Hi Everyone! My name is Chanel and I am a new member here on the forum. I have been on the forum quite a few times but I'm just getting around to becoming a new member and posting about myself. There is so much about this disease that is way beyond my control and so much to grasp so I appreciate that there is a support group at my fingertips because I definitely need support =)
About myself: I was a happy, healthy 27 year old female with everything going for me- great career, great friends and fam, very active in professional Tahitian dancing traveling all over competing, and going back to school to pursue a masters in nursing. I was so happy and even though I never thought of myself as invincible, I never saw myself ever getting sick either.
In late August of last year, I was in a very minor car accident. My coworker and I just got off of work from what was a pretty lousy day and decided we would go get a glass of wine to try to end this day on a high note. We work at a hospital in SF and she was parked right out front. If you know anything about San Francisco- drivers can be impatient and scary! My coworker pulled out of her paralleled parking space and settled into the right lane. There was a prius that was waiting for our parking space and an impatient work van behind the prius. The van decided to do an illegal lane change to go around the prius and when getting back into the original lane, he hit us from the side. I had my seatbelt on and my head was turned to the left. On impact I hit the seatbelt pretty hard and was in a little shock about what happened. We went back into the hospital to get checked out and they put me in a sling and told me to take the week off to rest and check in with my PCP.
The recovery process was hell. It took a toll on my body in ways I really didn't imagine. I had severe whiplash, swelling, shooting pain and tingling in my right arm, hand, and fingers. Physical therapy didn't do so much for me so I branched out (against physical therapy's advice) and started with an amazing chiropractor and that's what really put me towards a successful road to recovery. Unfortunately I noticed that the accident had taken toll on my body in other ways- tarry black stools, fatigue, night sweats, rashes on my legs (kinda like petechiae), bloating, constipation and diarrhea almost after every meal and definitely every morning, and abdominal cramping that just kept getting worse. My PCP was convinced that it was in my head and that I was a healthy 27 year old and I'd get over it. It got to the point where I thought I was crying wolf so I stopped complaining to my doctor about it.
In late March the cramping got worse and on April 1st it got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore so I went to the ER and they gave me pain meds (thank God for dalaudid!) I knew the pain was bad when morphine wasn't cutting it and they gave me dalaudid for the second time in order to feel its effects. After blood work and CT scans, the doctors were convinced that I had intussusseption (my intestines were telescoping into eachother) and needed to have an emergency surgery to cut out the diseased portion of my small intestine. The most I had ever broken was a nail so I was scared shizzless! (literally!) 30 minutes before the surgery was scheduled to happen, it was canceled and the doctors decided to treat my inflammation medicinally. So they pumped me full of steroids and pain meds, reviewed my case and 2 days later diagnosed me with Crohn's disease.
After talking with my GI guys, all of the symptoms were there but they were just missed by my PCP. So we got our plan of action together and hoped for the best. I went home on 2000mg of Pentasa daily, and 60mg of prednisone to be tapered slowly after a few weeks. I was home on disability and the week that I went back to work I started to feel the effects of the taper. I went into another flare with exhaustion and diarrhea, fever, etc. My bloodwork confirmed that I was in a flare and a week later, the cramping and diarrhea had become worse to the point I was hospitalized again. So in the span of a month and a half, I was hospitalized twice. Prednisone had gotten to a point where it had done more harm then good on the taper and now I would be starting remicade.
While I was in the hospital the doctors told me that the car accident was most likely the trigger for my Crohn's disease. The stress on my immune system could not keep my crohn's at bay. I asked if I could get this on paper so that I can add this to my insurance claim from the car accident but he wasn't ready to put it on paper because there isn't enough published research to back it. So if anyone has seen any research regarding car accidents triggering crohn's disease I would really appreciate you sharing it with me!
Last week I had a ct scan which showed that my intestines were not inflamed. My doc said mentioned the R word (remission) and I was ecstatic. But this past week after seeing him again i told him that I didn't feel I was completely in remission because I still felt pretty sick and lousy. Im not where I used to be but i'm definitely not where I ought to be. So now at a month shy of 28, while everyone else is getting married, moving, and finishing degrees, my focus is staying alive, getting my health in check and trying to find out as much about this disease as possible and really listening to my body. I'm on prednisone and remicade and they took me off of Pentasa. I had to drop my classes and have decided to take a year off to take it easy. Hopefully I will be on a steady road to recovery very soon.
Thank you for letting me vent! I'm usually the person to keep it all in and be there for everyone else. So having this disease is forcing me to ask for help and to say no to being there for everyone else. It is forcing me to put my health first. Thank you for hearing me out!
About myself: I was a happy, healthy 27 year old female with everything going for me- great career, great friends and fam, very active in professional Tahitian dancing traveling all over competing, and going back to school to pursue a masters in nursing. I was so happy and even though I never thought of myself as invincible, I never saw myself ever getting sick either.
In late August of last year, I was in a very minor car accident. My coworker and I just got off of work from what was a pretty lousy day and decided we would go get a glass of wine to try to end this day on a high note. We work at a hospital in SF and she was parked right out front. If you know anything about San Francisco- drivers can be impatient and scary! My coworker pulled out of her paralleled parking space and settled into the right lane. There was a prius that was waiting for our parking space and an impatient work van behind the prius. The van decided to do an illegal lane change to go around the prius and when getting back into the original lane, he hit us from the side. I had my seatbelt on and my head was turned to the left. On impact I hit the seatbelt pretty hard and was in a little shock about what happened. We went back into the hospital to get checked out and they put me in a sling and told me to take the week off to rest and check in with my PCP.
The recovery process was hell. It took a toll on my body in ways I really didn't imagine. I had severe whiplash, swelling, shooting pain and tingling in my right arm, hand, and fingers. Physical therapy didn't do so much for me so I branched out (against physical therapy's advice) and started with an amazing chiropractor and that's what really put me towards a successful road to recovery. Unfortunately I noticed that the accident had taken toll on my body in other ways- tarry black stools, fatigue, night sweats, rashes on my legs (kinda like petechiae), bloating, constipation and diarrhea almost after every meal and definitely every morning, and abdominal cramping that just kept getting worse. My PCP was convinced that it was in my head and that I was a healthy 27 year old and I'd get over it. It got to the point where I thought I was crying wolf so I stopped complaining to my doctor about it.
In late March the cramping got worse and on April 1st it got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore so I went to the ER and they gave me pain meds (thank God for dalaudid!) I knew the pain was bad when morphine wasn't cutting it and they gave me dalaudid for the second time in order to feel its effects. After blood work and CT scans, the doctors were convinced that I had intussusseption (my intestines were telescoping into eachother) and needed to have an emergency surgery to cut out the diseased portion of my small intestine. The most I had ever broken was a nail so I was scared shizzless! (literally!) 30 minutes before the surgery was scheduled to happen, it was canceled and the doctors decided to treat my inflammation medicinally. So they pumped me full of steroids and pain meds, reviewed my case and 2 days later diagnosed me with Crohn's disease.
After talking with my GI guys, all of the symptoms were there but they were just missed by my PCP. So we got our plan of action together and hoped for the best. I went home on 2000mg of Pentasa daily, and 60mg of prednisone to be tapered slowly after a few weeks. I was home on disability and the week that I went back to work I started to feel the effects of the taper. I went into another flare with exhaustion and diarrhea, fever, etc. My bloodwork confirmed that I was in a flare and a week later, the cramping and diarrhea had become worse to the point I was hospitalized again. So in the span of a month and a half, I was hospitalized twice. Prednisone had gotten to a point where it had done more harm then good on the taper and now I would be starting remicade.
While I was in the hospital the doctors told me that the car accident was most likely the trigger for my Crohn's disease. The stress on my immune system could not keep my crohn's at bay. I asked if I could get this on paper so that I can add this to my insurance claim from the car accident but he wasn't ready to put it on paper because there isn't enough published research to back it. So if anyone has seen any research regarding car accidents triggering crohn's disease I would really appreciate you sharing it with me!
Last week I had a ct scan which showed that my intestines were not inflamed. My doc said mentioned the R word (remission) and I was ecstatic. But this past week after seeing him again i told him that I didn't feel I was completely in remission because I still felt pretty sick and lousy. Im not where I used to be but i'm definitely not where I ought to be. So now at a month shy of 28, while everyone else is getting married, moving, and finishing degrees, my focus is staying alive, getting my health in check and trying to find out as much about this disease as possible and really listening to my body. I'm on prednisone and remicade and they took me off of Pentasa. I had to drop my classes and have decided to take a year off to take it easy. Hopefully I will be on a steady road to recovery very soon.
Thank you for letting me vent! I'm usually the person to keep it all in and be there for everyone else. So having this disease is forcing me to ask for help and to say no to being there for everyone else. It is forcing me to put my health first. Thank you for hearing me out!
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I'm so sorry you've been through so much! Various things: