Hey, Im new n stuff

[VitaminJ88]

Hey all.

I was recently diagnosed last week with Crohn's I went in to the docs, they were worried about my appendix. 3 days in hospital,CT scan, X-rays blood tests and a colonoscopy later and there was their diagnosis along with some abscesses and fistulas...gah!!!!

Had a TB test and another 48 hours later I was sent home with prescriptions of metro, pred and cipro and diet plan. My first Remicade treatment is Monday morning, and I hope it gets rid of the lower right abdominal pain and tenderness!

So frustrating and from what I've seen creeping these boards the last 3 days during my painful sleepless nights, I can see how varied and weird this disease can be for everyone! Also how long it can take some people to finally figure out what it is they have and start treatments! I feel your pain

Just wanted to say hey and introduce myself sorta

 

[woops!]

Welcome, you have found a good place at this site. Hope your treatments go well. Sometimes it takes them a while to work, so don't give up if you don't see immediate results.
Whoops!

 

[cmack]

Welcome VitaminJ88,

You have found a great place to talk with supportive and understanding people. I hope things go well for you. Talk to me any time. pm's are cool too.


Welcome again, wishing you the very best,

cmack

 

[ronroush7]

Welcome. Looking forward to hearing more from you. Wishing you the best.

 

[VitaminJ88]

Hey all thanks for the warm welcome! My first treatment was actually my first consult unfortunately. Recommended being on my full dose of 40 mg of pred for an additional 2 weeks before I start to taper. More blood work to make sure I'm ok to start on imurin and also schedule another CT to make sure the abscesses have gone down enough to start the Remicade....so looks like more sleepless nights and painful afternoons. Either way, staying positive, doing a LOT of reading and making sure I'm taking care of myself mentally and physically to take this on head on!

 

[cmack]

Hey Vitamin,

I'm really glad you have a positive outlook. That is a huge factor in success with this disease. Stressing never helped anyone. I'm here any time you want to talk or just vent. You can pm me, I'm down with that. By the way I love the avatar, very cool.:thumleft:


Finest regards,

cmack

 

[VitaminJ88]

Thanks cmack, appreciate it! I'll definitely shoot you a message whenever to do just that!

 

[VitaminJ88]

UPDATE:

So folks here's the skinny. After coming home on antibiotics and preds for a week and a half, had another CT scan. The results were less than desirable. The antibiotics didn't work and another abscess had started to grow which required me to go BACK to the hospital. After some deliberation between my amazing GI team and the surgeons, they decided to up the antibiotics to something stronger and install a drain....now I know for some this sounds scary, but for me after reading about everyone's experiences on this forum, I felt somewhat confident that I could handle it.
After a prolonged stay due to the long weekend and no one there to put in an IV pic in my arm so I could come home, I was finally released after 6 days and am home now. I have to go in weekly for xrays on the pic and check ups with my team and there still is a strong possibility for surgery. One thing at a time though!
So what I had done so far has been
-upped antibiotics to go along with my preds
-drain put in my belly to help get rid of an almost baseball size abscess
-IV pic placed into my arm to allow me to get said antibiotics at home
- nurse that comes to my house everyday to change the IV bags in the portable IV system I carry around with me for the next month

That's about it thus far. It's been an interesting experience thus far and I've been staying positive as best as possible and I hope all those who have gone through this or will be can see that even though it sucks, waking up on this side of the ground every day is at least one thing to smile about!!

 

[ronroush7]

Best to you