Hi,
I'm a 41 year old Norwegian who'se had Chrons for a number of years now, for the most part without having a clue I had it.
Anyway, I recon it started around 10 years ago while I was living and working in Oslo. One day I wen't home from work with severe abdominal pains. That would not let up until I puked. I figured it was some bad food, as I also had the runs for a few days.
This continued to hit me maybe twice a year. And well, my diet was quite hoorendous at the time. So I explained it aways with bad food.
Then I got really hit. By then it was 2003, and I was working for the UN in Iraq on the heels of the invasion. I was locked up in our Basrah hotel for 3 days with severe pains. Since the food there was not good, Again I thought food poisoning. Until my collegues brought me to a Czech field hospital, where I recieved some injections and the pain subsided.
It would later hit me again in the Sudan, and in Sri Lanka. By now I had constant diorrhea...and still did not see a doctor. Since I was in the tropics I always reasoned it would be bad water, something wrong with the food. But by now I staued away from most fruit...as when I had an orrange that meant I would have a flare up. I did not know it was my small intestine getting narrower due to the infections.
Then I met my wife and got married in Thailand, and moved to a small village far out in the boonies there. One day there was a festival, and we were all looking at or participating in the parade, when I started to feel sick. So I went home. By the time my wife got home I was shaking with the fever, and my temp was 39,5 Celcius. Then the pains hit.
I was brought to the local clinic, who gave me a shot for the pain. And then it was on to hospital. They treated me for pain and filled me with antibiotics...and after 3 days I was sent home. But the next day the pain hit again...straight back to hospital where I was admitted with severe pain in my abdomen. This time they thought it was my appendix. And while the doctor told me this I was hit by a pain that I have never before or never since felt. Minutes later I was prepped for surgery to have my appendix removed.
When I woke up it was with an operation wound not only where my appendix was located. But also one streching from just above my navel and down to my pubic hair. I panicked. I was in a hospital in a foreign country where nobody but the surgeon who had operated on me, and my wife spoke passable Englsih, yet alone my native Norwegian. I suspected they had taken som organs without asking etc. And my wife, while she spoke English okay, was unable to translate the medical jargon the nurses and the doctors where using. And the surgeon who spoke English I did not see until hours later.
Thats when I found out my appendix was found to be fine, so they let that be, and wen't exploring. Thats when they found my perforated ileum. They had cut of about 15 cm, and reconnected it. Anyway, I recovered quickly and after a week or so I was sent home wich a bunch of pain killers and antibiotics.
I only stayed home for a few hours. The next morning I was on my way to the hospital again with severe abdominal pain. It would turn out the sutures in my ileum had ruptured...
New operation. And waking up with drainage hoses sticking out on both sides of my bowels....I stayed in hospital for 6 weeks this time, fighting peritonitis.
Well, the upside is that I gave up smoking, and lost about 30 of my 95 kilos...well the kilos have returned with a vengeance...lol
Anyway...a month after being released I returned to Norway in august 2008, and my wife followed once her paperwork cleared, and I had a good year and a half with no flare ups. I could even eat fruit again! By that time I had not tasted an orange since 2003. It was now January 2011. Over the last few months I had felt a few bowel pains but not as severe as before. But by the end of january it hit me big time. And this time puking was not enough to make it stop.
I was completely blocked it turned out when I arrived at the hospital. New operation removing 30-40 cm of my small intestine. The problem this time was that the scar tissue from the previous two operations was blocking the passage in the ileum.
Out again. Spent a couple of months on the couch and recovered in time for fishing season. But now the specialists at my hospital finally got hold of me, and got me under treatment. That was after another flare up in may. They started me on Prednisolon to knock my infection down. Did not work. In june they put me trough colonoscopy and MMR, becosue the doc wanted to have a look and make sure....I finally had my diognosis...Chrons.
Since then I have been on Imurel...but my liver and gall balder numbers sky rocketed, so I had to stop that. Been on oral Methotrexate wich is useless. I am on the porcelain throne around 10 times a day, and I feel tired, lazy and I am scared to lift up my 1 year old son becosue he may kick my right bowel.
But I saw my doctor yesterday,and once I have done some vaccines fro season flue and some other stuff, he'll start me on Humira injections...
Thats where I am at now...
I'm a 41 year old Norwegian who'se had Chrons for a number of years now, for the most part without having a clue I had it.
Anyway, I recon it started around 10 years ago while I was living and working in Oslo. One day I wen't home from work with severe abdominal pains. That would not let up until I puked. I figured it was some bad food, as I also had the runs for a few days.
This continued to hit me maybe twice a year. And well, my diet was quite hoorendous at the time. So I explained it aways with bad food.
Then I got really hit. By then it was 2003, and I was working for the UN in Iraq on the heels of the invasion. I was locked up in our Basrah hotel for 3 days with severe pains. Since the food there was not good, Again I thought food poisoning. Until my collegues brought me to a Czech field hospital, where I recieved some injections and the pain subsided.
It would later hit me again in the Sudan, and in Sri Lanka. By now I had constant diorrhea...and still did not see a doctor. Since I was in the tropics I always reasoned it would be bad water, something wrong with the food. But by now I staued away from most fruit...as when I had an orrange that meant I would have a flare up. I did not know it was my small intestine getting narrower due to the infections.
Then I met my wife and got married in Thailand, and moved to a small village far out in the boonies there. One day there was a festival, and we were all looking at or participating in the parade, when I started to feel sick. So I went home. By the time my wife got home I was shaking with the fever, and my temp was 39,5 Celcius. Then the pains hit.
I was brought to the local clinic, who gave me a shot for the pain. And then it was on to hospital. They treated me for pain and filled me with antibiotics...and after 3 days I was sent home. But the next day the pain hit again...straight back to hospital where I was admitted with severe pain in my abdomen. This time they thought it was my appendix. And while the doctor told me this I was hit by a pain that I have never before or never since felt. Minutes later I was prepped for surgery to have my appendix removed.
When I woke up it was with an operation wound not only where my appendix was located. But also one streching from just above my navel and down to my pubic hair. I panicked. I was in a hospital in a foreign country where nobody but the surgeon who had operated on me, and my wife spoke passable Englsih, yet alone my native Norwegian. I suspected they had taken som organs without asking etc. And my wife, while she spoke English okay, was unable to translate the medical jargon the nurses and the doctors where using. And the surgeon who spoke English I did not see until hours later.
Thats when I found out my appendix was found to be fine, so they let that be, and wen't exploring. Thats when they found my perforated ileum. They had cut of about 15 cm, and reconnected it. Anyway, I recovered quickly and after a week or so I was sent home wich a bunch of pain killers and antibiotics.
I only stayed home for a few hours. The next morning I was on my way to the hospital again with severe abdominal pain. It would turn out the sutures in my ileum had ruptured...
New operation. And waking up with drainage hoses sticking out on both sides of my bowels....I stayed in hospital for 6 weeks this time, fighting peritonitis.
Well, the upside is that I gave up smoking, and lost about 30 of my 95 kilos...well the kilos have returned with a vengeance...lol
Anyway...a month after being released I returned to Norway in august 2008, and my wife followed once her paperwork cleared, and I had a good year and a half with no flare ups. I could even eat fruit again! By that time I had not tasted an orange since 2003. It was now January 2011. Over the last few months I had felt a few bowel pains but not as severe as before. But by the end of january it hit me big time. And this time puking was not enough to make it stop.
I was completely blocked it turned out when I arrived at the hospital. New operation removing 30-40 cm of my small intestine. The problem this time was that the scar tissue from the previous two operations was blocking the passage in the ileum.
Out again. Spent a couple of months on the couch and recovered in time for fishing season. But now the specialists at my hospital finally got hold of me, and got me under treatment. That was after another flare up in may. They started me on Prednisolon to knock my infection down. Did not work. In june they put me trough colonoscopy and MMR, becosue the doc wanted to have a look and make sure....I finally had my diognosis...Chrons.
Since then I have been on Imurel...but my liver and gall balder numbers sky rocketed, so I had to stop that. Been on oral Methotrexate wich is useless. I am on the porcelain throne around 10 times a day, and I feel tired, lazy and I am scared to lift up my 1 year old son becosue he may kick my right bowel.
But I saw my doctor yesterday,and once I have done some vaccines fro season flue and some other stuff, he'll start me on Humira injections...
Thats where I am at now...