Hi guys, i'm extremely new to this so I'm still learning, and I'm very confused and unsettled about the whole situation at the best of times so I apologise if things get a bit jumbled.
I'm 18, 19 in February, and ever since I can remember I would get sick really easily, often being taken home from friends houses in the middle of the night due to feeling terribly ill after eating anything. I always thought of it as a "Junk food intolerance" and thought no further of the situation.
When I was in high school, at age 14 I was really active, really happy, doing very well in school. All of a sudden I got sick one day, and was off school for two weeks with severe abdominal pain, vomiting, aching joints, fever and chills etc. I was losing on average 5kg every 2 days, by the time I was well enough to go back to school I had gone from 80kg to 55kg, I had no energy, had to be extremely careful what I ate, I couldn't do any physical activities. The doctors couldn't figure out what it was and passed it off as a virus, but now I'm not so sure.
The rest of high school passed in a similar fashion, at least once a month I would have 3-4 days off school because I was ill again. Some months were bad enough that I would have up to 3 days each week bedridden.
I went from a straight A student to failing everything, I eventually no longer cared whether I passed or failed, Once I got my drivers license and a car I would often drive home part way through the day saying I had no more classes left to do.
In my senior year of high school I was diagnosed with depression, and anxiety with agoraphobia. I also have scoliosis which always caused a lot of pain whenever I wasn't active enough, which was quite often due to being sick all the time.
I graduated high school at the end of 2012 and enrolled in a course to become a vet nurse. I loved this course, I started it in February 2013 right before I turned 18 and life was going great, I was able to manage my depression, my anxiety was under control mostly, I wasn't getting sick as often, and my back wasn't giving my so much trouble.
Then came the subtle changes, I stopped eating breakfast before course each morning because it made me bloated, nauseous, very sluggish and tired, and just plain blah. At the time I figured it was because I was getting up earlier in the morning, no big deal right? I was eating healthy other than not eating breakfast.
Then I got put onto an oral contraceptive pill as a last ditch resort to control my horrible periods, and I piled on the weight, going from 60kg to 83kg. It bothered me, but I didn't worry too much because I was very fit, I ride horses, I was riding my own two thoroughbreds every day, both young and hard to ride. I was eating healthy, had a lot of muscle tone, a lot of energy, no worries.
Then I got sick, again. This was around June that I started getting sick again. I found that every bite of food that passed my mouth made me feel extremely nauseous, my too-big-jeans would go from loose and falling off my hips to button-popping-tight within half an hour of consuming any food. The cramps and pulling pain was terrible and I just generally felt yuck. This carried on for a week before we started going to the doctors. I was at my doctors office around 3-4 times a week and they took many sets of blood tests and urine samples. The only result that come back was that I had low iron, normal for me, I've been low in iron for every blood test I've ever had in my life, even with supplements.
They couldn't figure out what it was, and at this point, even water wouldn't agree with me, I couldn't drink it, and every shower I took was leaving my face and arms red and itchy, no matter the temperature or products used.
They went through possibilities of eating disorders, psychosis, attention seeking, stress, anxiety, everything. Eventually my doctor said hold on, maybe you have gallstones, and he prodded my gall bladder. I almost screamed. I never even realised my gall bladder was so tender. He then ordered a CT scan and sent me home. That night I couldn't sit up, lie down, talk, eat, walk or anything, it was even a struggle to breath, so dad took me into the hospital. This was the 15th August by the time this happened.
After being pulled into ED, they admitted me to the surgical ward for 3 days. I was told that I was to be kept nil by mouth (haha funny, like I could have been anything else at this point).
They did two ultrasounds, and pregnancy tests, did I mention they had already done over 10 pregnancy tests in the months leading up to this? Well I wasn't pregnant and I'm still not.
They kept giving me gaviscon, buscopan, tramadol, ibuprofen and a whole bunch of others that I can't remember. None of them did anything. I was still in excruciating pain, to the point where they actually had to knock me out to stop it. I was on a drip the whole time I was there.
I was taken in for an emergency gastroscopy on a Saturday morning to check for stomach ulcers. The experience was terrible, they inadequately sedated me for starters (public healthcare here is terrible for many reasons, this was not a one off).
They took many biopsies, all of which come back clear, as did the blood tests for coeliac among many other things.
After the 3rd day they wrote me off as having mental issues and nothing physically wrong with me. They gave me a heap of pills and sent me home, basically it was an "I don't know whats wrong, therefore your imagining it" (again, not a one off at this hospital)
Less than a week later I was admitted into ED again for the same symptoms, only they had worsened over the week.
This time I got the head of medical to see me. This was when the suggestion of Crohns was voiced, by the head doctor who has crohns disease himself. He ordered a capsule endoscopy, put me on Pentasa, Mebeverine, Ondansetron, and buscopan. He then sent me home to wait for the outpatient appointment.
A few weeks later a letter arrived in the mail saying that it may be up to 6 months before they could find me an appointment, let me tell you, my dad lost it, he utterly lost it. I wasn't eating, I wasn't even drinking at this point, I spent every hour of my day and night on the couch when I wasn't in the bathroom. I physically couldn't walk 10 meters out my front door to pat my horses. I had also lost 13kg in that week. Dad rung the hospital and abused them, they had put me down for routine investigation, and don't we all know that if somebody can not physically eat or drink and is losing weight that rapidly then it's probably not routine as much as it is urgent?
At this point he got sick of it and called upon our health insurance, thank goodness we have it.
I went to see a private surgeon and he once again brought up the possibility of Crohns, he was disgusted with the public hospital, and also couldn't believe they had put me on pentasa before getting a diagnosis. He had me in a private hospital the very next day for a colonoscopy. That was scary, I warned them about my agoraphobia because I could feel my control slipping away as I walked through the doors. Between the times of being wheeled out of my room and into the surgery I was physically paralyzed by the concentration I had to put into my breathing, I couldn't see, hear or say anything, I couldn't physically move and then all of a sudden it snapped and I was off that table and gone, they had to sedate me before they could do anything, so i'm glad they had the sedation ready beforehand.
A week later the biopsies come back, they were clear. I was relieved but devastated in the same way. Here I was back at square one again, with no diagnosis, still not eating, the only water I consumed was to take my 46 pills every day. This surgeon is almost certain that I have Crohns disease, and he said that my colonoscopy did not look normal at all, but it didn't scream Crohns to him yet. He is now waiting for my calprotectin levels to come back and we will go from there.
I had to quit my course. The course that I loved, I preferred to be there rather than being at home and I had that taken away from me because of all of this. I went on holiday between October 5-12, I flew for the first time with my boyfriend, many hours away from home. I was so so sick while I was down there, we spent hundreds on after hours doctors, I got given valium and kemadrin while I was down there to counteract a reaction from a new drug I had been given for nausea. I spent almost my entire week down there vomiting in the floor of the shower because there was nothing else I could physically do. The first night I was there I slept in the bathroom hunched head first over the toilet. Who does that?
While I was down there I didn't have a bowel movement for 5 days, and the pain was so bad. I felt like every move I made was tearing my intestines apart, the pain would even radiate down my legs and nothing I could do would fix it. I was at the point where I was dry reaching, I had nothing left to vomit but yet my body was still pushing for more, i didn't know what to do, I ended up ringing my surgeons cellphone because I was so scared and in so much pain, I didn't know what to do and I was meant to fly home like that, and I did fly home like that, because there was nothing else I could do.
I felt worse for my boyfriend though, there was nothing he could do and I watched it break his heart, every single day we were there. We had our 4 year anniversary down there, we were meant to go out for dinner. We didn't of course.
I have my next surgeons appointment on October 22nd, and I'll admit i'm terrified. I'm terrified of having no diagnosis, but I'm also terrified of getting a diagnosis. Since i got back from my holiday I have spent all my time between the couch and the bathroom, I haven't slept in my own bed for months now. I haven't ridden my horses for months, I can't even feed them on my own, my mum has to do it for me because I physically can't.
I also feel a little bit stupid, I've only been battling this constantly for about 4 months now, so many of you would have been battling this for a whole lot longer and I don't want to sound like a whinging teenager, but I'm scared, I really am. And I hate seeing my family so stressed out, I hate seeing my boyfriend hurting so bad because he can't do anything to help. I've lost all of my friends but one since this started, and that one friend is amazing, i don't know what I would do without her, but I guess it goes to show how good my "friends" really were.
Anyway, that's me. That's about the longest thing I've ever written apart from course essays, and I still feel like I've missed a lot. But I feel bad (and extremely grateful) for anybody who reads this, because nobody around me knows what it's like and i'm sure many of you do. I'm currently sitting here unable to sleep due to nausea, bloating, and cramps with the pain radiating down the backs of my legs. I also have really sore knees which is unusual for me, and I haven't done anything that should have made them like that.
I want to be back to how I was, healthy and fit, riding my horses, able to walk wherever whenever, able to at least eat something, able to get through half a day without doubling over in pain, but it doesn't look like that will be happening any time soon.
I'm 18, 19 in February, and ever since I can remember I would get sick really easily, often being taken home from friends houses in the middle of the night due to feeling terribly ill after eating anything. I always thought of it as a "Junk food intolerance" and thought no further of the situation.
When I was in high school, at age 14 I was really active, really happy, doing very well in school. All of a sudden I got sick one day, and was off school for two weeks with severe abdominal pain, vomiting, aching joints, fever and chills etc. I was losing on average 5kg every 2 days, by the time I was well enough to go back to school I had gone from 80kg to 55kg, I had no energy, had to be extremely careful what I ate, I couldn't do any physical activities. The doctors couldn't figure out what it was and passed it off as a virus, but now I'm not so sure.
The rest of high school passed in a similar fashion, at least once a month I would have 3-4 days off school because I was ill again. Some months were bad enough that I would have up to 3 days each week bedridden.
I went from a straight A student to failing everything, I eventually no longer cared whether I passed or failed, Once I got my drivers license and a car I would often drive home part way through the day saying I had no more classes left to do.
In my senior year of high school I was diagnosed with depression, and anxiety with agoraphobia. I also have scoliosis which always caused a lot of pain whenever I wasn't active enough, which was quite often due to being sick all the time.
I graduated high school at the end of 2012 and enrolled in a course to become a vet nurse. I loved this course, I started it in February 2013 right before I turned 18 and life was going great, I was able to manage my depression, my anxiety was under control mostly, I wasn't getting sick as often, and my back wasn't giving my so much trouble.
Then came the subtle changes, I stopped eating breakfast before course each morning because it made me bloated, nauseous, very sluggish and tired, and just plain blah. At the time I figured it was because I was getting up earlier in the morning, no big deal right? I was eating healthy other than not eating breakfast.
Then I got put onto an oral contraceptive pill as a last ditch resort to control my horrible periods, and I piled on the weight, going from 60kg to 83kg. It bothered me, but I didn't worry too much because I was very fit, I ride horses, I was riding my own two thoroughbreds every day, both young and hard to ride. I was eating healthy, had a lot of muscle tone, a lot of energy, no worries.
Then I got sick, again. This was around June that I started getting sick again. I found that every bite of food that passed my mouth made me feel extremely nauseous, my too-big-jeans would go from loose and falling off my hips to button-popping-tight within half an hour of consuming any food. The cramps and pulling pain was terrible and I just generally felt yuck. This carried on for a week before we started going to the doctors. I was at my doctors office around 3-4 times a week and they took many sets of blood tests and urine samples. The only result that come back was that I had low iron, normal for me, I've been low in iron for every blood test I've ever had in my life, even with supplements.
They couldn't figure out what it was, and at this point, even water wouldn't agree with me, I couldn't drink it, and every shower I took was leaving my face and arms red and itchy, no matter the temperature or products used.
They went through possibilities of eating disorders, psychosis, attention seeking, stress, anxiety, everything. Eventually my doctor said hold on, maybe you have gallstones, and he prodded my gall bladder. I almost screamed. I never even realised my gall bladder was so tender. He then ordered a CT scan and sent me home. That night I couldn't sit up, lie down, talk, eat, walk or anything, it was even a struggle to breath, so dad took me into the hospital. This was the 15th August by the time this happened.
After being pulled into ED, they admitted me to the surgical ward for 3 days. I was told that I was to be kept nil by mouth (haha funny, like I could have been anything else at this point).
They did two ultrasounds, and pregnancy tests, did I mention they had already done over 10 pregnancy tests in the months leading up to this? Well I wasn't pregnant and I'm still not.
They kept giving me gaviscon, buscopan, tramadol, ibuprofen and a whole bunch of others that I can't remember. None of them did anything. I was still in excruciating pain, to the point where they actually had to knock me out to stop it. I was on a drip the whole time I was there.
I was taken in for an emergency gastroscopy on a Saturday morning to check for stomach ulcers. The experience was terrible, they inadequately sedated me for starters (public healthcare here is terrible for many reasons, this was not a one off).
They took many biopsies, all of which come back clear, as did the blood tests for coeliac among many other things.
After the 3rd day they wrote me off as having mental issues and nothing physically wrong with me. They gave me a heap of pills and sent me home, basically it was an "I don't know whats wrong, therefore your imagining it" (again, not a one off at this hospital)
Less than a week later I was admitted into ED again for the same symptoms, only they had worsened over the week.
This time I got the head of medical to see me. This was when the suggestion of Crohns was voiced, by the head doctor who has crohns disease himself. He ordered a capsule endoscopy, put me on Pentasa, Mebeverine, Ondansetron, and buscopan. He then sent me home to wait for the outpatient appointment.
A few weeks later a letter arrived in the mail saying that it may be up to 6 months before they could find me an appointment, let me tell you, my dad lost it, he utterly lost it. I wasn't eating, I wasn't even drinking at this point, I spent every hour of my day and night on the couch when I wasn't in the bathroom. I physically couldn't walk 10 meters out my front door to pat my horses. I had also lost 13kg in that week. Dad rung the hospital and abused them, they had put me down for routine investigation, and don't we all know that if somebody can not physically eat or drink and is losing weight that rapidly then it's probably not routine as much as it is urgent?
At this point he got sick of it and called upon our health insurance, thank goodness we have it.
I went to see a private surgeon and he once again brought up the possibility of Crohns, he was disgusted with the public hospital, and also couldn't believe they had put me on pentasa before getting a diagnosis. He had me in a private hospital the very next day for a colonoscopy. That was scary, I warned them about my agoraphobia because I could feel my control slipping away as I walked through the doors. Between the times of being wheeled out of my room and into the surgery I was physically paralyzed by the concentration I had to put into my breathing, I couldn't see, hear or say anything, I couldn't physically move and then all of a sudden it snapped and I was off that table and gone, they had to sedate me before they could do anything, so i'm glad they had the sedation ready beforehand.
A week later the biopsies come back, they were clear. I was relieved but devastated in the same way. Here I was back at square one again, with no diagnosis, still not eating, the only water I consumed was to take my 46 pills every day. This surgeon is almost certain that I have Crohns disease, and he said that my colonoscopy did not look normal at all, but it didn't scream Crohns to him yet. He is now waiting for my calprotectin levels to come back and we will go from there.
I had to quit my course. The course that I loved, I preferred to be there rather than being at home and I had that taken away from me because of all of this. I went on holiday between October 5-12, I flew for the first time with my boyfriend, many hours away from home. I was so so sick while I was down there, we spent hundreds on after hours doctors, I got given valium and kemadrin while I was down there to counteract a reaction from a new drug I had been given for nausea. I spent almost my entire week down there vomiting in the floor of the shower because there was nothing else I could physically do. The first night I was there I slept in the bathroom hunched head first over the toilet. Who does that?
While I was down there I didn't have a bowel movement for 5 days, and the pain was so bad. I felt like every move I made was tearing my intestines apart, the pain would even radiate down my legs and nothing I could do would fix it. I was at the point where I was dry reaching, I had nothing left to vomit but yet my body was still pushing for more, i didn't know what to do, I ended up ringing my surgeons cellphone because I was so scared and in so much pain, I didn't know what to do and I was meant to fly home like that, and I did fly home like that, because there was nothing else I could do.
I felt worse for my boyfriend though, there was nothing he could do and I watched it break his heart, every single day we were there. We had our 4 year anniversary down there, we were meant to go out for dinner. We didn't of course.
I have my next surgeons appointment on October 22nd, and I'll admit i'm terrified. I'm terrified of having no diagnosis, but I'm also terrified of getting a diagnosis. Since i got back from my holiday I have spent all my time between the couch and the bathroom, I haven't slept in my own bed for months now. I haven't ridden my horses for months, I can't even feed them on my own, my mum has to do it for me because I physically can't.
I also feel a little bit stupid, I've only been battling this constantly for about 4 months now, so many of you would have been battling this for a whole lot longer and I don't want to sound like a whinging teenager, but I'm scared, I really am. And I hate seeing my family so stressed out, I hate seeing my boyfriend hurting so bad because he can't do anything to help. I've lost all of my friends but one since this started, and that one friend is amazing, i don't know what I would do without her, but I guess it goes to show how good my "friends" really were.
Anyway, that's me. That's about the longest thing I've ever written apart from course essays, and I still feel like I've missed a lot. But I feel bad (and extremely grateful) for anybody who reads this, because nobody around me knows what it's like and i'm sure many of you do. I'm currently sitting here unable to sleep due to nausea, bloating, and cramps with the pain radiating down the backs of my legs. I also have really sore knees which is unusual for me, and I haven't done anything that should have made them like that.
I want to be back to how I was, healthy and fit, riding my horses, able to walk wherever whenever, able to at least eat something, able to get through half a day without doubling over in pain, but it doesn't look like that will be happening any time soon.