Hey everyone!
So here's my personal story! Last summer I started getting symptoms such as blood in my stool and diarrheoa as well as abdominal pain whenever I ate. After a couple of weeks I decided that a visit to the GP was necessary as the internet (as I'm sure you all know) can be very scary!
I was referred to have a colonoscopy which was an absolutely awful experience! I wasn't completely asleep and felt the colonoscopy happen (I screamed the clinic down before passing out haha)! Afterwards, I was told that it looked like Crohn's disease but that it wouldn't be confirmed until the biopsies they took came back. Anyways that night I was in extreme pain and didn't sleep all night ! The next day the pain was so bad I couldn't eat and needed a doctor to come and visit me in my home as I was so weak I couldn't leave the house! The next day I was so dehydrated, I vomited and my boyfriend decided that I needed to go to A&E where I was admitted overnight
From then I began to feel relatively normal! YAY! However the biopsies came back showing ulcerative colitis so I was put under the unclassified category along with 10% of IBD patients... So frustrating to not be able to put a name to your illness!!! I was put on mezavant, adcal d3 and ferrous fumerate. I felt so alone!!! The only person that was really there for me was my boyfriend as my family live abroad and my friends, I realised, were actually inexistant...
My symptoms were pretty much inexistant which meant that people around me (especially my family and friends) began to believe it was nothing. Sadly in February I suffered from a serious flare-up (severe abdominal pain 24/7, vomiting, oesophageal pain, diarrheoa) which led me to lose 5kg in 2 weeks! oo: I felt awful and seriously depressed. I was admitted to hospital twice (re-admitted in less than a week) where I stayed for a week... I felt like an 80 year old woman, I could barely walk down the ward without being absolutely shattered! I was on IV steroids which made me extremely emotional, one minute I was giggling at the most pointless things and then I was crying because my lunch wasn't on time... As the steroids didn't seem to be relieving me from some of my symptoms, I was started on the infliximab treatment! My symptoms practically disappered over night! I was so relieved! However they still wanted to do an MRI scan (which I hate cause the drink makes me so bloated and unconfortable) and a sigmoidoscopy! Everything seemed fine so I was discharged and am still currently on oral steroids (prednisolone) which increased my appetite massively the first week and made me moody! The side effects seem to have calmed down a bit now though! I'm also on a multivitamin, ferrous fumerate and adcal d3! They have also kept me on the infliximab treatment which is going well so far although I've started getting the sore throat and headache symptom! My doctors think I am more likely to have Crohn's disease as well so I've decided to give that name to my condition !
Through all of this my boyfriend of just over 1 year (we celebrated our anniversary in hospital :devil: ) has been extremely important to keeping my chin up! I honestly don't know where I'd be right now without his support! It does worry me that I can't just be simply "normal" 19 year old girlfriend sometimes but he said that I'm worth it even though it can be difficult at times!
I am in my second year of nursing studies at university and being diagnosed with IBD at the beginning of the year came as a massive shock. It has also effected my course work as I had to miss an exam during my flare-up and have missed 2 weeks of a 4 week placement due to waiting for an occupational health appointment! It's a bit stressful cause I don't want to fail uni because of IBD!!! I won't let it beat me and neither should any of you!
That's my story! I think I've felt every emotion possible in the past 7 months!
Thanks for reading :ybiggrin:
So here's my personal story! Last summer I started getting symptoms such as blood in my stool and diarrheoa as well as abdominal pain whenever I ate. After a couple of weeks I decided that a visit to the GP was necessary as the internet (as I'm sure you all know) can be very scary!
I was referred to have a colonoscopy which was an absolutely awful experience! I wasn't completely asleep and felt the colonoscopy happen (I screamed the clinic down before passing out haha)! Afterwards, I was told that it looked like Crohn's disease but that it wouldn't be confirmed until the biopsies they took came back. Anyways that night I was in extreme pain and didn't sleep all night ! The next day the pain was so bad I couldn't eat and needed a doctor to come and visit me in my home as I was so weak I couldn't leave the house! The next day I was so dehydrated, I vomited and my boyfriend decided that I needed to go to A&E where I was admitted overnight
From then I began to feel relatively normal! YAY! However the biopsies came back showing ulcerative colitis so I was put under the unclassified category along with 10% of IBD patients... So frustrating to not be able to put a name to your illness!!! I was put on mezavant, adcal d3 and ferrous fumerate. I felt so alone!!! The only person that was really there for me was my boyfriend as my family live abroad and my friends, I realised, were actually inexistant...
My symptoms were pretty much inexistant which meant that people around me (especially my family and friends) began to believe it was nothing. Sadly in February I suffered from a serious flare-up (severe abdominal pain 24/7, vomiting, oesophageal pain, diarrheoa) which led me to lose 5kg in 2 weeks! oo: I felt awful and seriously depressed. I was admitted to hospital twice (re-admitted in less than a week) where I stayed for a week... I felt like an 80 year old woman, I could barely walk down the ward without being absolutely shattered! I was on IV steroids which made me extremely emotional, one minute I was giggling at the most pointless things and then I was crying because my lunch wasn't on time... As the steroids didn't seem to be relieving me from some of my symptoms, I was started on the infliximab treatment! My symptoms practically disappered over night! I was so relieved! However they still wanted to do an MRI scan (which I hate cause the drink makes me so bloated and unconfortable) and a sigmoidoscopy! Everything seemed fine so I was discharged and am still currently on oral steroids (prednisolone) which increased my appetite massively the first week and made me moody! The side effects seem to have calmed down a bit now though! I'm also on a multivitamin, ferrous fumerate and adcal d3! They have also kept me on the infliximab treatment which is going well so far although I've started getting the sore throat and headache symptom! My doctors think I am more likely to have Crohn's disease as well so I've decided to give that name to my condition !
Through all of this my boyfriend of just over 1 year (we celebrated our anniversary in hospital :devil: ) has been extremely important to keeping my chin up! I honestly don't know where I'd be right now without his support! It does worry me that I can't just be simply "normal" 19 year old girlfriend sometimes but he said that I'm worth it even though it can be difficult at times!
I am in my second year of nursing studies at university and being diagnosed with IBD at the beginning of the year came as a massive shock. It has also effected my course work as I had to miss an exam during my flare-up and have missed 2 weeks of a 4 week placement due to waiting for an occupational health appointment! It's a bit stressful cause I don't want to fail uni because of IBD!!! I won't let it beat me and neither should any of you!
That's my story! I think I've felt every emotion possible in the past 7 months!
Thanks for reading :ybiggrin: