Hello everybody!
After recently being diagnosed and viewing the site a few times over the past few months, I've finally decided to take the plunge and register. No idea why I didn't do it before, but I've got around to it now, so here I am!
Note: This post is kind of long so there's a summary at the end
I suppose I should start by telling you a bit about myself and how I ended up here.
I'm a 19 year old male living in Tamworth, England (Tamworth is a town just outside of Birmingham) and I am currently sitting A level exams in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. I live with my Mum, Dad, older brother and two dogs.
So, here's how it all started. Back in January 2014 I went to the doctors with a sinus infection. I was given an antibiotic called Clarithromycin. Turns out clarithromycin works wonders as a laxative as well! After taking only one antibiotic, I was back at the doctors and given an alternative, can't remember which one, it's not really relevant I suppose.
Anyway, the sinus infection cleared up but after a few weeks I noticed my stomach was still not happy to say the least. I went back to the doctor and was prescribed mebeverine for IBS. These too, were ineffective.
After a few weeks I was back at the doctors again (felt as if I was spending more time there than at home!) this time for blood tests. After getting the results I was told I had a CRP (I think?) of 80 or so, and another inflammatory marker was high. Since my Mum also has Crohn's Disease, this started ringing alarm bells in our heads.
I was referred to a gastroenterologist, but the appointment was months away. Looking back I know this is a short period of time to wait, but any length of time feels like an eternity when you struggle as us IBD sufferers do I suppose. At this point I couldn't keep anything down, anything I ate either passed straight through me or I vomited up. I had a fever pretty much all of the time, and intense abdominal pain. Up all hours of the night, either writhing around in agony or on the toilet. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, you've all been here!
So anyway, the consultant appointment came around and I was sent off for a colonoscopy and later on an MRI scan (still waiting on the MRI results). Immediately after the colonoscopy which was on the 6th April, I was put on 40mg Prednisolone/day and Asacol tablets with no real explanation of what was going on.
The doctor rang up to diagnose me late April time, the conversation went a bit like:
"Your colonoscopy report shows symptoms consistent with that of Crohn's Disease"
"Ok so what do I do now?"
"An appointment has been made for you"
This was obviously a shock, but was kind of expected as well. Since then I've not been told anything. I was given a name of a disease and that's it, been pretty much left in the dark about it all. Luckily my Mum has been through it all and has been a massive help and support, along with the rest of my family and my girlfriend.
I've got an appointment on Wednesday (28th May) which will hopefully shed some more light on what's going on, as at the moment I really don't have a clue!
I know I sound as if I'm bitter for the treatment that they have given me but I'm really not, they've been excellent, just wish I knew a bit more about what's going on and what their plan is for me.
Thanks very much for reading all of that wall of text, I didn't intend for it to be so long!
Tl;dr - New user, Crohn's diagnosed, currently on Prednisolone, not sure what the plan is for the future.
Harry
EDIT: Just thought I'd add a little footnote and say that this is all fresh and scary to me, any advice you might have or questions you want to ask are welcome.
Also, I'm thinking of starting a blog to document my 'journey' so to speak, any suggestions for where to start? I think it'd be really helpful for me (and maybe others) to get all my feelings down somewhere and hopefully I can help other people in similar situations.
After recently being diagnosed and viewing the site a few times over the past few months, I've finally decided to take the plunge and register. No idea why I didn't do it before, but I've got around to it now, so here I am!
Note: This post is kind of long so there's a summary at the end
I suppose I should start by telling you a bit about myself and how I ended up here.
I'm a 19 year old male living in Tamworth, England (Tamworth is a town just outside of Birmingham) and I am currently sitting A level exams in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. I live with my Mum, Dad, older brother and two dogs.
So, here's how it all started. Back in January 2014 I went to the doctors with a sinus infection. I was given an antibiotic called Clarithromycin. Turns out clarithromycin works wonders as a laxative as well! After taking only one antibiotic, I was back at the doctors and given an alternative, can't remember which one, it's not really relevant I suppose.
Anyway, the sinus infection cleared up but after a few weeks I noticed my stomach was still not happy to say the least. I went back to the doctor and was prescribed mebeverine for IBS. These too, were ineffective.
After a few weeks I was back at the doctors again (felt as if I was spending more time there than at home!) this time for blood tests. After getting the results I was told I had a CRP (I think?) of 80 or so, and another inflammatory marker was high. Since my Mum also has Crohn's Disease, this started ringing alarm bells in our heads.
I was referred to a gastroenterologist, but the appointment was months away. Looking back I know this is a short period of time to wait, but any length of time feels like an eternity when you struggle as us IBD sufferers do I suppose. At this point I couldn't keep anything down, anything I ate either passed straight through me or I vomited up. I had a fever pretty much all of the time, and intense abdominal pain. Up all hours of the night, either writhing around in agony or on the toilet. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, you've all been here!
So anyway, the consultant appointment came around and I was sent off for a colonoscopy and later on an MRI scan (still waiting on the MRI results). Immediately after the colonoscopy which was on the 6th April, I was put on 40mg Prednisolone/day and Asacol tablets with no real explanation of what was going on.
The doctor rang up to diagnose me late April time, the conversation went a bit like:
"Your colonoscopy report shows symptoms consistent with that of Crohn's Disease"
"Ok so what do I do now?"
"An appointment has been made for you"
This was obviously a shock, but was kind of expected as well. Since then I've not been told anything. I was given a name of a disease and that's it, been pretty much left in the dark about it all. Luckily my Mum has been through it all and has been a massive help and support, along with the rest of my family and my girlfriend.
I've got an appointment on Wednesday (28th May) which will hopefully shed some more light on what's going on, as at the moment I really don't have a clue!
I know I sound as if I'm bitter for the treatment that they have given me but I'm really not, they've been excellent, just wish I knew a bit more about what's going on and what their plan is for me.
Thanks very much for reading all of that wall of text, I didn't intend for it to be so long!
Tl;dr - New user, Crohn's diagnosed, currently on Prednisolone, not sure what the plan is for the future.
Harry
EDIT: Just thought I'd add a little footnote and say that this is all fresh and scary to me, any advice you might have or questions you want to ask are welcome.
Also, I'm thinking of starting a blog to document my 'journey' so to speak, any suggestions for where to start? I think it'd be really helpful for me (and maybe others) to get all my feelings down somewhere and hopefully I can help other people in similar situations.