So here I am… another unwilling member of the Crohn's Club. Boo Hoo.
Diagnosed yesterday. Background history… IBS for 40+ years, since my early twenties. Got worse with each passing year. Have traveled all of Europe and the US and can point out every underpass, overpass, bridge, ditch, bush, outbuilding… you name it… that I've had to use to relieve myself. It's a sad, sad thing when one's entire life revolves around knowing where the closest bathroom is.
So about ten years ago I had my first colonoscopy and a humongous 6 cm precancerous polyp was discovered. Had to have it surgically resected, entirely too large to attempt with the scope loop. From then on it was every two years for a colonoscopy. New polyps each time, but no more monsters. Was told I had some very significant diverticulitis along with quite a bit of ulcerative colitis and IBD. Endoscopy also performed two years ago and to my great surprise, I was also diagnosed with GERD, Barretts Esophagus and a large, deep gastric ulcer. Never had any GERD symptoms, not even heartburn in my life. EVER. But there it was. What a shocker that was!
On to the present. For the past two months, I've had some serious issues. Complete and total reversal in bowel habits. From my usual 3-4 times a day, soft to loose stools and/or diarrhea or dumping syndrome to NOTHING. No stools. NADA. Had to resort to using Miralax just to go at all. ME? Using Miralax? What kind of joke is that??? :eek2: And then could only go once a week… occasionally in between just a few bee-bee sized pellets, shreds, or "shoe string potato" poops after a whole lot of straining. A lot of severe abdominal pain, EVERYWHERE and hyper motility of my bowels, CRAZY loud bowel sounds ALL the time….like fireworks going off in there. No nausea/vomiting.
Add to that a sudden drop of weight amounting to 25 lbs. in two months. Insanity. Discovered a large lymph node in my neck at the same time all this was happening. My dad had NHL and was what took him in the end. So yeh..I was getting concerned. Finally decided I had enough, knew something was amiss and needed it addressed. Soon. Before I withered away.
Met with my PCP who ran all the bloodwork… nothing out of the ordinary. She was concerned with the node as well, sent me to the surgeon to have it biopsied so we'd know something definitive. Surgeon unwilling to biopsy as it was sitting on top of my carotid (I get that, kinda need those carotids after all!) :tongue: and sent me for a CT scan instead. Nothing showed up on the scan… not even the enlarged node which remains quite palpable to all! So they referred me back to my GI, whom I saw yesterday and filled him in on all the recent events and changes. Oh….including the two times I lost complete control of my bowels last week… once in WMart (oh horror!) and once in the car on the way home from work. (My worst nightmare of 40+ had finally come to pass.) It was then that he informed me that I had progressed to Crohn's. After all the years of damage to my "innards" with the IBS, IBD, etc., this is the end result. He started me on Mesalamine and wants to see me back in a week. So here I am. Whee. NOT.:ymad:
I imagine he will run some diagnostic tests or another scope (just had one, though, last summer) but surely he'd want to visualize any Crohn's and not just assume, right? He is excellent, I've been with him over ten years, and he's QUITE thorough and finds things all the others miss, so I do have a lot of confidence in him. So we'll see how it goes from here.
The only thing is, I've never had any of the really BAD BAD stuff I've heard of re Crohn's. Never had any rectal bleeding, no bloody stools, and no 10-12 loose stools a day. Have had D most of my life, a lot of cramping and discomfort, a LOT of urgency... and a lot of dumping syndrome after a big meal... but not the horrific symptoms I see described here.
So that's "my story". Needless to say, I have packed myself a lovely "diaper bag" with plenty of Depends, baby wipes, and full change of clothes. How exciting. A woman always can use another new bag, right? *henh*
I just turned 65, btw. Am a nurse and still working, although no longer running the roads (Home Health).. decided 5 years ago the office was a safer option for me due to the GI issues. I was hoping to retire in a few years and do a lot of traveling. Hmmmm…. not looking so promising right now.
Glad to have found this forum and hope to gain some insight into this nasty disease, and means of managing things as best I can. I've always been told I was FOS, so I guess they were right all along, yes? :lol::ybatty:
Diagnosed yesterday. Background history… IBS for 40+ years, since my early twenties. Got worse with each passing year. Have traveled all of Europe and the US and can point out every underpass, overpass, bridge, ditch, bush, outbuilding… you name it… that I've had to use to relieve myself. It's a sad, sad thing when one's entire life revolves around knowing where the closest bathroom is.
So about ten years ago I had my first colonoscopy and a humongous 6 cm precancerous polyp was discovered. Had to have it surgically resected, entirely too large to attempt with the scope loop. From then on it was every two years for a colonoscopy. New polyps each time, but no more monsters. Was told I had some very significant diverticulitis along with quite a bit of ulcerative colitis and IBD. Endoscopy also performed two years ago and to my great surprise, I was also diagnosed with GERD, Barretts Esophagus and a large, deep gastric ulcer. Never had any GERD symptoms, not even heartburn in my life. EVER. But there it was. What a shocker that was!
On to the present. For the past two months, I've had some serious issues. Complete and total reversal in bowel habits. From my usual 3-4 times a day, soft to loose stools and/or diarrhea or dumping syndrome to NOTHING. No stools. NADA. Had to resort to using Miralax just to go at all. ME? Using Miralax? What kind of joke is that??? :eek2: And then could only go once a week… occasionally in between just a few bee-bee sized pellets, shreds, or "shoe string potato" poops after a whole lot of straining. A lot of severe abdominal pain, EVERYWHERE and hyper motility of my bowels, CRAZY loud bowel sounds ALL the time….like fireworks going off in there. No nausea/vomiting.
Add to that a sudden drop of weight amounting to 25 lbs. in two months. Insanity. Discovered a large lymph node in my neck at the same time all this was happening. My dad had NHL and was what took him in the end. So yeh..I was getting concerned. Finally decided I had enough, knew something was amiss and needed it addressed. Soon. Before I withered away.
Met with my PCP who ran all the bloodwork… nothing out of the ordinary. She was concerned with the node as well, sent me to the surgeon to have it biopsied so we'd know something definitive. Surgeon unwilling to biopsy as it was sitting on top of my carotid (I get that, kinda need those carotids after all!) :tongue: and sent me for a CT scan instead. Nothing showed up on the scan… not even the enlarged node which remains quite palpable to all! So they referred me back to my GI, whom I saw yesterday and filled him in on all the recent events and changes. Oh….including the two times I lost complete control of my bowels last week… once in WMart (oh horror!) and once in the car on the way home from work. (My worst nightmare of 40+ had finally come to pass.) It was then that he informed me that I had progressed to Crohn's. After all the years of damage to my "innards" with the IBS, IBD, etc., this is the end result. He started me on Mesalamine and wants to see me back in a week. So here I am. Whee. NOT.:ymad:
I imagine he will run some diagnostic tests or another scope (just had one, though, last summer) but surely he'd want to visualize any Crohn's and not just assume, right? He is excellent, I've been with him over ten years, and he's QUITE thorough and finds things all the others miss, so I do have a lot of confidence in him. So we'll see how it goes from here.
The only thing is, I've never had any of the really BAD BAD stuff I've heard of re Crohn's. Never had any rectal bleeding, no bloody stools, and no 10-12 loose stools a day. Have had D most of my life, a lot of cramping and discomfort, a LOT of urgency... and a lot of dumping syndrome after a big meal... but not the horrific symptoms I see described here.
So that's "my story". Needless to say, I have packed myself a lovely "diaper bag" with plenty of Depends, baby wipes, and full change of clothes. How exciting. A woman always can use another new bag, right? *henh*
I just turned 65, btw. Am a nurse and still working, although no longer running the roads (Home Health).. decided 5 years ago the office was a safer option for me due to the GI issues. I was hoping to retire in a few years and do a lot of traveling. Hmmmm…. not looking so promising right now.
Glad to have found this forum and hope to gain some insight into this nasty disease, and means of managing things as best I can. I've always been told I was FOS, so I guess they were right all along, yes? :lol::ybatty:
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