Guidance pls :'(

[Lisa Marie]

Hi everyone I need some help. I am 23 years old and ave had crohnes since 6/2010 . I've Experienced 2 last one was 6 months ago. I am scheduled for surgery in 3 weeks but I'm so stressed and confused. I am not a typical crohnes patient. Im currently in remission. I have trouble going to the bathroom most of the time constipated and bloated my stool doesn't come out to soft .Is that normal for a crohnes patient? i was told by my gi dr that my small intestine ilium is narrow due to scar tissue the only way for opening is surgery.. Do I do surgery now?or wait till my net ubstruction? How big are the scars? and will it worses my crohnes? Sorry so many questions but I'm a little nervous:sign0085:

 

[Trysha]

Hello Lisa
Welcome to the forum.
It certainly is a worrying time for you and I feel your pain.
From the information you have given it looks as if you need the surgery before you obstruct.
Some crohn's patients do have constipation as you have described, and I am one of them.
I put off accepting treatment for so long and now today have been forced to accept the crohn's will not get better on its own, in fact will get worse without some intervention.At least I have not reached the surgery stage---yet.
So I have reluctantly agreed to Remicade therapy, not happy about it though.
I cannot answer some of your questions, since I have not experienced crohns surgery but I am sure there will be others on this forum who do have the experience and knowledge to answer you.
Feel better soon
Hugs and best wishes
Trysha

 

[Angrybird]

Hello Lisa and welcome to the forum, am glad you have decided to join. The fact that you have narrowing due to scarring means you are already experiencing an obstruction even though it is partial at the moment, unfortunately the only way to sort this is surgery to cut it out as meds etc cannot sort scar tissue. I had my first op last year and the docs always now try to do this type of surgery via key hole and I must say for me this surgery went a lot better than I thought it would, I have 3 small scars and the one through my belly button is now hardly noticable.

There is of course a bit of scarring left behind from the op itself but the key is then to try and keep the crohns and inflammation at bay be it by meds or by trying the diet route. Leading up to this what had been your treatment regime?

AB
xx

 

[Lisa Marie]

Thank you for you replies I really appreciate them.. And iv been on all sorts of meds I tried remicade and broke out all over so switched to humira and it caused muscular pain all over my boy called ( fibromyalgia) :/ so iv ad a tough road with meds..accupuncture has put me in remission, I go 2-3 times a week utunfortunatley It can't take care of the scar tissue. So I'm tied between a hard decision

 

[David]

Hi Lisa,

I agree with the others above. When you have scarring due to stricturing, surgery is usually the best option and doing it when you are in remission is the better time to do it as studies show it will increase the chances you stay in remission for longer than if your surgery came when you were in a flare.

It's good to have you here

 

[Lisa Marie]

Thanks David having you guys give me some advice really brings my spirits up I was a stress basket a couple days ago