- Joined
- May 23, 2010
- Messages
- 8
I'm new here so I thought I'd introduce myself! My name is Kendra & I am a Crohn's patient. I am married to a wonderful husband (Brandon) & I am mommy to a 6 yr old Pit Bull named Max. I work at CVS in the pharmacy as a Certified Pharmacy Technician. In my spare time I watch movies, read books, wander around online/hang out with friends online, clean & try to spend as much time as I can with my husband.
My Crohn's story:
I was sick a lot growing up. No doctor could every put a name to it. When I was about 17 I started getting serious kidney infections, one after another. After testing everything the doctors could for my kidneys & other urinary tract problems with no results, I gave up. I was always running a fever, having pain with vomiting and diarrhea. They just said it was the infections. In late 2005 I started having super-severe abdominal pain. I couldn't move or breathe. After 2 weeks right around Christmas of going to the doctor every other day for tests & exams, I was sent for a CT scan on Jan 5, 2006. I actually couldn't keep the contrast down, so I got sent home after the first scan as nothing was moving. I came back, the scanned me again, and as I was waiting for the ok to leave, the tech approaches me. I'm sitting there on a bench in the hallway of the hospital, and he says "We are going to the ER, because if we don't operate on you right now, you are going to die". The CT techs thought my appendix had burst & that I was septic. I was admitted & signed for an open appendectomy. By 10 pm I was under the knife, and by 12am I was coming back around. No one told me anything until the next morning. The news was then that they were 99.999% sure I had Crohn's and that they removed my appendix, but also the removed a TENNIS BALL SIZED NECROTIC ABSCESS in my small intestine that had been seeping infection into my kidneys & everywhere else for years, and had started to open, and I was in fact septic. I spent the next 10 days hospitalized with all sorts of tubes, was told NOTHING about how to live with a hole in my abdomen & with my new disease. I spent 3 months on exclusive bed rest, having to have my wound cleaned & packed 4 times a day to keep from getting an infection.
After that, I changed my life.
I changed schools & went into college to get my Pharmacy Technician certification, and completed that by the end of 2006. I started reading everything I could get my hands on about Crohn's, but there was less even just a few years ago than there was now. I tried communicating with my GI but he was old school & wouldn't test me on anything besides Pentasa & prednisone. I gained huge amounts of weight & became severely depressed.
I have since found 2 great GI's, tried other treatments & diets, and have lost 32lbs so far of the 60 I gained on Prednisone. I am doing better mostly, but still have flares that require hospitalization from time to time.
I hope that by my joining this forum, I can gain more knowledge from everyone's experiences, and hopefully help others gain some knowledge from me. I am open to talking to any and all & hope that you will embrace me as a new member that will become a new friend!
My Crohn's story:
I was sick a lot growing up. No doctor could every put a name to it. When I was about 17 I started getting serious kidney infections, one after another. After testing everything the doctors could for my kidneys & other urinary tract problems with no results, I gave up. I was always running a fever, having pain with vomiting and diarrhea. They just said it was the infections. In late 2005 I started having super-severe abdominal pain. I couldn't move or breathe. After 2 weeks right around Christmas of going to the doctor every other day for tests & exams, I was sent for a CT scan on Jan 5, 2006. I actually couldn't keep the contrast down, so I got sent home after the first scan as nothing was moving. I came back, the scanned me again, and as I was waiting for the ok to leave, the tech approaches me. I'm sitting there on a bench in the hallway of the hospital, and he says "We are going to the ER, because if we don't operate on you right now, you are going to die". The CT techs thought my appendix had burst & that I was septic. I was admitted & signed for an open appendectomy. By 10 pm I was under the knife, and by 12am I was coming back around. No one told me anything until the next morning. The news was then that they were 99.999% sure I had Crohn's and that they removed my appendix, but also the removed a TENNIS BALL SIZED NECROTIC ABSCESS in my small intestine that had been seeping infection into my kidneys & everywhere else for years, and had started to open, and I was in fact septic. I spent the next 10 days hospitalized with all sorts of tubes, was told NOTHING about how to live with a hole in my abdomen & with my new disease. I spent 3 months on exclusive bed rest, having to have my wound cleaned & packed 4 times a day to keep from getting an infection.
After that, I changed my life.
I changed schools & went into college to get my Pharmacy Technician certification, and completed that by the end of 2006. I started reading everything I could get my hands on about Crohn's, but there was less even just a few years ago than there was now. I tried communicating with my GI but he was old school & wouldn't test me on anything besides Pentasa & prednisone. I gained huge amounts of weight & became severely depressed.
I have since found 2 great GI's, tried other treatments & diets, and have lost 32lbs so far of the 60 I gained on Prednisone. I am doing better mostly, but still have flares that require hospitalization from time to time.
I hope that by my joining this forum, I can gain more knowledge from everyone's experiences, and hopefully help others gain some knowledge from me. I am open to talking to any and all & hope that you will embrace me as a new member that will become a new friend!
