Hi, i was diagnosed with moderate/severe Crohn's in february 2010 after 18 months of pain and weight loss. The doctors only decided to do something about my symptoms once i had started passing blood both in bowel movements and also from almost constant vomiting. My weight dropped to 50kg which, for someone who is 6'4" is not a healthy weight to be at. I was put on Prednisolone 40mg tapering, mesalazine 4g, omeprazole 20mg and calcium D-3. I was also put on nutrition shakes to increase my calorie intake in order to try and put some weight back on.
After a week or so everything seemed to settle down and I had my first full night's sleep in almost two years. I was also putting on weight and could eat again without vomiting. I had to cut a lot of foods out of my diet such as tomatoes, peppers, anything spicy, anything with fibre, lamb and turkey. (I have since found out that nuts are not too good either!).
Progress was going well until one morning at the end of may last year. I woke up and felt slightly nauseated. Thought i may have been a bit dehydrated so had a drink. That seemed to do the trick. Several hours later I experienced the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. It turns out that was my bowel perforating. I was in A&E for 6 hours before they gave me any pain relief as the hospital staff thought i had a blockage. They also believed that I was experiencing a new symptom of my disease. Eventually I was given a CT scan which revealed I had a perforation and was taken in to emergency surgery. I was on life support for 24 hours post op, in intensive care for 4 days and on a general ward for 5 more days. I now have a 12 inch scar which runs the entire length of my stomach and 2 smaller scars from the drain sites.
Unfortunately, the surgeon did not take out all the infected bowel so I have not had any of the benefits from the surgery. I am however, lucky to be alive which I am grateful for. They took out 55 cm of my small bowel, which I understand to be a fair amount.
Since the surgery, I have also been put on Azathioprine 100mg and it seems to be doing the trick. I am back up to my normal weight of about 100kg and things seem to be going well. I hope they stay this way.
One thing I have learned is not to play tennis 5 weeks after major surgery. Tearing all your stomach muscles is not good, taking it easy is the way forward.
I hope I haven't bored you all senseless. I thought I would share my experiences, if anyone has had anything similar then it would be nice to hear from you.
After a week or so everything seemed to settle down and I had my first full night's sleep in almost two years. I was also putting on weight and could eat again without vomiting. I had to cut a lot of foods out of my diet such as tomatoes, peppers, anything spicy, anything with fibre, lamb and turkey. (I have since found out that nuts are not too good either!).
Progress was going well until one morning at the end of may last year. I woke up and felt slightly nauseated. Thought i may have been a bit dehydrated so had a drink. That seemed to do the trick. Several hours later I experienced the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. It turns out that was my bowel perforating. I was in A&E for 6 hours before they gave me any pain relief as the hospital staff thought i had a blockage. They also believed that I was experiencing a new symptom of my disease. Eventually I was given a CT scan which revealed I had a perforation and was taken in to emergency surgery. I was on life support for 24 hours post op, in intensive care for 4 days and on a general ward for 5 more days. I now have a 12 inch scar which runs the entire length of my stomach and 2 smaller scars from the drain sites.
Unfortunately, the surgeon did not take out all the infected bowel so I have not had any of the benefits from the surgery. I am however, lucky to be alive which I am grateful for. They took out 55 cm of my small bowel, which I understand to be a fair amount.
Since the surgery, I have also been put on Azathioprine 100mg and it seems to be doing the trick. I am back up to my normal weight of about 100kg and things seem to be going well. I hope they stay this way.
One thing I have learned is not to play tennis 5 weeks after major surgery. Tearing all your stomach muscles is not good, taking it easy is the way forward.
I hope I haven't bored you all senseless. I thought I would share my experiences, if anyone has had anything similar then it would be nice to hear from you.
