- Joined
- Jul 7, 2010
- Messages
- 21
Apologies in advance for the length of my post. 
I got diagnosed with crohn's last september.
Throughout the last couple of years I didn't have any sort of symptoms except for 2 instances of what I then thought to be food poisoning. After graduating university, I did some traveling during the summer and started looking for a full time job.
All of a sudden, I got hit with severe symptoms, I lost about 20 pounds, went through periods where I was unable to eat anything at all and had blinding stomach cramps (I am sure most of you can relate that the level of pain is almost surreal), or keep anything down, including water for 12-36 hours at a time. Probably the worst feeling in the world was being extremely thirsty but being unable to drink anything knowing that if I did, I would have severe vomiting and stomach pains within 5-10 minutes. My doctor put me on a pretty heavy dosage of prednisone and we were considering surgery but decided that due to my age it may be a bit premature. I transitioned from prednisone over to imuran and that's what I'm on now.
While my condition is nowhere near what it was in the fall, which I consider to be probably the worst time of my life, I am still unable to eat any sort of food that contains meat, which is a bit sad since I used to be a big carnivore.
Currently eating fish and rice/potatoes every day. My doctor offered to put me on remicade, but due to my positive TB test I would have had to be on a whole other dosage of medication which I was quite wary of due to the side effects I've been experiencing due to the steroids/imuran so I decided to stay on imuran for now.
I consider myself to be a fairly strong person mentally, so I am coping with this as well as one can expect. However, I am having trouble dealing with being sick while also having to find employment in this economy. I usually try to always be bettering myself in some way but I feel like I have currently plateau'd because I am not furthering myself in any way (education and otherwise). I tried working out like I used to before but a normal workout (about an hour weightlifting) would cause my condition to worsen for several days after. I am still doing things like playing soccer on weekends but I don't see myself putting weight doing just that.
I also was big into whitewater kayaking prior to getting diagnosed, and would go practically every weekend. I am finding it very hard to be away from home camping and any food that I usually have out there usually doesn't agree with me (though it seems like I'm eating the same stuff) which is quite frustrating because this was something I enjoyed most. I also find that I have about half the energy I used to have and can no longer kayak as long as I used to, it has also proven to be somewhat dangerous as trying to roll your boat back over (in ww kayaking you are upside down a lot) while you're fatigued is very difficult.
My social life has also suffered due to not being able to drink alcohol, I realize this is a lame excuse but partying just isn't as fun without drinking. I have lost some of my university friends simply because I don't go out as much anymore, and being designated driver and trying to get drunk people to follow you out of a bar is extremely difficult and annoying to do week in and week out.
I realize some of this stuff sounds a bit whiney, but I mostly shut up about it to my friends because I'm one of those people to just deal with it and move on than to bitch about my problems, but I figure part of the purpose of this forum is to vent so I'm exercising my option to do so now.
Just wanted to join to see what other people have been doing, what's been working and what hasn't and if I will ever be able to eat a hamburger again because I was never a fan of fish to begin with
I got diagnosed with crohn's last september.
Throughout the last couple of years I didn't have any sort of symptoms except for 2 instances of what I then thought to be food poisoning. After graduating university, I did some traveling during the summer and started looking for a full time job.
All of a sudden, I got hit with severe symptoms, I lost about 20 pounds, went through periods where I was unable to eat anything at all and had blinding stomach cramps (I am sure most of you can relate that the level of pain is almost surreal), or keep anything down, including water for 12-36 hours at a time. Probably the worst feeling in the world was being extremely thirsty but being unable to drink anything knowing that if I did, I would have severe vomiting and stomach pains within 5-10 minutes. My doctor put me on a pretty heavy dosage of prednisone and we were considering surgery but decided that due to my age it may be a bit premature. I transitioned from prednisone over to imuran and that's what I'm on now.
While my condition is nowhere near what it was in the fall, which I consider to be probably the worst time of my life, I am still unable to eat any sort of food that contains meat, which is a bit sad since I used to be a big carnivore.
Currently eating fish and rice/potatoes every day. My doctor offered to put me on remicade, but due to my positive TB test I would have had to be on a whole other dosage of medication which I was quite wary of due to the side effects I've been experiencing due to the steroids/imuran so I decided to stay on imuran for now.
I consider myself to be a fairly strong person mentally, so I am coping with this as well as one can expect. However, I am having trouble dealing with being sick while also having to find employment in this economy. I usually try to always be bettering myself in some way but I feel like I have currently plateau'd because I am not furthering myself in any way (education and otherwise). I tried working out like I used to before but a normal workout (about an hour weightlifting) would cause my condition to worsen for several days after. I am still doing things like playing soccer on weekends but I don't see myself putting weight doing just that.
I also was big into whitewater kayaking prior to getting diagnosed, and would go practically every weekend. I am finding it very hard to be away from home camping and any food that I usually have out there usually doesn't agree with me (though it seems like I'm eating the same stuff) which is quite frustrating because this was something I enjoyed most. I also find that I have about half the energy I used to have and can no longer kayak as long as I used to, it has also proven to be somewhat dangerous as trying to roll your boat back over (in ww kayaking you are upside down a lot) while you're fatigued is very difficult.
My social life has also suffered due to not being able to drink alcohol, I realize this is a lame excuse but partying just isn't as fun without drinking. I have lost some of my university friends simply because I don't go out as much anymore, and being designated driver and trying to get drunk people to follow you out of a bar is extremely difficult and annoying to do week in and week out.
I realize some of this stuff sounds a bit whiney, but I mostly shut up about it to my friends because I'm one of those people to just deal with it and move on than to bitch about my problems, but I figure part of the purpose of this forum is to vent so I'm exercising my option to do so now.
Just wanted to join to see what other people have been doing, what's been working and what hasn't and if I will ever be able to eat a hamburger again because I was never a fan of fish to begin with
