crohnsmom
Hi-I have been reading your forum for weeks now, ever since my son showed it to me. I have only now decided to join and post since seeing several posts from parents of crohns patients. My son was diagnosed in January of 2007. He was 19 at the time and away at college, 1400 miles from home. The college infirmary sent him to the hospital believing he had acute appendicitis. We were very fortunate that the ER surgeon to pick up his case is one of the leading Crohns surgeons in the United States. That allowed him to get not only proper treatment, but to obtain a tentative diagnosis in a matter of days. Turns out by the time he was hospitalized the disease had been active for quite sometime. He already had a large abcess and extensive inflammation and stricturing in the ileocecal area. He was discharged on Cipro and Flagyl and had a colonoscopy a few weeks later that confirmed the diagnosis. Since the damage was already quite extensive his doctors advised him to consider surgery. He opted to complete the semester at school and schedule his surgery for May when exams were over. The next few months were very very difficult-many weeks of not being to eat solid foods, on and off Prednisone, and lots of excruciating pain. My husband and I made 6 trips up to Boston from January to May.
On a high note however, he had the surgery in May, and it was a true G-dsend!!!
Within 2 days he was eating solids, and from there just has been feeling better and better. It has really given him his life back. They removed 7-8 inches of intestine, a large mass, and his appendix. His surgeon is a miracle man-the scar is not even 3 inches long.
He is presently on a ten day backpacking excursion through the British Isles-a trip he saved up for and one well deserved I believe.
However, I know this is a chronic illness, and can only hope that he has a nice long remission. He will be scoped again in October to monitor any recurrances, and we just have to take it from there. This is probably the hardest thing for a parent to live with-illness in their child. My heart truly goes out to those of you out there dealing with this illness yourselves or in your children. I am only now beginning to calm down enough not to jump every time the phone rings!
I have been impressed with the quality of the posts and discussions in this forum and look forward to being a part of it.
Hi-I have been reading your forum for weeks now, ever since my son showed it to me. I have only now decided to join and post since seeing several posts from parents of crohns patients. My son was diagnosed in January of 2007. He was 19 at the time and away at college, 1400 miles from home. The college infirmary sent him to the hospital believing he had acute appendicitis. We were very fortunate that the ER surgeon to pick up his case is one of the leading Crohns surgeons in the United States. That allowed him to get not only proper treatment, but to obtain a tentative diagnosis in a matter of days. Turns out by the time he was hospitalized the disease had been active for quite sometime. He already had a large abcess and extensive inflammation and stricturing in the ileocecal area. He was discharged on Cipro and Flagyl and had a colonoscopy a few weeks later that confirmed the diagnosis. Since the damage was already quite extensive his doctors advised him to consider surgery. He opted to complete the semester at school and schedule his surgery for May when exams were over. The next few months were very very difficult-many weeks of not being to eat solid foods, on and off Prednisone, and lots of excruciating pain. My husband and I made 6 trips up to Boston from January to May.
On a high note however, he had the surgery in May, and it was a true G-dsend!!!
Within 2 days he was eating solids, and from there just has been feeling better and better. It has really given him his life back. They removed 7-8 inches of intestine, a large mass, and his appendix. His surgeon is a miracle man-the scar is not even 3 inches long.
He is presently on a ten day backpacking excursion through the British Isles-a trip he saved up for and one well deserved I believe.
However, I know this is a chronic illness, and can only hope that he has a nice long remission. He will be scoped again in October to monitor any recurrances, and we just have to take it from there. This is probably the hardest thing for a parent to live with-illness in their child. My heart truly goes out to those of you out there dealing with this illness yourselves or in your children. I am only now beginning to calm down enough not to jump every time the phone rings!
I have been impressed with the quality of the posts and discussions in this forum and look forward to being a part of it.
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