Hi All,
I'm a 34 year old female, married with 2 children (4 & 18 months) living in Ireland. My symptoms only started about 1 year ago - on holiday's in Italy with my family, I was heading out for dinner one evening, husband and kids in buggies and felt this extremely urgent need to run to the toilet - I won't go into it but I didn't get there in time and it was very very strange as nothing like that has ever happened to me before. From time to time then for a few months, I had a few urgent runs to the toilet, always got there but it would come over me in an instant and I knew to run. Started getting cramps and feeling really lethargic around sept/oct last year and as my Dad has Crohn's and my cousin, and 2 aunts have familial polyposis of the colon, I took myself off to my GP and mentionned it.
Due to the colon cancer in the family, he insisted, albeit apologetically, on a colonoscopy to rule anything out. He thought I had all the symptoms of IBS, wasn't at all concerned about Crohn's. Anyway colonoscopy followed about 6 weeks later and due to family history and what the consulant saw, he diagnosed Crohn's and immediately put me on 4mg Pentasa per day. Went back to see him 3 weeks later - my blood results were all over the place, B12 was about as low as could be which thankfully explained the tiredness. I'd had my second child 11 months before and couldn't get where the tiredness had come from as thought I'd gotten through that period so that was a relief. Course of 6 B12 injections sorted that out. Back to see him end of February this year and I said I was feeling about 70/80% and he decided to put me on Entocort (Budesonide) - started on 9mg per day and did okay but seemed to get a flare up at this stage and wasn't great, dropped to 6mg and went downhill so back up to 9mg and off to see him again at end of May. Bloods a bit better but obviously these steroids weren't working so he tried me on Deltacortil, starting at 40mg for 2 weeks and dropping by 5mg every 5 days then. Magic!! Felt brilliantly instantly and had had a rough 6 weeks or so beforehand. Went back to see him on 5th July feeling brill, down to 5mg at that stage with only a few days to go. We said we'd just stay on Pentasa and meet again in October. 1 week later whilst on holidays in Ireland, I started to get these horrific cramps - so bad I'd describe them as 10 second contractions and actually way worse than childbirth. They were so bad, I thought it wasn't the crohn's at all (still naive I suppose!) - had suffered from bad constipation whilst pregnant in 2007 and thought maybe it was that. Anyway long story short, it was a week later before I got to my own GP (consultant on hols) and he immediately said it was the inflammation and even though I was only off the steroids (prednisolone) 5/6 days, I was straight back on - 40mg this time for 2 days and dropping by 5mg every 2nd day. I felt brilliantly within hours so here I am on this dose waiting to see what happens next..............
I'm a 34 year old female, married with 2 children (4 & 18 months) living in Ireland. My symptoms only started about 1 year ago - on holiday's in Italy with my family, I was heading out for dinner one evening, husband and kids in buggies and felt this extremely urgent need to run to the toilet - I won't go into it but I didn't get there in time and it was very very strange as nothing like that has ever happened to me before. From time to time then for a few months, I had a few urgent runs to the toilet, always got there but it would come over me in an instant and I knew to run. Started getting cramps and feeling really lethargic around sept/oct last year and as my Dad has Crohn's and my cousin, and 2 aunts have familial polyposis of the colon, I took myself off to my GP and mentionned it.
Due to the colon cancer in the family, he insisted, albeit apologetically, on a colonoscopy to rule anything out. He thought I had all the symptoms of IBS, wasn't at all concerned about Crohn's. Anyway colonoscopy followed about 6 weeks later and due to family history and what the consulant saw, he diagnosed Crohn's and immediately put me on 4mg Pentasa per day. Went back to see him 3 weeks later - my blood results were all over the place, B12 was about as low as could be which thankfully explained the tiredness. I'd had my second child 11 months before and couldn't get where the tiredness had come from as thought I'd gotten through that period so that was a relief. Course of 6 B12 injections sorted that out. Back to see him end of February this year and I said I was feeling about 70/80% and he decided to put me on Entocort (Budesonide) - started on 9mg per day and did okay but seemed to get a flare up at this stage and wasn't great, dropped to 6mg and went downhill so back up to 9mg and off to see him again at end of May. Bloods a bit better but obviously these steroids weren't working so he tried me on Deltacortil, starting at 40mg for 2 weeks and dropping by 5mg every 5 days then. Magic!! Felt brilliantly instantly and had had a rough 6 weeks or so beforehand. Went back to see him on 5th July feeling brill, down to 5mg at that stage with only a few days to go. We said we'd just stay on Pentasa and meet again in October. 1 week later whilst on holidays in Ireland, I started to get these horrific cramps - so bad I'd describe them as 10 second contractions and actually way worse than childbirth. They were so bad, I thought it wasn't the crohn's at all (still naive I suppose!) - had suffered from bad constipation whilst pregnant in 2007 and thought maybe it was that. Anyway long story short, it was a week later before I got to my own GP (consultant on hols) and he immediately said it was the inflammation and even though I was only off the steroids (prednisolone) 5/6 days, I was straight back on - 40mg this time for 2 days and dropping by 5mg every 2nd day. I felt brilliantly within hours so here I am on this dose waiting to see what happens next..............
Well, I guess that why a community like this works - understanding.
