Hey guys and girls,
12 months ago I had never heard of IBD or Crohn's, to be honest if i never heard the words again it would be too soon.
Lets start from the beginning, I'm a 25 year old male living in the UK with 2 small children and a lovely mother to match. I work in the motor industry as a salesman (yeah, tough times there, but we wont go into that now!) which i have been doing for the past three years. Well that's enough about my life, lets get to the thing we all have in common! CROHN'S
It all began about 2 years ago just before my youngest was born. As you can imagine starting a family is not the easiest of things financially. As my daughter was only about 8months old and with my son soon to arrive, we had to make a sacrifices with a few luxuries, one of which unfortunately was our monthly shop. As you can imagine my diet suffered a little and i started to get 'hunger pains' throughout the day. Me being the stubborn person that i am i didnt want to be a nuisance to the doctors as i knew he would just turn around and say that i needed to sort my diet out and everything would sort it self out.
Unfortunately this wasn't the case for me, I should of known I wouldn't be that lucky. The 'hunger pains' soon turned in to stomach cramps, still being the know it all I am I still didn't go to the doctors. Instead I done a little self diagnosis through research and speaking to people I know. Trough these methods I came up with the idea I had IBS. As some of you know the symptoms are very much the same, with no real treatment other than off the shelf pills. A few months later my mum came and visited for awhile, noticing how much weight I had lost she did what mothers are really good at, give me a really work over and ordering me to go to the doctors, of course I did what she told me.
When I went to the doctors I made the silly mistake of answering the question "what do you think the problem is"? Of course after I mentioned I thought it was IBS the doctors didn't really seem to interested and started to explain IBS and the way to live with it. Obviously I left feeling that was a waste of time as i already knew everything he told me. So I carried on with my life dealing with IBS as I have been. Months passed with no real improvement or worsening with my condition. Brilliant.
Yep, the story isn't over yet :boring
sorry this is where is starts getting good, well not really but you know where i'm heading). Last May i went away for our annual lads weekend. I was umming and erring about going as my sittuation had changed slightly with my 'IBS' as it made me throw up on the Wednesday night, as it was still two days till the weekend i though aghh F**K it let go i deserve a break! I took the weekend with a pinch of salt as i didnt want to go over the top and ruin the weekend for myself or the lads.
Everything was going really well until the Sunday afternoon, it was a really hot day and we were sitting in the beer garden knocking back a few Magners and ice when I started to feel a little queasy around 4pm. Knowing I am a stubborn Ba***rd I just stopped stopped drinking thinking I would feel better in a few hours and be able to see the rest of the night out. By 10pm I was feeling real s**t and decided I needed to call it a day. So I left the guys to it and proceeded to speed my night kneeling by the toilet. This carried on through out the night untill it was time to go home. As we set off home i had to stop driving every 15 minute to be sick, i decided it was probably for the best if i let someone else drive the rest of the way. When i got home i went straight to bed where i managed to get a few hours of sleep. In the morning i made an emergency appointment with the doc's. When i got there i saw a different doctor as mine was on his monthly holiday, anyway as it had gotten to the stage where i couldn't walk upright and was obviously in a lot of pain he referred me to hospital for emergency surgery with suspected appendicitis. When i got to hospital the doctors asked a few questions and finally diagnosed me with terminal ileal Crohn's disease and in need of a right hemicolectomy (to me its called cutting me open and removing a section of my bowels as they had blocked and died).
Right finally I now know that I have the lovely Crohns disease. After the operation I was placed on a ward to recover with tubes coming out of everywhere and being feed also by a tube for a week. This obviously had a diverse affect on my weight which dropped down to 8st (formerly 13st).
Finally I recovered and things were great I was no longer tired, moody and my life finally felt the way it always did. BRILLIANT!!!
Anyway 9 months down the line i have had my second endoscopy which has brought to my attention that my Crohn's is now back, still in the early stages but we are now re-talking the option of medication as i turned it down last time due to me being stubborn and knowing what is best! Guess what i know shit!!
Well that's my story, sorry if has gone on a bit, I am not really one to open up to strangers but as i cant see you and you can't tell me to shut up its hard to stop. If this forum doesnt give you any answers learn a little from me. Talk to people, dont think you know it all and dont let things get as bad as i did, as they can get a lot worse.
Cheers:yrolleyes:
12 months ago I had never heard of IBD or Crohn's, to be honest if i never heard the words again it would be too soon.
Lets start from the beginning, I'm a 25 year old male living in the UK with 2 small children and a lovely mother to match. I work in the motor industry as a salesman (yeah, tough times there, but we wont go into that now!) which i have been doing for the past three years. Well that's enough about my life, lets get to the thing we all have in common! CROHN'S
It all began about 2 years ago just before my youngest was born. As you can imagine starting a family is not the easiest of things financially. As my daughter was only about 8months old and with my son soon to arrive, we had to make a sacrifices with a few luxuries, one of which unfortunately was our monthly shop. As you can imagine my diet suffered a little and i started to get 'hunger pains' throughout the day. Me being the stubborn person that i am i didnt want to be a nuisance to the doctors as i knew he would just turn around and say that i needed to sort my diet out and everything would sort it self out.
Unfortunately this wasn't the case for me, I should of known I wouldn't be that lucky. The 'hunger pains' soon turned in to stomach cramps, still being the know it all I am I still didn't go to the doctors. Instead I done a little self diagnosis through research and speaking to people I know. Trough these methods I came up with the idea I had IBS. As some of you know the symptoms are very much the same, with no real treatment other than off the shelf pills. A few months later my mum came and visited for awhile, noticing how much weight I had lost she did what mothers are really good at, give me a really work over and ordering me to go to the doctors, of course I did what she told me.
When I went to the doctors I made the silly mistake of answering the question "what do you think the problem is"? Of course after I mentioned I thought it was IBS the doctors didn't really seem to interested and started to explain IBS and the way to live with it. Obviously I left feeling that was a waste of time as i already knew everything he told me. So I carried on with my life dealing with IBS as I have been. Months passed with no real improvement or worsening with my condition. Brilliant.
Yep, the story isn't over yet :boring
sorry this is where is starts getting good, well not really but you know where i'm heading). Last May i went away for our annual lads weekend. I was umming and erring about going as my sittuation had changed slightly with my 'IBS' as it made me throw up on the Wednesday night, as it was still two days till the weekend i though aghh F**K it let go i deserve a break! I took the weekend with a pinch of salt as i didnt want to go over the top and ruin the weekend for myself or the lads. Everything was going really well until the Sunday afternoon, it was a really hot day and we were sitting in the beer garden knocking back a few Magners and ice when I started to feel a little queasy around 4pm. Knowing I am a stubborn Ba***rd I just stopped stopped drinking thinking I would feel better in a few hours and be able to see the rest of the night out. By 10pm I was feeling real s**t and decided I needed to call it a day. So I left the guys to it and proceeded to speed my night kneeling by the toilet. This carried on through out the night untill it was time to go home. As we set off home i had to stop driving every 15 minute to be sick, i decided it was probably for the best if i let someone else drive the rest of the way. When i got home i went straight to bed where i managed to get a few hours of sleep. In the morning i made an emergency appointment with the doc's. When i got there i saw a different doctor as mine was on his monthly holiday, anyway as it had gotten to the stage where i couldn't walk upright and was obviously in a lot of pain he referred me to hospital for emergency surgery with suspected appendicitis. When i got to hospital the doctors asked a few questions and finally diagnosed me with terminal ileal Crohn's disease and in need of a right hemicolectomy (to me its called cutting me open and removing a section of my bowels as they had blocked and died).
Right finally I now know that I have the lovely Crohns disease. After the operation I was placed on a ward to recover with tubes coming out of everywhere and being feed also by a tube for a week. This obviously had a diverse affect on my weight which dropped down to 8st (formerly 13st).
Finally I recovered and things were great I was no longer tired, moody and my life finally felt the way it always did. BRILLIANT!!!
Anyway 9 months down the line i have had my second endoscopy which has brought to my attention that my Crohn's is now back, still in the early stages but we are now re-talking the option of medication as i turned it down last time due to me being stubborn and knowing what is best! Guess what i know shit!!
Well that's my story, sorry if has gone on a bit, I am not really one to open up to strangers but as i cant see you and you can't tell me to shut up its hard to stop. If this forum doesnt give you any answers learn a little from me. Talk to people, dont think you know it all and dont let things get as bad as i did, as they can get a lot worse.
Cheers:yrolleyes:
