K
karl
Guest
crohns is not fun for this newb
hey ya, i'm karl. i'm 25 years old and was diagnosed with crohn's in februrary of this year. i had been getting cramping for about a year and a half before then. it started to become more and more frequent. my doctor told me it was probably just gas.
i started losing weight considerably.
after several more visits, she told me all kinds of things. at one point she was testing me for diabetes. she even asked me if it could be an std, because she wasn't sure what was going on. i was fed up with her and requested to see a gastroenterologist. my symptoms kept getting worse and worse, although sometimes i could go a couple of weeks without a cramp.
went to the gastro and she had me keep a food journal, outlining what i ate and when i felt pain also tested me for ciliac disease, which came back negative. 2 months later i go back, with not really any correlation between what i ate and when i felt bad. she ordered an upper gi endoscopy and colonoscopy, that was fun.
my results of the upper GI were clean and biopsies proved that i didn't have ciliac disease. my colonoscopy showed a couple of benign polyps and a small rectal ulcer. what was most concerning was that my illiocecal valve was ulcerated and strictured. when she pushed on it, it would bleed, so she could not see into the small intestine.
she ordered a barium x-ray to be done. that revealed that i have an ulcerated and strictured small bowel. this was concluded to be crohn's disease. she put me on pentasa 500mg 4x a day. i could not believe that it would cost me $360+ a month to take this. i paid for the first month and got on the patient assistance program because i'm a part time worker, still in college and my insurance (which i pay out of pocket for), does not cover name brands.
i'm still on pentasa to this day, doesn't really seem to do much of anything. my last visit was in april. she said that pentasa probably wasn't strong enough for me. she put me on azathioprine 50mg 1x daily. also, she wants me to take prednisone starting at 40mg and tapering over 40 days. i put off the prednisone till finals were over, this means that i will start taking it tomorrow actually. yikes. my heritage test showed that i metabolize azathioprine normally and that my enzymes were slightly below normal.
i'm stuck at about 124lbs, i'm 5'7". it's pretty horrible at this point, today was a good day, but later in the day i almost threw up. cramps came on quick.
i'll just have to see how it goes. i'm really hoping that azathioprine works for me. i know i cannot afford remicade or humira.
good to see lots of support on this board
hey ya, i'm karl. i'm 25 years old and was diagnosed with crohn's in februrary of this year. i had been getting cramping for about a year and a half before then. it started to become more and more frequent. my doctor told me it was probably just gas.
i started losing weight considerably.
after several more visits, she told me all kinds of things. at one point she was testing me for diabetes. she even asked me if it could be an std, because she wasn't sure what was going on. i was fed up with her and requested to see a gastroenterologist. my symptoms kept getting worse and worse, although sometimes i could go a couple of weeks without a cramp.
went to the gastro and she had me keep a food journal, outlining what i ate and when i felt pain also tested me for ciliac disease, which came back negative. 2 months later i go back, with not really any correlation between what i ate and when i felt bad. she ordered an upper gi endoscopy and colonoscopy, that was fun.
my results of the upper GI were clean and biopsies proved that i didn't have ciliac disease. my colonoscopy showed a couple of benign polyps and a small rectal ulcer. what was most concerning was that my illiocecal valve was ulcerated and strictured. when she pushed on it, it would bleed, so she could not see into the small intestine.
she ordered a barium x-ray to be done. that revealed that i have an ulcerated and strictured small bowel. this was concluded to be crohn's disease. she put me on pentasa 500mg 4x a day. i could not believe that it would cost me $360+ a month to take this. i paid for the first month and got on the patient assistance program because i'm a part time worker, still in college and my insurance (which i pay out of pocket for), does not cover name brands.
i'm still on pentasa to this day, doesn't really seem to do much of anything. my last visit was in april. she said that pentasa probably wasn't strong enough for me. she put me on azathioprine 50mg 1x daily. also, she wants me to take prednisone starting at 40mg and tapering over 40 days. i put off the prednisone till finals were over, this means that i will start taking it tomorrow actually. yikes. my heritage test showed that i metabolize azathioprine normally and that my enzymes were slightly below normal.
i'm stuck at about 124lbs, i'm 5'7". it's pretty horrible at this point, today was a good day, but later in the day i almost threw up. cramps came on quick.
i'll just have to see how it goes. i'm really hoping that azathioprine works for me. i know i cannot afford remicade or humira.
good to see lots of support on this board
