19 year old male & the middle of this month marks 6 months since diagnosis, and roughly a year since symptoms began.
I started having quite bad wind and abdominal cramping last summer, and initially didn't think much of it until around October when the diarrhea and weight loss began. Went to my GP who suggested I went for a colonoscopy, and I booked one for February (which was the earliest one available). Until then just took Imodium, which just about did the job.
I found the lead up to the colonoscopy and the scope itself very unpleasant, but it was definitely worth it to get a diagnosis (which was initially Ulcerative Colitis). Was immediately started on a high dose of Prednisolone, and felt fine for a few weeks until I was started on Asacol. For the first week and a half of taking it I noticed my symptoms slightly worsening, but just thought this was a result of slowly reducing the prednisolone, however I then had a horrendous 24 hour period where I pretty much had non stop diarrhea. I suspected it was probably a reaction to the Asacol, and immediately stopped taking it which resulted in symptoms returning to how they'd been before.
I then tried another type of drug in the same line of medication as Asacol (which name i can't remember),as my hospital consultant suggested that it may have just been a reaction specifically Asacol. However shortly after beginning this drug, I once again noticed a worsening in symptoms, and this time stopped before it got to be as bad as it was with the Asacol. I then went back to just taking a high dose of prednisolone again for a while until I started azathioprine (imuran)in late April. I was told this could take up to 6 months to have a full effect, but couldn't even settle on a consistent dose until 6 weeks ago, as I had to reduce twice due to a stomach bug and then due to a worrying blood test result (liver function). It has since then started to slowly improve my syptoms, and I am almost completely off predisolone. However somewhere in the middle of that (around June), I was told that after looking at histology reports that my diagnosis had changed to Crohn's colitis (which was confirmed recently,as I had an MRI scan which showed no inflammation in small bowel, only large).
This meant that I could get funding for either Humira or Remicade, and I started Humira 3 weeks ago, whilst continuing to take imuran. So far I don't think it has made a significant difference, and I expect the imuran is doing most of the work, however I haven't had any negative side effects either.
I would like to think that I am currently better than I was a few months ago, as I am opening bowel 3-5 times a day, compared to 6-7. However I still find my bowel is incredibly sensitive to certain foods, alcohol and stress.
I still feel I am some way off of remission, which I'm hoping will be the same as how I felt over a year ago i.e symptom free. However with my current rate of progression, I sometimes wonder if I will ever get back to feeling how I used to. I know that there are a lot of people on the forum who have had crohn's or UC for years, and have much more knowledge of their disease than I do. A year of symptoms may seem like no time at all for some people, but it is hard when I have such clear memories of what times were like without the disease, and not knowing how long it will take to get back to feeling healthy again.
I started having quite bad wind and abdominal cramping last summer, and initially didn't think much of it until around October when the diarrhea and weight loss began. Went to my GP who suggested I went for a colonoscopy, and I booked one for February (which was the earliest one available). Until then just took Imodium, which just about did the job.
I found the lead up to the colonoscopy and the scope itself very unpleasant, but it was definitely worth it to get a diagnosis (which was initially Ulcerative Colitis). Was immediately started on a high dose of Prednisolone, and felt fine for a few weeks until I was started on Asacol. For the first week and a half of taking it I noticed my symptoms slightly worsening, but just thought this was a result of slowly reducing the prednisolone, however I then had a horrendous 24 hour period where I pretty much had non stop diarrhea. I suspected it was probably a reaction to the Asacol, and immediately stopped taking it which resulted in symptoms returning to how they'd been before.
I then tried another type of drug in the same line of medication as Asacol (which name i can't remember),as my hospital consultant suggested that it may have just been a reaction specifically Asacol. However shortly after beginning this drug, I once again noticed a worsening in symptoms, and this time stopped before it got to be as bad as it was with the Asacol. I then went back to just taking a high dose of prednisolone again for a while until I started azathioprine (imuran)in late April. I was told this could take up to 6 months to have a full effect, but couldn't even settle on a consistent dose until 6 weeks ago, as I had to reduce twice due to a stomach bug and then due to a worrying blood test result (liver function). It has since then started to slowly improve my syptoms, and I am almost completely off predisolone. However somewhere in the middle of that (around June), I was told that after looking at histology reports that my diagnosis had changed to Crohn's colitis (which was confirmed recently,as I had an MRI scan which showed no inflammation in small bowel, only large).
This meant that I could get funding for either Humira or Remicade, and I started Humira 3 weeks ago, whilst continuing to take imuran. So far I don't think it has made a significant difference, and I expect the imuran is doing most of the work, however I haven't had any negative side effects either.
I would like to think that I am currently better than I was a few months ago, as I am opening bowel 3-5 times a day, compared to 6-7. However I still find my bowel is incredibly sensitive to certain foods, alcohol and stress.
I still feel I am some way off of remission, which I'm hoping will be the same as how I felt over a year ago i.e symptom free. However with my current rate of progression, I sometimes wonder if I will ever get back to feeling how I used to. I know that there are a lot of people on the forum who have had crohn's or UC for years, and have much more knowledge of their disease than I do. A year of symptoms may seem like no time at all for some people, but it is hard when I have such clear memories of what times were like without the disease, and not knowing how long it will take to get back to feeling healthy again.
