I was first diagnosed with U/C in May 1984 with all the pain and bloody stools about which everyone knows too well. I had a J Pouch done at the Mayo Clinic by October of that same year because the U/C had taken over the colon completely. I had sooooo many problems with the J pouch after that I decided to have the surgery for an ileostomy 16 years later. It has turned out to be the better choice. But I still had pains - apparently I had adhesions growing in there like weeds and so my surgeon tried to take them out laparascopically about 8 years after the ileostomy. It wasn't 6 months later and I was having many more pains again. I saw a surgeon at a nearby University Hospital and she recommended that she do a comprehensive to see the outer wall of the small intestine as well as the situation with the adhesions. They were extensive the adhesions and they were dense around the area where they built the J Pouch. But she put seprafilm between my small intestine and my internal organs to keep them safe from these adhesions to keep them safe. I was really pleased with her. She found quite a lot of adhesions, but at he same time she had ordered a blood test from California and it came back to confirm that I had Crohn's Disease! Apparently one cannot have both U/C and Crohn's - it is either one or the other... If that is true, then I had Crohn's for all that time and the reason I had so many problems with the J Pouch was probably the Crohn's now acting up in that J Pouch! The adhesions have become very bad - espcially around the rectal area because that's where most of the surgery was done (they will not perform any more surgeries unless absolutely necessary because of the risk of creating more adhesions). Now I am on Humira for the Crohn's which seems to have helped. I am accepting whole thing. But between the Crohn's and the Adhesions I have sometimes had terrible pain and I have cut back on work to half time. But one of the most difficult struggles is an unrelenting fatigue that I have had starting with the first "diagnosis" of U/C in 1984. For about the last three years by Noon I feel like I have already put in a full day's work and I am pretty worthless after that. Has anyone else had problems with fatigue? Can one have this kind of fatigue even when they are not flaring? I just feel so much like a wimp, but I cannot help but to think the fatigue is a result of the Crohn's. Has anyone else had this problem of constant fatigue or am I just a little crazy!?!
Thanks!
Thanks!