In my freshman year of high school, I started feeling sick. I don't really remember feeling sick sick, but I would wake up in the middle of the night and would be in the bathroom with "the runs". It wasn't every night; just once in a while. So my mom took me to a doctor who ordered endoscopy #1. He percribed me prevacid. By my sophomore year, it was worse.
During my sophomore and junior years, I had seen more doctors and had more tests. I had some doctors that told me it was all in my head, some that told me I had an eating disorder (I have always been thin), some that thought I just wanted attention, didn't want/was affraid of school, and some that even thought my mom was making me sick because she wanted attention.
My senior year I became so sick that by day 30, I missed at least 15 school days of school. That lead to me needing to be home schooled. That fall (the fall of '05) I had been to gasteroenterologist 3 or 4 and he ordered a capsule endoscoy where I swallow a camera pill and it takes picture. that should have been easy enough but when the results came back, he said "I know it says you have Crohn'c, but I don't think that's really what you have." That lead me to set out in search of a new gastroenterologist yet again. Dr. S., who treated me as if I had Crohn's but wouldn't definatively say I had it, gave me one type of Chron's medicationw hich I took for a good few months but only became sicker. He told me he didn't know what else he could do for me and sent me to the Cleveland clinic.
By the time I got to the cleveland clinic, I was 18, already out of high school (and no, I was never able to return to school) and unable to attend college. There, I saw a gastroenterologist and a rheumatologist. The gastroenterologist told me he couldn't see anything and the rheumatologist just told me I had fibromyalgia and that was the cause of my stomach troubles, extreme fatigue, and body aches. So I figure, "Here are these doctors at this world renowned hospital... they must be right" So in November of '06 I went back to N. VA and began seeing a rheumatologist.
This brings me to now. In December of 2008 I was so sick of being sick. I had been complaining to my doctor for a while but he wanted me to go on ritalin to make me wake up more and muscle relaxers so I wouldn't hurt. By February I had to quit my job (I was yet to complete a full year of college) and decided enough was enough. I went and found yet another gastroenterologist who ordered endoscopy #4 and colonoscopy #5 or 6. I had the endoscopy which came back normal (they were testing for ciliacs) but never made it to a colonoscopy. That doctor never would call back, didn't let me know he'd be gone the following week, lost my blood tests... you name it, he did it. So again, I found a new doctor. My mom managed to find the test results from the virtual endoscopy in '05 so i took it in and showed him and he couldn't understand why I had been going through this for so long. He did the colonscopy, printed out a report with pictures, handed it to me and said "You do have Crohn's."
I was finally diagnosed in April of 2009.
During my sophomore and junior years, I had seen more doctors and had more tests. I had some doctors that told me it was all in my head, some that told me I had an eating disorder (I have always been thin), some that thought I just wanted attention, didn't want/was affraid of school, and some that even thought my mom was making me sick because she wanted attention.
My senior year I became so sick that by day 30, I missed at least 15 school days of school. That lead to me needing to be home schooled. That fall (the fall of '05) I had been to gasteroenterologist 3 or 4 and he ordered a capsule endoscoy where I swallow a camera pill and it takes picture. that should have been easy enough but when the results came back, he said "I know it says you have Crohn'c, but I don't think that's really what you have." That lead me to set out in search of a new gastroenterologist yet again. Dr. S., who treated me as if I had Crohn's but wouldn't definatively say I had it, gave me one type of Chron's medicationw hich I took for a good few months but only became sicker. He told me he didn't know what else he could do for me and sent me to the Cleveland clinic.
By the time I got to the cleveland clinic, I was 18, already out of high school (and no, I was never able to return to school) and unable to attend college. There, I saw a gastroenterologist and a rheumatologist. The gastroenterologist told me he couldn't see anything and the rheumatologist just told me I had fibromyalgia and that was the cause of my stomach troubles, extreme fatigue, and body aches. So I figure, "Here are these doctors at this world renowned hospital... they must be right" So in November of '06 I went back to N. VA and began seeing a rheumatologist.
This brings me to now. In December of 2008 I was so sick of being sick. I had been complaining to my doctor for a while but he wanted me to go on ritalin to make me wake up more and muscle relaxers so I wouldn't hurt. By February I had to quit my job (I was yet to complete a full year of college) and decided enough was enough. I went and found yet another gastroenterologist who ordered endoscopy #4 and colonoscopy #5 or 6. I had the endoscopy which came back normal (they were testing for ciliacs) but never made it to a colonoscopy. That doctor never would call back, didn't let me know he'd be gone the following week, lost my blood tests... you name it, he did it. So again, I found a new doctor. My mom managed to find the test results from the virtual endoscopy in '05 so i took it in and showed him and he couldn't understand why I had been going through this for so long. He did the colonscopy, printed out a report with pictures, handed it to me and said "You do have Crohn's."
I was finally diagnosed in April of 2009.