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Another Newbie!

riegel.jordan

riegel.jordan

Hi everyone, my name is Jordan. I'm eighteen years old and have just been diagnosed with Crohn's last month. I'll admit that I am struggling with this disease. I had a hard time getting the diagnosis as well. I had diarrhea for about a month, and tried to tell my parents about it, but they didn't think it was a big deal. Then sometime in early November I started having chest pains and had to go to the doctors several times before they figured out it was esophageal ulcers. I had to get an upper endoscopy to verify it and I was on steroids for a while to help with that. Throughout this, I still had diarrhea, but I wasn't experiencing any pain while going to the bathroom and I wasn't experiencing any pain when eating certain foods. About two weeks later I started experiencing really bad stomach pain so I went to the clinic and they told me to take fiber pills! Ha! Then the next day and the day after that I had to stay home from college and work because I was in so much pain and I had a low grade fever. Eventually the pain got to be too much and my mom took me to the emergency room. They gave me morphine and started giving me fluids. The doctor's started talking about the possibility of Crohn's before they admitted me to an actual room, I just didn't think that something like that could even happen to me. I had to spend a couple days in a hospital bed and had to drink that GoLightly stuff. I almost couldn't do it, I was freaking myself out because the nurse had given me steroids with the side affect to make me feel dizzy and out of control. I threw up some of it in the hospital tub while sitting on the toilet. It was a truly awful experience. The colonoscopy though wasn't so bad. I didn't remember anything and the medicine they used to knock me out actually allowed me to sleep for more than three hours! It was the longest I'd slept since I'd been to the hospital! They eventually diagnosed me with Crohn's, but not without keeping me an extra night for no reason and then making me wait until late the next day to go home! I can't even explain how great it felt to leave that wretched hospital and finally go home. I've got a follow up appointment with a GI doctor in a couple of days, and I'm not sure he'll be able to answer all my questions just because I have so many. The hospital left me with so many unanswered questions and the internet can only go so far, it's really quite frustrating. I'm on prednisone now, but I still experience constant abdominal uncomforted or pain to some degree. I also have really bad back and joint pain since I've left the hospital. I just wake up every morning feeling rather weak and all over poor. I'm not sure how the doctor's will go about treating me and getting me into remission(not sure if that's actually what it's called). All I know is I'm ready to feel better and stay that way for as long as possible.
 
DJW

DJW

Forum Monitor
Hi and welcome.

Sorry you've had such a rough time.
It's a lot to take in. I'd recommend going to the library and looking for books written by GI doctors.
It's also good to keep a journal of what's going on and questions for the doctor.

With proper treatment remission is possible.

Sending you my support.
 
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