G'day everyone,
I'm a 27 year old guy from Australia, diagnosed with Crohn's in December 2004. At first I refused to believe it and after about 6 months on mesalazine/prednisone I took myself off my meds.
I felt pretty good for the next few years, having only a few "flares", which I convinced myself were not Crohn's related (as I had assured myself that I didn't have Crohn's). In 2008 I travelled the world with my girlfriend, and in December had a serious attack, which I put it down to food poisoning. I never really recovered from this flare and finally decided to see another gastro when I got home.
During this time I had what I thought was a haemorrhoid, which hadn't gone away for a couple of months despite treating it. I'd never had one before so didn't know what they looked like.
Turns out it was a fistula. I had a colonoscopy and was most definitely convinced that I had Crohn's. I had a seton put in place for the fistula and have been on mesalazine for the past year and prescribed Budesonide (Entocort) this week.
I'm having a particularly nasty flare at the moment (everything I eat comes back up due to the pain it causes). I am booked in for an MRI scan of my small bowel on Oct 27th, so hopefully that will show what is going on.
Because I was in denial for so long, I probably damaged my bowel by not treating the Crohn's. Finding this forum has allowed me to learn more about Crohn's and how people deal with it.
That's my story... I can't believe how foolish I was by not recognising that I had a disease. I'm glad that I'm now finally getting treatment.
Cheers,
Winemaker.
I'm a 27 year old guy from Australia, diagnosed with Crohn's in December 2004. At first I refused to believe it and after about 6 months on mesalazine/prednisone I took myself off my meds.
I felt pretty good for the next few years, having only a few "flares", which I convinced myself were not Crohn's related (as I had assured myself that I didn't have Crohn's). In 2008 I travelled the world with my girlfriend, and in December had a serious attack, which I put it down to food poisoning. I never really recovered from this flare and finally decided to see another gastro when I got home.
During this time I had what I thought was a haemorrhoid, which hadn't gone away for a couple of months despite treating it. I'd never had one before so didn't know what they looked like.
Turns out it was a fistula. I had a colonoscopy and was most definitely convinced that I had Crohn's. I had a seton put in place for the fistula and have been on mesalazine for the past year and prescribed Budesonide (Entocort) this week.
I'm having a particularly nasty flare at the moment (everything I eat comes back up due to the pain it causes). I am booked in for an MRI scan of my small bowel on Oct 27th, so hopefully that will show what is going on.
Because I was in denial for so long, I probably damaged my bowel by not treating the Crohn's. Finding this forum has allowed me to learn more about Crohn's and how people deal with it.
That's my story... I can't believe how foolish I was by not recognising that I had a disease. I'm glad that I'm now finally getting treatment.
Cheers,
Winemaker.