Friend of a Crohn's Patient

[ErikaB]

Hello All,

I joined this forum because I have a very close friend who has struggled with Crohns for many years now. He just recently went in for his (hopefully) last procedure to help with this disease. I am not sure what it is called, but I know the first procedure he had done was to bypass his colon. He had a bag on his hip that his intestines would empty into. About a week ago, the doctors decided he had been well enough to have the bag removed and his stomach closed back up. For as long as I've known him to have the disease he has been prescribed pain meds, (Vicodine, Percocet, Hydrocodone, etc.) as well as Promethazine for the nausea. Since his last surgery, they have only given him Ibuprofen 800. He has been in and out of the hospital for the last week because he keeps getting sick, is having body tremors, and complaining that he can't get comfortable and is in a lot of pain. The doctors continue to send him home because they cannot find anything wrong with him. They have told him that he should not still be getting sick since he has had those surgeries. Could he be withdrawing from the pain meds because he has taken them for so long? If so, how do we approach him regarding it? He is so convinced that there is something wrong and the doctors are missing it. Any advice on this situation would be extremely helpful! Thank you.

 

[chrisnsteph1022]

It's entirely possible to have a flare after surgery. Removing the colon does not cure Crohn's. 50% of people that have surgery end up having another surgery within 10 years. He knows his body better than anyone and if he feels something is wrong, he needs to fight for an answer.

 

[DustyKat]

Hi and :welcome:

First up he should not be taking Iboprufen, it is a NSAID and contraindicated with Crohn's disease so he needs to get off that. Aside from the side effects they can cause to the gut some people do get stomach pain from the NSAID type drugs.

He is still very early post op so pain is going to be an issue for a little while yet and he should probably be on something far more appropriate to what they have prescribed him. I don't know his history of use with the narcotics you mentioned so I'm not sure if he is having withdrawals or not.

Obviously something is going on and as Stephanie has said he needs to fight for an answer regardless of the cause. Yes, pain is normal post op but not that level of pain...

How long was he in hospital following surgery?

Dusty. xxx

 

[ErikaB]

He was only in the hospital for one day after surgery and then sent home. It was done at USC. If he did have a flare after the surgery, wouldn't the doctors be able to find it? He and his wife have both told me they have ran every test necessary and cannot find anything wrong. As for the painkillers, he was getting 120 Vicodin every month and they were only lasting him a few weeks. He was taking more than the recommended dosage.

 

[chrisnsteph1022]

Wow, going from 4-5/day to none? I'd say he probably is going through withdrawals. I didn't catch the part about the ibuprofen. He definitely needs to get off those. That's a big no-no for Crohnies.

To answer your other question, sometimes Crohn's can be tricky to find. For some people, it hides in the small bowel where no scope can reach. Though being a week post-op, it could just be post-op pain. I've never had that surgery, so I'm not sure how painful it is.

 

[DustyKat]

One day!

Okay so the docs said he was well enough but he was using narcotics to control pain. I think the only way to get to the bottom of it is to work out why he was taking the meds if the docs thought he was well.

What Crohn's meds is/was he taking and did they say he was in remission or that they had brought the inflammation under control? If he was in remission/under control he well may still have pain but perhaps not to extent that he apparently did. If that was the case then you can't dismiss that he has an addiction.
The doctors would have been able to see what was going on when they did the reversal and if was suitable to proceed with it. He should have had tests done prior to his surgery...bloods and scans...for the doctors to make that the decision to operate. I hope so anyway!

Dusty. xxx

 

[ErikaB]

He did have tests ran prior to the surgery however, I do not know which ones. From what his wife has told me, "all the tests". I'm assuming that means the ones necessary to decide if he was ready for surgery. Prior to surgery, he had gone almost a year without any problems. He had the first surgery last year before Christmas and hasn't had problems since. I asked his wife about the Ibuprofen and she said that he never took any because he doesn't believe it will help with the pain. He thinks that he needs something stronger. When she spoke with his doctor at USC he told her that she needs to stop saying that he has Crohns because that's not what he has anymore. I'm not sure if that was his way of saying that he was in remission or saying that he wasn't sick anymore? I'll have to get more info on that when I talk to her next.