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New 23 year old member with crohns

Hi everyone,

let me first say that I'm happy to have found this place and believe that support is key for dealing with Crohns. My name is Paul and I'm currently 23, I was diagnosed with Crohns disease at the age of 17 and have been on Asacol ever since. My adventure to my diagnosis started when I went to 2 hospitals and 4 local gastroenterologist that kept telling me that they were not sure what was wrong. I finally got recommended to my current Dr. (Dr. Jones) and he wanted to do a colonoscopy to see what was wrong. Upon going in he found that I had crohns and placed me on Asacol (2 pills 3 times per day). That helped for about 1 year and then I had another flare up which was really bad. He put me on prednisone which did nothing but make me feel horrible, he then put me on lialda which gave me a horrible case of hives but put it into remission. About 1 1/2 years later I again I had a flare up and he put me on enticort which put it in remission until now.

He has since increased my asacol treatment to 3 pills 3 times per day and will be putting me back on enticort to try and get this into remission again. The only thing is I am just getting done with having the flu and a severe sinus infection so he is having me wait until I am completely over the flue and my sinus infection. The only good thing I can say right now is that I'm not into a full flare but I am getting signs of one coming since there is some blood smearing on stool but I'm not filling the bowl with blood like I usually do during a full on flare up. I'm just hoping to get this put back into remission while it's still trying to flare rather than wait until I have to miss work over it like last year. I had a flare up this exact same time last year that caused me to miss 1 month of work in January (Happy birthday to me).

Again, I look forward to meeting everyone and sharing as well as learning more information about crohns.

-Paul
 
Heya! Haven't been a member long but there's some really good people here and I've learnt loads about crohns so welcome! :)
 

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Welcome Paul! I too was like you in getting diagnosed and I have a wonderful Gi close to the same name Dr. Joanes, and he is the best out of 5.

I am fighting a flare too and I know since I have had Crohns for so long I know what I can get away with. Alot of meds peter out and stop working or your disease progresses to another level. I have been on Entocort with great success and trying to stay good for the holidays is hard. Be careful what you eat. When is your next Gi appt? Glad you found us, great support on here, WE know what you are going through, lots of people here to help and cheer you on!
 
Jettalady said:
Welcome Paul! I too was like you in getting diagnosed and I have a wonderful Gi close to the same name Dr. Joanes, and he is the best out of 5.

I am fighting a flare too and I know since I have had Crohns for so long I know what I can get away with. Alot of meds peter out and stop working or your disease progresses to another level. I have been on Entocort with great success and trying to stay good for the holidays is hard. Be careful what you eat. When is your next Gi appt? Glad you found us, great support on here, WE know what you are going through, lots of people here to help and cheer you on!
Thanks for the warm welcomes! He wants me to give him a call when I'm over the flu and sinus infection so we can get some tests done and get me on entocort. He said that I can get a "super infection" if we don't wait. Hopefully I'll be in to see him by the middle of next week sometime.
 
Welcome to the forum Paul!! You know - it is interesting how this disease works. My disease would always seem to get worse around July 4th for some reason. I did ok this year, but in years past it has been a definite pattern for me. It is good that you see the pattern so you can be aware of it and maybe see if you can nail down why it is doing that (maybe food or emotionally related? Stress is bad this time of year for many).

Hopefully the Entecort will do the trick for you once again and get everything quiet down so you can have a good Christmas!!
 
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