My name is Marcia and I was officially “blessed” with the diagnosis of Crohn’s in March of 2005. I have always had a nervous stomach, at least those are the terms my doctors have always used. I just turned 34, but I can remember symptoms starting when I was around 17 years old.
I gave birth to my first child in March of 2004 and all during my pregnancy I experienced severe bowel problems and was told by my doctor that it was all related to the hormones of pregnancy. However, after an emergency c-section the problems did not go away. Again, the doctor said it was pregnancy related and they should end soon. No such luck. In January of 2005, I began having major problems. I was running to the bathroom at least 25-30 times a day. I began to loose weight at such a drastic rate that my family began asking if I was using laxatives to loose weight. They thought I had an eating disorder. In the beginning of March 2005, I was down to 110lbs from 140lbs and had no energy at all. I had my brother-in-law come over every day to help with my son because I did not have the strength to get out of bed. I completely quit eating because I was so tired of running to the toilet.
During these two months, I had visited my general practitioner 4 times and she was not concerned at all nor did she do any research into my situation. I had also been to the ER twice where I was treated for dehydration and told to drink fluids, take Imodium and I should be fine in a couple of days. (For some ridiculous reason I was taking their word and not questioning it at all.)
By the second week in March, I had lost most of my vision. (Luckily, it has come back fairly well.) I could only focus if I had one eye closed and then it was so blurry that I had to guess at what I was looking at. I was passing out every time I stood up and was unable to bathe myself, much less take care of a one year old little boy.
I had started to except that I was sick and not going to get better when for some reason I decided to call a new doctor and they got my in that day. She took one look at me and called a GI who admitted me to the hospital within 5 minutes of my office visit. Upon admission, I weighed 98lbs and was having heart palpitations. A colonoscopy the second day of my hospital stay showed a positive diagnosis of Crohn’s. I was released on April 1st and was able to walk down the aisle to be married on April 16th.
Since then I have had a couple of hospital stays and some major bad times. My most recent flare lasted for almost 5 months and ended in yet another hospital stay. This hospital stay ended about a month ago and since then I have been doing so great. I have a tendency to take on too much when I am feeling well so I am trying to not overdue it. Stress is a major factor in my life and will set me into a flare so quickly, so my number one priority is to eliminate stress (which is absolutely impossible with a two year old).
Well that is my story in a nut shell. Thanks for listening and I look forward to getting to know all of you better.
I gave birth to my first child in March of 2004 and all during my pregnancy I experienced severe bowel problems and was told by my doctor that it was all related to the hormones of pregnancy. However, after an emergency c-section the problems did not go away. Again, the doctor said it was pregnancy related and they should end soon. No such luck. In January of 2005, I began having major problems. I was running to the bathroom at least 25-30 times a day. I began to loose weight at such a drastic rate that my family began asking if I was using laxatives to loose weight. They thought I had an eating disorder. In the beginning of March 2005, I was down to 110lbs from 140lbs and had no energy at all. I had my brother-in-law come over every day to help with my son because I did not have the strength to get out of bed. I completely quit eating because I was so tired of running to the toilet.
During these two months, I had visited my general practitioner 4 times and she was not concerned at all nor did she do any research into my situation. I had also been to the ER twice where I was treated for dehydration and told to drink fluids, take Imodium and I should be fine in a couple of days. (For some ridiculous reason I was taking their word and not questioning it at all.)
By the second week in March, I had lost most of my vision. (Luckily, it has come back fairly well.) I could only focus if I had one eye closed and then it was so blurry that I had to guess at what I was looking at. I was passing out every time I stood up and was unable to bathe myself, much less take care of a one year old little boy.
I had started to except that I was sick and not going to get better when for some reason I decided to call a new doctor and they got my in that day. She took one look at me and called a GI who admitted me to the hospital within 5 minutes of my office visit. Upon admission, I weighed 98lbs and was having heart palpitations. A colonoscopy the second day of my hospital stay showed a positive diagnosis of Crohn’s. I was released on April 1st and was able to walk down the aisle to be married on April 16th.
Since then I have had a couple of hospital stays and some major bad times. My most recent flare lasted for almost 5 months and ended in yet another hospital stay. This hospital stay ended about a month ago and since then I have been doing so great. I have a tendency to take on too much when I am feeling well so I am trying to not overdue it. Stress is a major factor in my life and will set me into a flare so quickly, so my number one priority is to eliminate stress (which is absolutely impossible with a two year old).
Well that is my story in a nut shell. Thanks for listening and I look forward to getting to know all of you better.
