E
eMan
Guest
new guyy
Okay so I've been reading things for a while here to help me out and thought I should get into it more by sharing my story.
To start off I am a 21 year old white male attending college (Rutgers University) just living the dream.
It started this year back in March/April when I started getting abdominal pains and cramps. I thought it was just gas or something because I never had this before and felt I could just sort of "push" it out but it would always come back. Finally I forced myself to go to the Univeristy Health Center and I had told them my symptoms only to find out it may be Appendicitis (not too bad eh?). They set up a date to do blood work and on that day I came in got it done and found out I had an elevated white cell count but not enough to go crazy about. Stomach pains/cramps still persisted and I went back and the doctors felt and pressed my lower right abdomen (where the pain was) and immediately got an ambulance (which I thought was crazy) to send me to the hospital which was like 2 minutes away. Went there got a CT Scan for the first time and after a few hours was told I had inflammation of the small intestine (terminal ileum) which could represent something called Crohn's disease. The doctor had referred me to a GI and said I needed to get a colonoscopy done to see if I did. Did that and woke up from the colonoscopy only to find out I had a "mild" case of Crohn's. Great, I had no clue what to think but I asked the GI about my diet which he told me "oh you have no restrictions" which was definitely wrong because certain things I ate would cause bad stomach pains.
I was put on Pentasa (4x daily) and come that Memorial Day Weekend I went on vacation, drank like a 21 year old college kid would, came back home started my summer job and about a week and a half into it was in so much pain driving to work I pulled over threw up and couldn't take the pain. I had to go to the hospital because I could barely walk the pain was so bad. I was in there for 5 days on IV meds: Prednisone, Cipro, Flagyl, Imuran and was switched from Pentasa to Asacol. Got out, started feeling great and was on Prednisone(60mg daily), Imuran, and Asacol(3x daily). Prednisone yay what a great savior I thought, but then came the side effects like depression out of nowhere (and as all my friends know I'm always the crazy happy go lucky guy) which bugged me and acne on my back, shoulders, and face which I never really had plus hair growth when I wasn't even a hairy dude. Whatever, I dealt with that and felt great, a few days here and there with minimal abdominal cramps but nothing too bad. Beginning of August and I'm working my summer job with PSE&G (public service) I start feeling a stomach cramp...it starts getting worse and worse (by now I'm tapered down to about 15mg a day on Prednisone). I left work and drove the 30 minutes home in absolute growing pain, get home lay down on my bed and take some Percocet but still doesn't help the pain after a few hours. Time passes by and the pain is so bad I go to the bathroom and throw up. Now it hurts for me to even take a step. I go to my primary doctor and he immediately says I should go to the hospital. I rush to the hospital and what a beautiful thing waiting in a waiting room is when you're in absolute extreme pain. Finally get admitted after being in the ER forever and in the hospital for another 5-6 days same procedure: pump up the prednisone and taper it down slowly but be a little more cautious around the 20mg stage. Flash forward, I'm living back at school (New Brunswick, NJ) in the beginning of September feeling fairly well, and 3 weeks into school (Sept. 23rd) I start feeling the ache in my stomach which I can kind of tell now it's going to mean a hospital visit. My hometown is like an hour away from my house at school so I was about to drive home to the hospital to be around my mother but decide to just go to the same one where I got my first CT Scan, in the ER for 20 hours! in extreme pain which they finally started giving me the pain medicine Diladid(sp?) and that is a lifesaver let me tell you. Get admitted, in the hospital for 10 days this time on IV nutrition, no pred this time though, had a catscan done, a small bowel series, and some x-rays due to my hip now being messed up from the prednisone, met with so many doctors and surgeons telling me I have 3-4 abcesses and possibly fistulas and that surgery is the best option now because I've been in the hospital 3 times since May. I got out on October 3rd, and I've just been buggin out because I don't know if I should get the surgery due to many surgeries possibly coming again after the first one. Am I too young for it? Anyone thats had a resection done please give me some insight.
I wish I could go into detail about everything but I typed pretty quickly, I will be posting more about my feelings throughout this whole fiasco later on but it's been a rollercoaster for me as I know it probably has for everyone here. I had to withdraw for this semester and take it off for the surgery coming up in 2 weeks. Currently I am on 2.5mg of Pred. which is weird that I'm not hurting that crazily right now but also on Cipro, Flagyl, and Asacol. I feel like I always hear people that have Crohn's "don't have it that bad" and haven't had any symptoms in a looooonggg time. What do you guys think?? Oh yea and glad to be here guysss. Thank you for your time.
Okay so I've been reading things for a while here to help me out and thought I should get into it more by sharing my story.
To start off I am a 21 year old white male attending college (Rutgers University) just living the dream.
It started this year back in March/April when I started getting abdominal pains and cramps. I thought it was just gas or something because I never had this before and felt I could just sort of "push" it out but it would always come back. Finally I forced myself to go to the Univeristy Health Center and I had told them my symptoms only to find out it may be Appendicitis (not too bad eh?). They set up a date to do blood work and on that day I came in got it done and found out I had an elevated white cell count but not enough to go crazy about. Stomach pains/cramps still persisted and I went back and the doctors felt and pressed my lower right abdomen (where the pain was) and immediately got an ambulance (which I thought was crazy) to send me to the hospital which was like 2 minutes away. Went there got a CT Scan for the first time and after a few hours was told I had inflammation of the small intestine (terminal ileum) which could represent something called Crohn's disease. The doctor had referred me to a GI and said I needed to get a colonoscopy done to see if I did. Did that and woke up from the colonoscopy only to find out I had a "mild" case of Crohn's. Great, I had no clue what to think but I asked the GI about my diet which he told me "oh you have no restrictions" which was definitely wrong because certain things I ate would cause bad stomach pains.
I was put on Pentasa (4x daily) and come that Memorial Day Weekend I went on vacation, drank like a 21 year old college kid would, came back home started my summer job and about a week and a half into it was in so much pain driving to work I pulled over threw up and couldn't take the pain. I had to go to the hospital because I could barely walk the pain was so bad. I was in there for 5 days on IV meds: Prednisone, Cipro, Flagyl, Imuran and was switched from Pentasa to Asacol. Got out, started feeling great and was on Prednisone(60mg daily), Imuran, and Asacol(3x daily). Prednisone yay what a great savior I thought, but then came the side effects like depression out of nowhere (and as all my friends know I'm always the crazy happy go lucky guy) which bugged me and acne on my back, shoulders, and face which I never really had plus hair growth when I wasn't even a hairy dude. Whatever, I dealt with that and felt great, a few days here and there with minimal abdominal cramps but nothing too bad. Beginning of August and I'm working my summer job with PSE&G (public service) I start feeling a stomach cramp...it starts getting worse and worse (by now I'm tapered down to about 15mg a day on Prednisone). I left work and drove the 30 minutes home in absolute growing pain, get home lay down on my bed and take some Percocet but still doesn't help the pain after a few hours. Time passes by and the pain is so bad I go to the bathroom and throw up. Now it hurts for me to even take a step. I go to my primary doctor and he immediately says I should go to the hospital. I rush to the hospital and what a beautiful thing waiting in a waiting room is when you're in absolute extreme pain. Finally get admitted after being in the ER forever and in the hospital for another 5-6 days same procedure: pump up the prednisone and taper it down slowly but be a little more cautious around the 20mg stage. Flash forward, I'm living back at school (New Brunswick, NJ) in the beginning of September feeling fairly well, and 3 weeks into school (Sept. 23rd) I start feeling the ache in my stomach which I can kind of tell now it's going to mean a hospital visit. My hometown is like an hour away from my house at school so I was about to drive home to the hospital to be around my mother but decide to just go to the same one where I got my first CT Scan, in the ER for 20 hours! in extreme pain which they finally started giving me the pain medicine Diladid(sp?) and that is a lifesaver let me tell you. Get admitted, in the hospital for 10 days this time on IV nutrition, no pred this time though, had a catscan done, a small bowel series, and some x-rays due to my hip now being messed up from the prednisone, met with so many doctors and surgeons telling me I have 3-4 abcesses and possibly fistulas and that surgery is the best option now because I've been in the hospital 3 times since May. I got out on October 3rd, and I've just been buggin out because I don't know if I should get the surgery due to many surgeries possibly coming again after the first one. Am I too young for it? Anyone thats had a resection done please give me some insight.
I wish I could go into detail about everything but I typed pretty quickly, I will be posting more about my feelings throughout this whole fiasco later on but it's been a rollercoaster for me as I know it probably has for everyone here. I had to withdraw for this semester and take it off for the surgery coming up in 2 weeks. Currently I am on 2.5mg of Pred. which is weird that I'm not hurting that crazily right now but also on Cipro, Flagyl, and Asacol. I feel like I always hear people that have Crohn's "don't have it that bad" and haven't had any symptoms in a looooonggg time. What do you guys think?? Oh yea and glad to be here guysss. Thank you for your time.
) but you eventually learn what you can and can't handle. I was diagnosed my freshman year of college (first semester) THAT was tons of fun. NOT!