My name is Oscar, 22 years old, I live in Sweden and I have had Crohns Disease for four years now.
Four years ago is when I got Crohns disease. I remember how I saw that there was blood in my feces and felt that it was all wrong.
At first I just waited and hoped that it would pass but after a few days I finally told my mom about it and we went to see a doctor.
The journey was long, this was in August and after a few visits to different doctors they couldn't tell if it was Crohn's disease. Finally in december 2011 they found out. (I discovered the blood in august). So for me I felt a lot of frustration with it but also was reliefed to get a name
behind this illness. Though, for me it was only the start.
From there it also took about a half year before we found any treatment that really helped with my case of Crohn. In June we tried a medicine called
Humira which I have now been taking for the last 3,5 years together with Azathioprin. That was probably the worst period for me. During that time between december and june we tried a lot
of different medicines hoping that they would help but they diden't. In the end I almost felt as it was useless to try any new treatment, I diden't believe they would help anymore.
Thankfully it did and I've since been able to atleast feel somewhat normal and my bloodvalues are about the same as any normal person, so I'm thankful.
As a 18 year old I ofcourse liked to go to partys and what you do discover over the years is that wine works a lot better for the body than beer. Also make sure to eat lowfat food helped me a lot those nights. I also
try to stay away from food with a lot of onion/ raw oninon in it. Otherwise, something that I always do nowadays that probably others don't is to think of if there are any decent/good toilets at the public areas that I visit. Thats probably a burden I've grown with this disease but also comfort in the fact that it makes me feel safe.
Of course you should be able to do stuff others do. I went to Asia for 10 weeks and it went quite well. Humira needs to stay cold so I always had to make sure to find hostels with fridge
which is not easy sometimes in Asia! I guess what I can tell from my experience so far is that it comes with a quite great resposibility which maybe some have a hard time to learn
at the age of 18-20. (I kind of mess up with my diet and don't think about it too much which probably also could improve for me)
If theres anything I wish that I could do different is maybe to talk more about it with people, but in my experience its really hard to talk about the disease with others than closest family, especially since I kind of always keep bad things to myself. (I know thats not good
)
Maybe thats why I'm trying this forum now, we'll see!
Best Regards Oscar!
Four years ago is when I got Crohns disease. I remember how I saw that there was blood in my feces and felt that it was all wrong.
At first I just waited and hoped that it would pass but after a few days I finally told my mom about it and we went to see a doctor.
The journey was long, this was in August and after a few visits to different doctors they couldn't tell if it was Crohn's disease. Finally in december 2011 they found out. (I discovered the blood in august). So for me I felt a lot of frustration with it but also was reliefed to get a name
behind this illness. Though, for me it was only the start.
From there it also took about a half year before we found any treatment that really helped with my case of Crohn. In June we tried a medicine called
Humira which I have now been taking for the last 3,5 years together with Azathioprin. That was probably the worst period for me. During that time between december and june we tried a lot
of different medicines hoping that they would help but they diden't. In the end I almost felt as it was useless to try any new treatment, I diden't believe they would help anymore.
Thankfully it did and I've since been able to atleast feel somewhat normal and my bloodvalues are about the same as any normal person, so I'm thankful.
As a 18 year old I ofcourse liked to go to partys and what you do discover over the years is that wine works a lot better for the body than beer. Also make sure to eat lowfat food helped me a lot those nights. I also
try to stay away from food with a lot of onion/ raw oninon in it. Otherwise, something that I always do nowadays that probably others don't is to think of if there are any decent/good toilets at the public areas that I visit. Thats probably a burden I've grown with this disease but also comfort in the fact that it makes me feel safe.
Of course you should be able to do stuff others do. I went to Asia for 10 weeks and it went quite well. Humira needs to stay cold so I always had to make sure to find hostels with fridge
which is not easy sometimes in Asia! I guess what I can tell from my experience so far is that it comes with a quite great resposibility which maybe some have a hard time to learn
at the age of 18-20. (I kind of mess up with my diet and don't think about it too much which probably also could improve for me)
If theres anything I wish that I could do different is maybe to talk more about it with people, but in my experience its really hard to talk about the disease with others than closest family, especially since I kind of always keep bad things to myself. (I know thats not good
)Maybe thats why I'm trying this forum now, we'll see!
Best Regards Oscar!