Hello everyone,
while i have been dealing with Crohn's related pain for around six months now I wanted to share my story with all of you and get an advice/reaction to it.
Here it goes.
In late August I went off to college for the first time. I came from the west coast to michigan, and the first night at school had a horrible overdrinking episode. I completely blacked out for 5 hours and was throwing up constantly for around 12 hours. The next day I was throwing up incessantly and had terrible stomach pains. I obviously thought these were hangover pains. However the next night my stomach pains were still terrible. I decided to head to the ER, where I was given 2 IVs and morphine and had blood and urine taken, and an ultrasound. The ultrasound was normal, as was everything but my Alkaline Phosphate level in my liver. The doctors said I had gastritis and prescribed me omeprazole, an acid blocker, for the pain. Over the next week or so I slowly began to feel better. The next week was rush for fraternities and I decided to suck it up and try and drink. However this made me feel even worse. After a month without relief I went to see a GI. He told me to stop drinking and ordered me an endoscopy, which again showed nothing--though he did not take a biopsy. He said I had IBS and gave me Levbid and then Librax, both of which did nothing. Finally in November, without relief, and having lost 12 pounds and beginning to feel depression from my illness I came home from college to get better care.
I went to a new GI in November who did a colonoscopy which showed a few pinpoint ulcers in my lower part of my small intestine. At the time he prescribed nothing. The pain continued steadily until I had a Capsule Endoscopy in January. This showed more pinpoint ulcers higher up in my small intestine. My doctor told me I had something like Crohn's, but wouldn't give me a definite diagnosis. He gave me Pentasa 4x a day for the pain. This seemed to work for a while, but after a month I began to have terrible headaches and he stopped the meds. I then had a gastric emptying test which was again normal. A few weeks ago I switched to a pediatric GI at UCSF in San Francisco. My doctor is 1 million times more focused on me than any other doctor this far. He ordered blood and stool tests quickly and has stated he is confident he will find what is wrong and get me into remission. Two days after that, I had to go to the ER for terrible stomach pain. I was screaming from pain, couldn't hold down even liquids and rushed to the ER. They kept me overnight and did an MRI of my abdomen, called an MRE, then next morning. This only showed inflamed lymph nodes in the stomach, I don't think Crohn's related but possibly a flare. The doc prescribed me Flaygl for 2 weeks which I just finished, Apriso for Crohn's, Omeprazole for acid reduction and tramadol for any pain. I have a HUGE endoscopy/colonoscopy on Tuesday that I am quite nervous for, because I want to figure out the cause of my problems.
Getting to my specific problems, my current symptoms are as follows (long list):
Stomach visible bloating hard to press, pain in upper stomach above belly button right after eating for around an hour-3 hours. My pain quiets when I don't eat for a while.
Dark Urine (maybe just need to drink more water bc of Crohn's)
Night Sweats (occasional, new since stomach problems)
Pain and discomfort lingers all day in upper stomach but is much worse after meals
Changed Stools: Seems like undigested food, yellow, have to go many times a day though not diarrhea. Well formed, though sometimes ribbon like and always feel like not relieving self or finishing bm. Sometimes blood, sometimes muccus. Always ribboning at end of bm and undigested. Feel worse after bms for around 30 min. Big Issue
Pain where stool is when making bm, like inflammation blocking stool from exiting colon.
Feel better when I eat less or more plainly.
Current Meds:
Apriso 1x/day 4 pills in morning
omeprazole 1x/day
lexapro 10 mg 1x/day
(Just finished flaygl for 2 weeks)
I would love some feedback on what people think is going on and some advice. Really lost. I have pain constantly that I NEVER had before august and want to lead a normal life. Some days are better than others and I don't know why. There is no pattern, drinking doesn't seem to upset it, sometimes I even feel better the next day because it seems to flush me out. Not sure if this is Crohn's or something else. Please help me out
B
P.S. My Father has Crohn's and had IBS in his twenties
Also had a food poisioning incident in the DR this summer that possibly could have caused something? Just a thought.
Thanks for the replies!
while i have been dealing with Crohn's related pain for around six months now I wanted to share my story with all of you and get an advice/reaction to it.
Here it goes.
In late August I went off to college for the first time. I came from the west coast to michigan, and the first night at school had a horrible overdrinking episode. I completely blacked out for 5 hours and was throwing up constantly for around 12 hours. The next day I was throwing up incessantly and had terrible stomach pains. I obviously thought these were hangover pains. However the next night my stomach pains were still terrible. I decided to head to the ER, where I was given 2 IVs and morphine and had blood and urine taken, and an ultrasound. The ultrasound was normal, as was everything but my Alkaline Phosphate level in my liver. The doctors said I had gastritis and prescribed me omeprazole, an acid blocker, for the pain. Over the next week or so I slowly began to feel better. The next week was rush for fraternities and I decided to suck it up and try and drink. However this made me feel even worse. After a month without relief I went to see a GI. He told me to stop drinking and ordered me an endoscopy, which again showed nothing--though he did not take a biopsy. He said I had IBS and gave me Levbid and then Librax, both of which did nothing. Finally in November, without relief, and having lost 12 pounds and beginning to feel depression from my illness I came home from college to get better care.
I went to a new GI in November who did a colonoscopy which showed a few pinpoint ulcers in my lower part of my small intestine. At the time he prescribed nothing. The pain continued steadily until I had a Capsule Endoscopy in January. This showed more pinpoint ulcers higher up in my small intestine. My doctor told me I had something like Crohn's, but wouldn't give me a definite diagnosis. He gave me Pentasa 4x a day for the pain. This seemed to work for a while, but after a month I began to have terrible headaches and he stopped the meds. I then had a gastric emptying test which was again normal. A few weeks ago I switched to a pediatric GI at UCSF in San Francisco. My doctor is 1 million times more focused on me than any other doctor this far. He ordered blood and stool tests quickly and has stated he is confident he will find what is wrong and get me into remission. Two days after that, I had to go to the ER for terrible stomach pain. I was screaming from pain, couldn't hold down even liquids and rushed to the ER. They kept me overnight and did an MRI of my abdomen, called an MRE, then next morning. This only showed inflamed lymph nodes in the stomach, I don't think Crohn's related but possibly a flare. The doc prescribed me Flaygl for 2 weeks which I just finished, Apriso for Crohn's, Omeprazole for acid reduction and tramadol for any pain. I have a HUGE endoscopy/colonoscopy on Tuesday that I am quite nervous for, because I want to figure out the cause of my problems.
Getting to my specific problems, my current symptoms are as follows (long list):
Stomach visible bloating hard to press, pain in upper stomach above belly button right after eating for around an hour-3 hours. My pain quiets when I don't eat for a while.
Dark Urine (maybe just need to drink more water bc of Crohn's)
Night Sweats (occasional, new since stomach problems)
Pain and discomfort lingers all day in upper stomach but is much worse after meals
Changed Stools: Seems like undigested food, yellow, have to go many times a day though not diarrhea. Well formed, though sometimes ribbon like and always feel like not relieving self or finishing bm. Sometimes blood, sometimes muccus. Always ribboning at end of bm and undigested. Feel worse after bms for around 30 min. Big Issue
Pain where stool is when making bm, like inflammation blocking stool from exiting colon.
Feel better when I eat less or more plainly.
Current Meds:
Apriso 1x/day 4 pills in morning
omeprazole 1x/day
lexapro 10 mg 1x/day
(Just finished flaygl for 2 weeks)
I would love some feedback on what people think is going on and some advice. Really lost. I have pain constantly that I NEVER had before august and want to lead a normal life. Some days are better than others and I don't know why. There is no pattern, drinking doesn't seem to upset it, sometimes I even feel better the next day because it seems to flush me out. Not sure if this is Crohn's or something else. Please help me out
B
P.S. My Father has Crohn's and had IBS in his twenties
Also had a food poisioning incident in the DR this summer that possibly could have caused something? Just a thought.
Thanks for the replies!
