years following I've even seen a gynecologist.

February 2009 we migrated to Germany(I'm Dutch) and shortly after I started having joint pain in my hands that have become unbearable and now affect almost all my joints, but mostly jaw, hands, feet, hips and back.

I no longer use NSAIDs since I keep getting gastritis all the time for one year now, despite PPI (Rabeprazole).
Diclofenac did miracles for me but now it's just not worth it anymore. Had Arcoxia for about 10 weeks, made me sick as well. My GP was not happy and was literally swearing about my orthopedist.
The neurologist and rheumatologist were trying to get me to undergo surgery for CTS, and my physical therapist and orthopedist absolutely disagreed.

I've had heard of crohn's disease before, but never thought of it till now. I'm glad my GI is taking it so seriously, not the least since I was already like ''it not that bad'' again. I hope that when it is crohn's that with treatment i will be able to write normally again and less pain in general but also being less tired and maybe some appetite? Thanks for reading, it has become way longer than I wanted it to be...

Hi and welcome.

I'm glad to hear you're doctor is taking things seriously. I hope get answers from the upcoming tests.

Sending you my support.

Greetings and welcome to the community. Crohn's disease could indeed explain all of the symptoms you have. While I hope it is something less benign and more easily treated, I'm glad your doctor seems to be on top of things.

Please keep us updated as to how you're doing!

I'm sorry for my late response, my mother was in the hospital. I did read your posts before, and I'm grateful for your support.

Two weeks ago I got a stabilizing wrist bandage which is helping with the joint pain there and I haven't dropped a single thing since wearing it. May sound stupid but right now for me it's really something. The last two weeks actually were quite good, but today and yesterday there were some bad moments but can't really complain yet.

David I know what you mean and that exactly was one of my first toughs so I have no idea what to hope for. I would be very glad to start treatment knowing that it probably sooner or later will get better, also I can give people a clear explanation why I'm feeling the way I do and why I'm having so much trouble writing. But there is no cure and it can get worse again which is actually a scary thought if I think of how bad it was 2 years ago.

I'm very tired and still thinking about what I'm gonna do next. Still wanted to let you that the colonoscopy was clean, ESR slightly elevated. He doesn't find it necessary to do anything else right now and told me to come back when it gets bad again.

Gastroscopy showed gastritis(again) and a hiatus hernia. There he just said to take PPI when necessary, which is very funny since I have been for at least 2 years now.... Rabeprazole now since one year and often 2 times a day(also double the normal dose).

The 22th I'm going to Prague for one week with my class. Nausea is better now, but the pain worse and I'm very tired altough I'm doing almost nothing because of the summer holidays.

Sometimes I ask myself why the good times never last long... I went to my GI again, feeling like a wuss for complaining.

He gave me Mebeverine and told me that sometimes after gastroenteritis people experience IBS symptoms, and if it didn't improve in 2 weeks I had to call again. That was how it went, but because he wasn't there for 2,5 weeks I had to wait for a new appointment...

This time he first wanted me to see an orthopedist, but I already did(even a second opinion) and I had been told it was rheumatic or something metabolic since it is affecting so many joints. So he decided to assume that my stomach and joint pains are connected, and with the inflammation of last summer I've been told to try sulfasalazine 500mg for 4-6 weeks. First week was 2x1, this week 2x2 and next week 3x2. Just like last time his assistant couldn't get any blood, and she had to ask him to do it. One place she tried went all kinds of blue and purple... If this doesn't work he wants to get a CT scan.