Hello 
My name is Angela, I'm 13 years old and was diagnosed with Crohn's disease on December 2, 2011. The only reason I remember the date is because it was 10 days before my birthday :frown: Talk about horrible gifts :/ In March-April of 2011 I visited my mom in the hospital (she has a lot of health problems too) and picked up a nasty case of roto virus. Even after it was gone I was still having bad cramping/pains, especially after I ate. I dealt with them and figured that since I was always sicker than the average bear, it was just taking a while to run it's course.
By November I was fed up with it and finally broke down and let my mom take me to a GI doctor, who ordered blood work, an endoscopy and colonoscopy. The worst part is honestly the prep, unless you enjoy sitting on toilets all dayoo: . I was knocked out for it, which is a good thing because that's not really something I'd like to be awake for. They found out that my terminal ileum was almost swollen shut, and made the diagnosis of Crohn's.
They put me on budesonide, which worked for about a month but the cramps came back with a vengeance. They started 6mp and switched me to prednisone, but that didn't work either and soon enough I was in the E.R. They gave us a prescription for Vicodin and sent us home, since my doctor was out of town and his partner wouldn't answer the calls. A few days later my doctor got back and I saw him and ended up getting admitted to the hospital. I had another colonoscopy and I was told I would be having surgery, but they decided not to do it so I was released 4 days later on methylpred, or however it's spelled :ylol:. A few days later I was admitted again and stayed for a week on lipids and I.V nutrition, because I had lost about 20 pounds in the past three weeks. They gave me a remicade infusion and at first it was awesome. The pain stopped, and I went home on a taper dose of prednisone and gained about 30 pounds :yoshijumpjoy:
Buuuuuut..... about 6 weeks later, and after a few remicade treatments, I started flaring again. They gave me an extra dose and hoped it would help. It did stop the flare but I needed it more and more often and they couldn't give me too much, so for the next few months up until June my Crohn's was on and off. During the beginning of June I picked up a stomach flu that was going around and I wasn't too sure if this was really the flu or my worst flare yet. I went to see my doctor and had an MRI with contrast dye and another dose of remicade ordered. There were problems with scheduling the MRI so I didn't get it until a few weeks ago. (The rumors about Friday the 13th bringing bad luck are true)
They found really bad inflammation and what they thought was a fistula, (which turned out to be a stricture) which was really weird because I was symptom free. I was admitted to the hospital and had an x-ray and CT scan. I was put on I.V flagil, cypro and steroids and released on prednisone 4 days later and now I'm waiting to have surgery, which is happening on Wednesday :tongue: I'm having some pain, it's mostly under control with tylenol and not that horrible. I'm having the surgery done laprascopicaly, and it's a small bowel resection to remove the terminal ileum because of the stricture. I'm not really scared, I just wanted to share my story and I guess see if any of you who have been through this have any advice :thumleft: Have a great Crohn's-free day!!
My name is Angela, I'm 13 years old and was diagnosed with Crohn's disease on December 2, 2011. The only reason I remember the date is because it was 10 days before my birthday :frown: Talk about horrible gifts :/ In March-April of 2011 I visited my mom in the hospital (she has a lot of health problems too) and picked up a nasty case of roto virus. Even after it was gone I was still having bad cramping/pains, especially after I ate. I dealt with them and figured that since I was always sicker than the average bear, it was just taking a while to run it's course. By November I was fed up with it and finally broke down and let my mom take me to a GI doctor, who ordered blood work, an endoscopy and colonoscopy. The worst part is honestly the prep, unless you enjoy sitting on toilets all day
oo: . I was knocked out for it, which is a good thing because that's not really something I'd like to be awake for. They found out that my terminal ileum was almost swollen shut, and made the diagnosis of Crohn's.They put me on budesonide, which worked for about a month but the cramps came back with a vengeance. They started 6mp and switched me to prednisone, but that didn't work either and soon enough I was in the E.R. They gave us a prescription for Vicodin and sent us home, since my doctor was out of town and his partner wouldn't answer the calls. A few days later my doctor got back and I saw him and ended up getting admitted to the hospital. I had another colonoscopy and I was told I would be having surgery, but they decided not to do it so I was released 4 days later on methylpred, or however it's spelled :ylol:. A few days later I was admitted again and stayed for a week on lipids and I.V nutrition, because I had lost about 20 pounds in the past three weeks. They gave me a remicade infusion and at first it was awesome. The pain stopped, and I went home on a taper dose of prednisone and gained about 30 pounds :yoshijumpjoy:
Buuuuuut..... about 6 weeks later, and after a few remicade treatments, I started flaring again. They gave me an extra dose and hoped it would help. It did stop the flare but I needed it more and more often and they couldn't give me too much, so for the next few months up until June my Crohn's was on and off. During the beginning of June I picked up a stomach flu that was going around and I wasn't too sure if this was really the flu or my worst flare yet. I went to see my doctor and had an MRI with contrast dye and another dose of remicade ordered. There were problems with scheduling the MRI so I didn't get it until a few weeks ago. (The rumors about Friday the 13th bringing bad luck are true)
They found really bad inflammation and what they thought was a fistula, (which turned out to be a stricture) which was really weird because I was symptom free. I was admitted to the hospital and had an x-ray and CT scan. I was put on I.V flagil, cypro and steroids and released on prednisone 4 days later and now I'm waiting to have surgery, which is happening on Wednesday :tongue: I'm having some pain, it's mostly under control with tylenol and not that horrible. I'm having the surgery done laprascopicaly, and it's a small bowel resection to remove the terminal ileum because of the stricture. I'm not really scared, I just wanted to share my story and I guess see if any of you who have been through this have any advice :thumleft:
Have a great Crohn's-free day!!
