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First Flare Up In 3 Years :(

I thought I was over this.

I was doing well without any sort of treatment for about a year. About two months ago, I started noticing pain in my upper abdomen while/after eating. I didn't think about it too much, because it wasn't accompanied by any other symptoms.

A week ago, the diarrhea struck. And the joint pain. And the fatigue. The upper abdominal pain is now about at about an 8/10. I moved to a new state, so I'm now trying to get a new specialist and I can't decipher my blood tests.

C-REACTIVE PROTEIN
Your Value - 5.2
Standard Range - 0 to 0.8

SED RATE WESTERGREN
Your Value - 58
Standard Range - 0 to 20

My PCP says that there doesn't appear to be any tenderness in the area where I'm having my waves of upper abdominal pain and it's so different from my first flare up, which was mostly just cramps and frequent diarrhea.

I do not know what is happening and I'm scared.
 

Trysha

Moderator
Staff member
Hello Izzy
Sorry to hear of your problems and hope you will soon find a good GI specialist.
Your sed rate is rather high and your CRP is raised also.Both can be indicative of inflammation in the body.
It is possible that you are beginning to flare---time for a new GI
Feel better soon
Hugs and bestwishes
Trysha
 

Jennifer

Adminstrator
Staff member
Location
SLO
Unfortunately most people do need maintenance medication to keep them in remission. Diet alone only does so much but we're dealing with an autoimmune disorder here. Never ignore new symptoms, no matter how slight and keep in contact with your specialist even if you aren't accepting medication from them. They can still run blood work and other tests to make sure that your condition doesn't get too far out of control. Unfortunately there is no cure yet so none of us can be over it. We're all in the same boat. Keep us posted on your test results. I take 6MP too. What dose did they give you?
 
If your doctor or when your doctor gives tells u about needing to take drugs again, go for the maintenance drugs. no hardcore drugs Unless u already tried them all. I hope u get better and don't end up in a flare. I keep going into remission and get this feeling of it coming back, which it has a few times. its really awful because you remember how it felt to be in one. try to stay stress free.
 
Unfortunately most people do need maintenance medication to keep them in remission. Diet alone only does so much but we're dealing with an autoimmune disorder here. Never ignore new symptoms, no matter how slight and keep in contact with your specialist even if you aren't accepting medication from them. They can still run blood work and other tests to make sure that your condition doesn't get too far out of control. Unfortunately there is no cure yet so none of us can be over it. We're all in the same boat. Keep us posted on your test results. I take 6MP too. What dose did they give you?
Thanks for the advice, Crabby. I recently moved to a new state and hopped from insurance plan to insurance plan, so I didn't have a GI to fall back on. My original symptoms didn't feel Crohn's related, as it was restricted to slight pain in my upper abdominal region immediately after eating. The flare up hit very suddenly last week and I got in to the doctor as soon as possible.

I'm knee-deep in Movi Prep at the moment. The new GI wants to get me back on Remicade for some reason, but it was so expensive and time consuming and I'm not sure if it will fly. Pentasa has never worked for me, as it went right through me.
 

Jennifer

Adminstrator
Staff member
Location
SLO
Oh my. Hope something works for you! So sorry about the prep, its sucks hard, I know. :( Let us know what they find though! :)
 
You may want to consider Cimzia. They have a program called CimPay, which covers the cost your insurance doesn't. I have been on it for 2 yrs now and have yet to pay anything out of pocket! I know some docs are skeptical about it but I have never had any problems and it worked better for me than Remicaide. Good Luck and hope you feel better soon!
 
Still flaring. I've been on 6MP since April and it hasn't done much of anything. The gastro is finally putting me on Entocort and working on getting me transfered to a doctor who can actually prescribe biologics. I'm so frustrated that she didn't do this earlier. Biologics have been the only treatments that put any sort of long-term dent in my flare.

My upper abdomen is giving me a hell of a time. I'm experiencing radiating, burning pain starting about two inches below the sternum. My gastro thinks it's mild gastritis given the results of my endoscopy, but this feels anything but mild. I'm convinced something is wrong with my pancreas.

Sorry for venting.
 
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