This turned into a long post, so read if you want. It's my interesting and different way of being diagnosed. 
Hello everybody. As some of you have seen, I've been slowly posting replies here and there but now it's time to share my story and introduce myself and get to know all of you. From what I have seen, the main group of people I see posting all the time seem to be pretty welcoming and amazing people and I'd love to get to know you all. Fair warning, I'm not a doctor and don't claim to be ... and I'm still new to all this, so I don't use medical terminology often.
I was diagnosed with Crohn's in March while laying in a hospital bed recovering from a surgery that wasn't supposed to be. Confused yet? Let me go back a ways and explain. Don't worry, trying to not go back and make this too boring.
February 23rd, 2009 I found a lump in my lower right groin area. Obviously concerned I went to a doctor the next day who wasn't sure what it was. He set me up with an ultrasound appointment the following week and started me on some antibiotics in the mean time. He was concerned it was a swollen lymph node and wanted to ward off any threats of infection. I started the antibiotics, got an allergic reaction, had the ultra sound, started different antiobiotics, saw the doctor several times and still had no concrete answers. At this point, the doctor finally told me he could do no more for me and sent me off to see a surgeon thinking either way it wasn't going away and would need help. As soon as the surgeon came in, pushed around and saw my lump, he said I had a hernia and told me to schedule surgery. At this point it was March 11th. I ended up with a date in April for surgery, but as the days passed by I was in such pain they wanted me to up the date and do it NOW. By the day of surgery I could barely walk and was hunched over all the time. The pain so bad I could hardly take it anymore, even though I have a high pain tolerance.
March 20 2009 ... The big day!! I went in to the out patient surgery center, was prepped and brought in for surgery. I remember being put to sleep and the next thing I know I'm waking up and hear people talking around me about ambulances and transports and such. And then finally was noticed thrashing my head around. A nurse comes to me and starts telling me about my surgery being more than I expected. I know she tried to tell me more of what happened but it didn't all sink in or penetrate. I was transported to a hospital where I still went in and out of a drug induced haze. It took a day or so before I got the full answer as to what really happened.
So here is what really happened. When the surgeon cut in to the "hernia" he found that it wasn't a hernia after all and was actually an abcess. He said he cut in to pus, fecal matter, and food particales. Good thing none of us in here get easily grossed out anymore huh? He then had to open the incision even bigger to look and see what was going on and take care of that little hiccup. After many visits to the waiting room to a worried mom and getting approval he ended doing the following things. He had to scope around and find out what was going on and where everything was coming from. He found that I had a whole in my intestines, which is where everything was leaking from and pooling up in the groin area, hence the abcess. My intestines had also attached themselves to the inside of my abdominal wall all the way over by my hip/pelvic bone. I had had hip pain for quite a long time, and it was a mystery. Xrays were done and nothing ever showed up as to why my hip hurt so bad. Mystery solved!!!
He ended up taking care of the abcess, removing my appendix (duh) and about 8-10 inches of my intestines. I know there are different technical names for all that ... but I don't remember them all as of right now and I'm fairly sure you all are nodding your heads that you understand without using medical terms. I ended up staying in the hospital for a week, and then finally sent home for recovery. I had to take it easy and stay home about a week and a half before returning to work. Of course I don't seem to like to do things in an easy fashion and got an infection in one of my incisions. Oh yeah, I ended up with 2 incisions instead of the 1, and of course 2 scope holes. Well 3 if you count the cut for the scope in the belly button too.
As I'm sure you can imagine, it was quite a shock to find that all out. I went in for what was supposed to be a quick 1 hour out patient surgery and ended up with an almost 5 hour major surgery, including being admitted to a hospital. I was supposed to be out from work for a max of a week, but ended up being out about 2.5 weeks. So, while laying up in the hospital trying to make sense of it all, I finally ask. When I asked the surgeon (who checked on me every morning) what caused all that drama, I get told "oh yeah, it's crohns" as he walked out the door. Wow ... thanks doc for THAT bedside manner.
Anybody actually still reading? :tongue:
That's how I got my diagnosis. I virtually had NO symptoms before hand and didn't know how much my own body hated me. Looking back over the years I see some things that make sense now and were probably symptoms or signs of Crohns, but nothing that was on a daily basis. About 4 years ago, I dropped 30+ pounds. I had switched birth control pills, and the loss was attributed to that. About 3 years ago, I did end up with severe right side abdominal pain that was thought to be appendicitis. Went to the ER, had a CT scan and was told I had 'bacterial buildup in my butt' and sent home. Nothing else was ever done about it and nothing came of it. It went away and I never had problems again. For the past 3 years I did have menstral pain that the doctors all told me was possibly endometreosis. (sp?). Only came on during period times, so why not be female related. The surgeon said he saw no sign of Endo when he was looking around and cutting me apart. :ylol2: But other then those (diagnosed different problems and solved, or so we though) ... I virtually had a ghost disease.
I'm honestly concerned that something like that can or will happen again without me knowing it. Then I think ... how could THAT much crap be going on inside me and me not know it? hmm... pardon the pun? I'm not naive enough to be thinking that I won't ever get symptoms or go through anything that you all go through on a daily basis. But as of right now .. I'm not having any issues that I've been able to identify. Even when I first went to the GI, he was shocked and I don't think he believed me when I told him I wasn't and hadn't been experiencing diahrea.
Speaking of the GI though, he wants me to start on any one of the following medications. Because I had surgery and presented my disease in such a flashy way (do I know how to make a statement or what?!?), he says I'm a severe case, but according to my symptoms (besides the surgery episode) I see me as being a mild case. Any recommendations or warnings? Or maybe other drugs you're thinking I should ask about?
-Azathioprine
-Humira
-Remicade
wow ... sorry for all those that actually read through that. It was a long one. I started typing thinking I'd make it a short story .. but it just kept going. Interesting stuff though huh? So ... hi my name is Cristin and I have Crohn's. Psst... this is where you're supposed to clap!
Hello everybody. As some of you have seen, I've been slowly posting replies here and there but now it's time to share my story and introduce myself and get to know all of you. From what I have seen, the main group of people I see posting all the time seem to be pretty welcoming and amazing people and I'd love to get to know you all.
Fair warning, I'm not a doctor and don't claim to be ... and I'm still new to all this, so I don't use medical terminology often. I was diagnosed with Crohn's in March while laying in a hospital bed recovering from a surgery that wasn't supposed to be. Confused yet? Let me go back a ways and explain. Don't worry, trying to not go back and make this too boring.
February 23rd, 2009 I found a lump in my lower right groin area. Obviously concerned I went to a doctor the next day who wasn't sure what it was. He set me up with an ultrasound appointment the following week and started me on some antibiotics in the mean time. He was concerned it was a swollen lymph node and wanted to ward off any threats of infection. I started the antibiotics, got an allergic reaction, had the ultra sound, started different antiobiotics, saw the doctor several times and still had no concrete answers. At this point, the doctor finally told me he could do no more for me and sent me off to see a surgeon thinking either way it wasn't going away and would need help. As soon as the surgeon came in, pushed around and saw my lump, he said I had a hernia and told me to schedule surgery. At this point it was March 11th. I ended up with a date in April for surgery, but as the days passed by I was in such pain they wanted me to up the date and do it NOW. By the day of surgery I could barely walk and was hunched over all the time. The pain so bad I could hardly take it anymore, even though I have a high pain tolerance.
March 20 2009 ... The big day!! I went in to the out patient surgery center, was prepped and brought in for surgery. I remember being put to sleep and the next thing I know I'm waking up and hear people talking around me about ambulances and transports and such. And then finally was noticed thrashing my head around. A nurse comes to me and starts telling me about my surgery being more than I expected. I know she tried to tell me more of what happened but it didn't all sink in or penetrate. I was transported to a hospital where I still went in and out of a drug induced haze. It took a day or so before I got the full answer as to what really happened.
So here is what really happened. When the surgeon cut in to the "hernia" he found that it wasn't a hernia after all and was actually an abcess. He said he cut in to pus, fecal matter, and food particales. Good thing none of us in here get easily grossed out anymore huh? He then had to open the incision even bigger to look and see what was going on and take care of that little hiccup. After many visits to the waiting room to a worried mom and getting approval he ended doing the following things. He had to scope around and find out what was going on and where everything was coming from. He found that I had a whole in my intestines, which is where everything was leaking from and pooling up in the groin area, hence the abcess. My intestines had also attached themselves to the inside of my abdominal wall all the way over by my hip/pelvic bone. I had had hip pain for quite a long time, and it was a mystery. Xrays were done and nothing ever showed up as to why my hip hurt so bad. Mystery solved!!!
He ended up taking care of the abcess, removing my appendix (duh) and about 8-10 inches of my intestines. I know there are different technical names for all that ... but I don't remember them all as of right now and I'm fairly sure you all are nodding your heads that you understand without using medical terms.
I ended up staying in the hospital for a week, and then finally sent home for recovery. I had to take it easy and stay home about a week and a half before returning to work. Of course I don't seem to like to do things in an easy fashion and got an infection in one of my incisions. Oh yeah, I ended up with 2 incisions instead of the 1, and of course 2 scope holes. Well 3 if you count the cut for the scope in the belly button too. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was quite a shock to find that all out. I went in for what was supposed to be a quick 1 hour out patient surgery and ended up with an almost 5 hour major surgery, including being admitted to a hospital. I was supposed to be out from work for a max of a week, but ended up being out about 2.5 weeks. So, while laying up in the hospital trying to make sense of it all, I finally ask. When I asked the surgeon (who checked on me every morning) what caused all that drama, I get told "oh yeah, it's crohns" as he walked out the door. Wow ... thanks doc for THAT bedside manner.
Anybody actually still reading? :tongue:
That's how I got my diagnosis. I virtually had NO symptoms before hand and didn't know how much my own body hated me.
Looking back over the years I see some things that make sense now and were probably symptoms or signs of Crohns, but nothing that was on a daily basis. About 4 years ago, I dropped 30+ pounds. I had switched birth control pills, and the loss was attributed to that. About 3 years ago, I did end up with severe right side abdominal pain that was thought to be appendicitis. Went to the ER, had a CT scan and was told I had 'bacterial buildup in my butt' and sent home. Nothing else was ever done about it and nothing came of it. It went away and I never had problems again. For the past 3 years I did have menstral pain that the doctors all told me was possibly endometreosis. (sp?). Only came on during period times, so why not be female related. The surgeon said he saw no sign of Endo when he was looking around and cutting me apart. :ylol2: But other then those (diagnosed different problems and solved, or so we though) ... I virtually had a ghost disease. I'm honestly concerned that something like that can or will happen again without me knowing it. Then I think ... how could THAT much crap be going on inside me and me not know it? hmm... pardon the pun?
I'm not naive enough to be thinking that I won't ever get symptoms or go through anything that you all go through on a daily basis. But as of right now .. I'm not having any issues that I've been able to identify. Even when I first went to the GI, he was shocked and I don't think he believed me when I told him I wasn't and hadn't been experiencing diahrea. Speaking of the GI though, he wants me to start on any one of the following medications. Because I had surgery and presented my disease in such a flashy way (do I know how to make a statement or what?!?), he says I'm a severe case, but according to my symptoms (besides the surgery episode) I see me as being a mild case. Any recommendations or warnings? Or maybe other drugs you're thinking I should ask about?
-Azathioprine
-Humira
-Remicade
wow ... sorry for all those that actually read through that. It was a long one. I started typing thinking I'd make it a short story .. but it just kept going. Interesting stuff though huh?
So ... hi my name is Cristin and I have Crohn's. Psst... this is where you're supposed to clap!
