Hello !!
Get ready for the waffle !!
I am a 33 year old mum of 3 living in Cheshire.
In 2001 when pregnant with my eldest I had Diarhoea for the first few months of pregnancy which my GP said was just "morning sickness" from the wrong end:tongue:
I fell pregnant again when he was 3 months old:eek2: and developed chronic diarhoea, pain, exhaustion e.t.c and lost a stone in 2 weeks. Initially the GP said it was food poisoning and told me to starve for a few days adding "it's not like you don't need to lose weight":ybatty:
2 weeks later and another stone lighter I was admitted to hospital due to concerns over such violent diarhoea and pregnancy. This was my worst nightmare as I had a 5 month old baby to leave at home. The tests started off with various "fingers up bum" which to this day I do not see the point of at all:ymad: They then did a gall bladder and liver scan which were negative.
Then they sent me for an endoscopy which was hell on earth as I was not allowed any sedative due to being pregnant. They discovered Crohn's ulcers everywhere and put me on Prednisilone and Salofalk. The relief was amazing - to have a label to the symptoms was a big relief and the meds worked within 2-3 days and I even went to Tennerife a few days after the diagnosis.
Apparantly it is very unusual for pregnancy to trigger Crohn's as the opposite is usually true with sufferers going into remission when pregnant.
I was monitored closely throughout the pregnancy to check the baby'y growth due to steroids and aso weaned off the steroids. In Feb 2003 my little girl was born by c-section after becoming distressed - totally un-related to my illness.
When she was 3 months old I had a major flare up - apparantly the GP was expecting it as 3 months post birth is a big trigger fro Crohn's flare ups as the hormone surge triggers it. I went back onto Steroids and was on them fro around 7-8 months.
Then the Crohn's stopped flaring but was not in remission - i was not having chronic flare ups but i had a lot of pain, wind e.t.c and relied on codeine to go out. I also tried the Elemental diet whci was amazing and got rid of all symptoms but on re-introducing food things got worse. Following the diet permenantly was never going to work.
I then joined NACC as a telephone support line volunteer.
I was tried on Azaothiapine for a while but it did nothing. After a colonoscopy in 2004 it was decided that surgery to remove the scarred part of my bowel would help - because i was in a chronic flare for so long before treatment the ulcers had been very severe and had left a lot of scar tissue which was causing problems.
In March 2005 I had a hemi-colectomy where they removed 2 foot of large, 2 foot of small intestine also threw in a free appendectomy as that was in the middle !!
The relief was instant - all the joint pain i had been plagued with vanished and my energy levels went throught the roof !! No smelly wind either !
I then became pregnant in 2006 and my youngest was born in October 2006 - throught the pregnancy i followed a low fibre diet which helped a lot and also my consultant said the fact that it was a boy helped as apparantly carrying a girl affects Crohn's more than boys.
All was fine until Jan 08 when i started getting joint pain in my hands, feet and wrists. I was under a lot of stress at this point. I was having loads of blood tests for arthritis e.t.c. Then my bowels started getting a bit painful and more frequent toilet trips. This all rumbled on for a while until i hit a major flare up around 4 weeks ago - i was still in denial and adamant i did not need steroids.
After spending from 3am till 8am on the toilet and becoming more and more dehyrated i admitted defeat an was put onto prednisilone 30 mg.
Thing improved and i am now reducing 5mg a week - although this weeks drop to 20mg seems to have upset things slightly.
I am going for a colonocsopy next week to ascertain where the flare up is and they will then tailor meds to that.
I am really pissed off that it has come back but hoping it was caught early enough.
Weirdly the joint pain went when the bowels exploded - my consultant thinks the joint pain was the Crohn's beginning it's journey
My biggest worry is being admitted as with three kids who are 6,5 and 1 that's not a good option - my hubby is amazing though and takes on the lions share of everything when i am ill.
Hope to chat to everyone soon.
Clare
x
Get ready for the waffle !!
I am a 33 year old mum of 3 living in Cheshire.
In 2001 when pregnant with my eldest I had Diarhoea for the first few months of pregnancy which my GP said was just "morning sickness" from the wrong end:tongue:
I fell pregnant again when he was 3 months old:eek2: and developed chronic diarhoea, pain, exhaustion e.t.c and lost a stone in 2 weeks. Initially the GP said it was food poisoning and told me to starve for a few days adding "it's not like you don't need to lose weight":ybatty:
2 weeks later and another stone lighter I was admitted to hospital due to concerns over such violent diarhoea and pregnancy. This was my worst nightmare as I had a 5 month old baby to leave at home. The tests started off with various "fingers up bum" which to this day I do not see the point of at all:ymad: They then did a gall bladder and liver scan which were negative.
Then they sent me for an endoscopy which was hell on earth as I was not allowed any sedative due to being pregnant. They discovered Crohn's ulcers everywhere and put me on Prednisilone and Salofalk. The relief was amazing - to have a label to the symptoms was a big relief and the meds worked within 2-3 days and I even went to Tennerife a few days after the diagnosis.
Apparantly it is very unusual for pregnancy to trigger Crohn's as the opposite is usually true with sufferers going into remission when pregnant.
I was monitored closely throughout the pregnancy to check the baby'y growth due to steroids and aso weaned off the steroids. In Feb 2003 my little girl was born by c-section after becoming distressed - totally un-related to my illness.
When she was 3 months old I had a major flare up - apparantly the GP was expecting it as 3 months post birth is a big trigger fro Crohn's flare ups as the hormone surge triggers it. I went back onto Steroids and was on them fro around 7-8 months.
Then the Crohn's stopped flaring but was not in remission - i was not having chronic flare ups but i had a lot of pain, wind e.t.c and relied on codeine to go out. I also tried the Elemental diet whci was amazing and got rid of all symptoms but on re-introducing food things got worse. Following the diet permenantly was never going to work.
I then joined NACC as a telephone support line volunteer.
I was tried on Azaothiapine for a while but it did nothing. After a colonoscopy in 2004 it was decided that surgery to remove the scarred part of my bowel would help - because i was in a chronic flare for so long before treatment the ulcers had been very severe and had left a lot of scar tissue which was causing problems.
In March 2005 I had a hemi-colectomy where they removed 2 foot of large, 2 foot of small intestine also threw in a free appendectomy as that was in the middle !!
The relief was instant - all the joint pain i had been plagued with vanished and my energy levels went throught the roof !! No smelly wind either !
I then became pregnant in 2006 and my youngest was born in October 2006 - throught the pregnancy i followed a low fibre diet which helped a lot and also my consultant said the fact that it was a boy helped as apparantly carrying a girl affects Crohn's more than boys.
All was fine until Jan 08 when i started getting joint pain in my hands, feet and wrists. I was under a lot of stress at this point. I was having loads of blood tests for arthritis e.t.c. Then my bowels started getting a bit painful and more frequent toilet trips. This all rumbled on for a while until i hit a major flare up around 4 weeks ago - i was still in denial and adamant i did not need steroids.
After spending from 3am till 8am on the toilet and becoming more and more dehyrated i admitted defeat an was put onto prednisilone 30 mg.
Thing improved and i am now reducing 5mg a week - although this weeks drop to 20mg seems to have upset things slightly.
I am going for a colonocsopy next week to ascertain where the flare up is and they will then tailor meds to that.
I am really pissed off that it has come back but hoping it was caught early enough.
Weirdly the joint pain went when the bowels exploded - my consultant thinks the joint pain was the Crohn's beginning it's journey
My biggest worry is being admitted as with three kids who are 6,5 and 1 that's not a good option - my hubby is amazing though and takes on the lions share of everything when i am ill.
Hope to chat to everyone soon.
Clare
x
