Crohn's Arthritis - my newest journey

[Carol M]

Hello All! I just found this forum tonight. Thankful to have a place to ask others with crohn's about their experiences!

I started having pain/bloating in 1988. Was incorrectly diagnosed with IBS. Suffered for 8 years before being correctly diagnosed in 1996. By then I needed surgery and had an ileo-cecal resection and anastomosis in Sept. 1996. The granulomas had obliterated my apendix and cecal valve. I lost a foot of small intestine, appendix, cecal valve and portion of the ascending colon. I felt great for a year. I've had flares and remissions since thankfully no more surgeries. For the last 5 years or so I've had some minor issues with stiffness and some pain in joints but the last year the joint pain and stiffness has gone off the charts. I've had 3 rounds of prednisone, pentasa, sulfasalizine xr, meloxicam, tramedol, and hydrocodone. The arthritis damage and a wrong move caused a torn meniscus that was repaired in Dec. 2012. The injury is healed but the arthritis is awful. I took my first Humira injection today.

I'm wondering if any of you have crohn's arthritis. What you have done for it that works and doesn't work. My rheumatologist checked for RA and lupus and those are negative. He believes all the arthritis is crohn's related. My Internist believes that I can have a better quality of life and I hope she's right!

I'll be lurking around the forum looking for more info. Looking forward to learning!

 

[sfmreb2]

I have crohns and I used to have arthritis. It would kind of float to various joints, mostly back and knees. Very painful. Shortly after starting remicade it disappeared. So hopefully Humira will get your crohns under control and your that will help with your arthritis. Welcome to the site.

 

[Angrybird]

Hello and welcome to the forum

There does seem to be a lot of cross over with crohn's and arthritis, I myself only tend to get joint problems if the crohn's is flaring however we do have an arthritis sub forum that you may like to check out to have a chat with the folks here: http://www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=82. I do know Humira is used to treat both of these so I will be keeping fingers crossed that you can be feeling better soon. Also are your vitamin levels ever checked?

AB
xx

 

[Karen]

I am sure that you will FIND lots of HELP here on the FORUM ... there are a lot of wonderful people here willing to help out !!!

 

[Carol M]

Thanks for the replies! I do have my Vit. B12 and Vit D checked. I've taken B12 shots monthly since 1997 as I lost my illiim in the resection. My Vit D is always low even with supplements. My doc recently suggested I may be one of those that has low levels - I felt like she was giving up on getting them higher. After some discussion I've increased my daily D3 to 8,000 IU to see if I can get into the normal range. I'm holding out secret hope that Humira will help the crohn's and the related arthritis and my D level will rise and I'll feel like a real person again!