It all started at 4 a.m. July 2010. I woke up to excruciating pain, fever chills and diarrhea. Of course I thought I had the flu. Suffered for two days. I finally asked my husband to take me to the ER. They did blood tests, ct scan with contrast and an ultrasound of my gall bladder. The ER doc thought for sure I was having a gall bladder attack. Tests were negative. After several hours there, I remembered to tell him I was diagnosed with diverticulosis 5 years ago from a colonoscopy. It was like a light bulb went off. He said it was diverticulitis, gave me some antibiotics and sent me home. The antibiotics near about killed me. I had the tests forwarded to my gastro doctor. She said it wasn't diverticulitis but that I had a virus. Ok fine. Things got better. Eleven months later 4 a.m. on June 5th, I awakened to the same symptoms. This time they were far more intense. Thought to myself, this can't be a virus again. Called my gastro doc. She sent me for another ct scan to rule out any blockage. She called me that night with the results. Saw no diverticulitis but asked if anyone in my family had Crohn's. I told her my mother, sister and daughter were all diagnosed with Crohn's. She said she was 90% sure that's what I had but couldn't be 100% sure until I had a colonoscopy. She didn't want to prescribe prednisone. She put me on Pentasa that evening. After 3 dosed of that, the diarrhea was 10 times worse. I stopped taking it and called her office. Her receptionist was telling me for 3 days there were no appointments to go to the ER. This was unacceptable to me. That night, my husband took me to the ER. I told the ER doc that my gastro was 90% sure it was Crohn's. He disagrred as I'm 60 yrs. old and he said I would have been diagnosed long before this age. The blood test that is perforemd to show if you had Crohn's was normal not elevated. My husband called the gastro doc's answering service from the ER and asked that she call back. She did and spoke with the ER doc on my husband's cell phone. They both agreed I shoul go home with Flagyl or Cipro the 2 antibiotics that nearly killed me last Summer. I declined. The ER doc told me I could take up tp 6 Imodium in an hour. I told him the directions said 4 in a 24 hour time period. Imodium wasn't working anyway. I came home a little after midnight with no relief. By 1:00 p.m. the next day I lost it. Going to the bathroom constantly. Doing sitz baths, baby wipes and my grandson's diaper rash cream. As soon as you are cleaned up it starts again. I called my internist. He put me on Prednisone and told me it was time to get a new gastro doc. Pred got the diarrhea under control. I have an appoinment with a new gastro doctor this Thursday. I don't know how to eat. High fiber for diverticulosis low fiber for Crohn's. Trying to stay in the middle. Any info would be helpful. Thanks for listening.
Regina
Regina
