Newly diagnosed

Hi, I am a 25 years old female from Brisbane, Australia and am only new to this Crohn’s thing and am finding it all a little daunting. I started having pains and frequent toileting about 2 years ago now and after endless amounts of tests was finally diagnosed a few weeks ago. Before I went in for that Colonoscopy I was feeling pretty good however this investigation has caused pains and toileting again. At the moment I am on 2mg Pentasa and am feeling ok. My surgeon said I have moderate to severe Crohn’s however my symptoms are relatively mild so I find this a little confusing.

At the moment I am trying to find out as much information as I can and look at what has helped for other people. I am frightened I guess as I don’t know what to expect and from what I have heard I don’t like what might happen.

Can anyone tell me how long they had symptoms for before things started to get serious and certain things I should look out for that would indicate my case is worsening. It is nice to know there is somewhere to go where everyone is comfortable to talk to each other and you can get real world advice from people experiencing the disease.

hi and welcome to the forum
am 26 and was diagnosed about 2 months ago
i had symptoms for couple of years too(weight loss,diarrhea,abdominal cramp,stiff joints,and finally pain in the lower right side of the belly )
and like u 2 i was told that i have a severe crohn though my symptoms r relatively mild,i think its about what they see in there,like how bad is the inflammation and not about the symptoms or the pain level.
the annoying thing about this disease is that there s no such a typical case,it affects ppl in different ways,there s no typical diet or drug that works for everybody so u really have to listen to yr body and find out whats best for u
i understand how u feel,was confused and frightened too when first diagnosed cuz i had no idea what am dealing with and was only thinking about the worst but researching and learning about it helped
this forum is a great place to be in,hopefully u ll have answers for any questions u v got
good luck

welcome aboard bindy. i too am new to all of this as i was diagnosed only a couple of months ago. im from nsw, wagga wagga, so is noce to see another aussie.

hope ur feeling better soon

Welcome Bindy!

Hi Bindy,
Like you, I had indications signalling moderate to severe but my symptoms were relatively mild when first diagnosed. I'm currently doing well - had a bad flare last year but I think it was because I didn't stick to taking my meds. So, make sure you take your meds.

Welcome!

:welcome: Bindy. I too have mild symptoms but am classified as severe. Unfortunately I can't answer your question because I still have those same ones for myself. I even asked my GI and he just basically ignored it. <shrug> My Crohns came on without me knowing an I'm worried it will get severe again without me really knowing. Good luck on getting your answers and I hope you continue to do well.

TB diagnosis

Hey guys, thanks heaps for all your welcome messages it was comforting to come to the computer today and read all of your notes. I will be sure to stay connected and keep up to date with how everyone is going and to update on my story.


In regards to meds it will a little difficult perhaps as I was tested for latent TB (means I carry the illness however are not symptomatic) when I was at my last colonoscopy. The result of this means that I cannot take drugs for Crohn's that are immunosuppressants as this will lower my immune system and allow TB to take over. Has anyone had any experiences with this. As I understand TB is pretty uncommon so I will be curious as to how it effects my diagnosis (docs have no idea where I could have contracted TB....very strange)

Thanks again.....