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Diagnosed 25 days before Birthday

Hi all...I'm not really sure where to start but here is a brief summary of what I have been doing these last couple months.

I was diagnosed with Crohn's Colitis on January 5th. At the time I found out I had Crohn's disease, I had it in my large intestine. When I found out I thought my life was over. I am a very active dancer and in school I take a lot of the AP classes. The first week of finding out I'm pretty sure I cried everyday multiple times a day. I have researched a lot and am finding out many things now about Crohn's. Earlier this week I was told I have Crohn's in my small intestine. My doctor wants to start me on Remicade. Does anyone have any stories or good things to say about it?

I have so many questions. What do you have for symptoms and how you deal with it? How did you tell others like your friends?

If anyone has any words of advice I would greatly appreciate it! I am on such a learning curve right now because no one else in my family has this or anything like it. I am the first so I don't really have anyone to bounce ideas off of so please I ask for your help.
 
There is so much to deal with and get your head around when you are diagnosed with Crohn's.

I was diagnosed when I was 17 (and i'm 36 now!) but I remember struggling to deal with the idea of this being an incurable disease and needing medication for life. Even though I'd had symptoms since about age 6, I'd always thought of myself as incredibly healthy, so it was difficult to reconcile that with being ill despite how bad my symptoms had got. I think it's important to remember that you are still you and not let that label of a diagnosis weigh too heavily or become too much a part of your sense of who you are are or what your life will be. There's so much information out there and it's good to be informed but it can also be overwhelming and it's important to remember that this is a disease that affects us all differently and that the course of our disease will not neccessarily follow the same path that others have.

Remicade can be wonderful for some people with Crohn's - although there are some potential side effects. On balance it's definitely a treatment that I would be happy to try from my point of diagnosis if I could go back - it just wasn't available for me then and people did initially have very different ideas of how and when to use it.

You might find the teen support forum here a really good place to talk with others your age about telling friends and dealing with this disease. Not that there aren't things common to all of us but it can be nice to talk to others who are closer in age. You'll find that here.

Wishing you all the best
 
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