U
UMGuy
Guest
Hello to all. I am new here. I suppose I should start out with my "story". This is the full story, so bear with me.
Throughout my young life I was very interested in magic. I spent countless hours in the local magic store (or what was the local magic store at the time) learning and practicing. Ironically a family member of the store owner to my knowledge also has some form of inflammatory bowel disease. At the age of 14 I attended a camp in upstate New York held at the Rochester Institute of Technology that specialized in magic. It was a 3 week camp for kids serious about performing and learning.
Anyways, while at camp I began having very serious GI issues. When I came home, my father, a gastroenterologist, suggested I get scoped. It was then that I was diagnosed.
Things got bad fast. Within a short period of time I was in a full-fledged flare, I managed to get kidney stones, and more. My school misunderstood my having to go to the bathroom constantly as me "wandering the hallways" because somebody would see me walking down the hallway either to or from the bathroom. They didn't bother to give me a chance to explain and told me that if I didn't get my act together they would not allow me to enroll the following year. By that point I was in 9th grade. During the same time I was put on prednisone and in a few years I ballooned up to 277 lbs. I had never been heavy at all during my life. The following year I was allowed back into school, but I decided to switch schools because my school was not accepting the fact that I was ill.
From the point that I switched schools to the point I graduated highschool we tried multiple medications. I ended up in the hospital from 6MP with pancreatitis. They put me on Pentasa and Flagyl and left me. I had to use prednisone for smaller periods of time all the way to when I graduated. My weight ballooned up and down. I tried my best to lose weight, but then I'd just go back on prednisone again.
Anyways, college came. I started college in Boston. Just an aside, my first day of college was 9/11. Right after Thanksgiving I became very ill for the first time in a while. I was soon hospitalized at Mass General with what they thought was an obstruction. I also had an infected loop of bowel (I forget the name for it).
When I finally left and came home I ended up in the hospital again. I did not return to school the following semester.
The next Fall I decided to try to continue, this time closer to home. I continued college at the University of Miami. About 2 years after starting, my Crohns was bad enough that we started trying other drugs. I was put on methotrexate. That didn't work. Then entocort, that didn't work. Then it was decided that I was going to need resection surgery and I had to withdraw from school. I had bowel resection surgery at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. I had hoped to get 5 years at least problem free.
A year later I was scoped and they found that I had the disease still, but it wasn't bad.
All of a sudden a few months ago I start having problems again. Quickly things got worse. I was in serious pain and went to the ER locally one night in September. It was then decided I wasn't going to be able to make it through the semester if I was as ill as I was.
So, I had to withdraw (too bad because I was supposed to graduate this semester). I'm now on Remicade, Entocort, Flagyl, and Cipro. I'm doing ok. Trying still to lose the weight of my prednisone past.
The whole thing is taking its toll on me emotionally. So I figure maybe talking with people who suffer from the same ailment might help me.
Throughout my young life I was very interested in magic. I spent countless hours in the local magic store (or what was the local magic store at the time) learning and practicing. Ironically a family member of the store owner to my knowledge also has some form of inflammatory bowel disease. At the age of 14 I attended a camp in upstate New York held at the Rochester Institute of Technology that specialized in magic. It was a 3 week camp for kids serious about performing and learning.
Anyways, while at camp I began having very serious GI issues. When I came home, my father, a gastroenterologist, suggested I get scoped. It was then that I was diagnosed.
Things got bad fast. Within a short period of time I was in a full-fledged flare, I managed to get kidney stones, and more. My school misunderstood my having to go to the bathroom constantly as me "wandering the hallways" because somebody would see me walking down the hallway either to or from the bathroom. They didn't bother to give me a chance to explain and told me that if I didn't get my act together they would not allow me to enroll the following year. By that point I was in 9th grade. During the same time I was put on prednisone and in a few years I ballooned up to 277 lbs. I had never been heavy at all during my life. The following year I was allowed back into school, but I decided to switch schools because my school was not accepting the fact that I was ill.
From the point that I switched schools to the point I graduated highschool we tried multiple medications. I ended up in the hospital from 6MP with pancreatitis. They put me on Pentasa and Flagyl and left me. I had to use prednisone for smaller periods of time all the way to when I graduated. My weight ballooned up and down. I tried my best to lose weight, but then I'd just go back on prednisone again.
Anyways, college came. I started college in Boston. Just an aside, my first day of college was 9/11. Right after Thanksgiving I became very ill for the first time in a while. I was soon hospitalized at Mass General with what they thought was an obstruction. I also had an infected loop of bowel (I forget the name for it).
When I finally left and came home I ended up in the hospital again. I did not return to school the following semester.
The next Fall I decided to try to continue, this time closer to home. I continued college at the University of Miami. About 2 years after starting, my Crohns was bad enough that we started trying other drugs. I was put on methotrexate. That didn't work. Then entocort, that didn't work. Then it was decided that I was going to need resection surgery and I had to withdraw from school. I had bowel resection surgery at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. I had hoped to get 5 years at least problem free.
A year later I was scoped and they found that I had the disease still, but it wasn't bad.
All of a sudden a few months ago I start having problems again. Quickly things got worse. I was in serious pain and went to the ER locally one night in September. It was then decided I wasn't going to be able to make it through the semester if I was as ill as I was.
So, I had to withdraw (too bad because I was supposed to graduate this semester). I'm now on Remicade, Entocort, Flagyl, and Cipro. I'm doing ok. Trying still to lose the weight of my prednisone past.
The whole thing is taking its toll on me emotionally. So I figure maybe talking with people who suffer from the same ailment might help me.
