A
afish
Guest
I am 24 years old and was diagnosed with Crohns 10 years ago at the tender age of 14. It was difficult to be diagnosed with a socially unacceptable disease, when at 14, I wanted nothing more than to fit in with my peers. The massive dose of steroids didn't help that cause. At the age of 18 I had my first surgery where they removed my illium and appendix. It went amazingly well and I was out of the hospital in 3 days with a two inch horizontal scar (that was not even visible when I wore my bikini)! I was so thankful for that. After trying every medication under the sun for Crohns (including going into anaphalictic shock from remicade and being in two clinical trials at the Mayo Clinic) In 2003 I had to have another bowel resection. I spent my 21st birthday with a tube down my nose and blew out a candle in a cup of ice chips. Very depressing to say the least. Not to mention my "gross" long scar that went all the way down my abdomin. I later realized that was the least of my problems. A week after my surgery I spiked a high fever, was throwing up, in a ton of pain, and becoming delirious. They did a CT scan and found that my intestines did not heal where they reconnected me and my bowels were leaking into my abdominal cavity. I had peritinitis and had to have emergency surgery immediately. I was devistated to have to recieve a colostomy, even though it would only be for about 6 months. When I was finally able to get the NG tube out of my nose and allowed to eat again, I violently threw up the entire evening. I eventually had the NG tube placed back down my nose. A few days later we would try to take it out and I was allowed to eat again and I would once again be terribly sick all night and have to get the NG tube put back down my nose. After a few weeks of this the nurses told me I was the best patent they had ever had when it came to getting those put in. At least I could do something right I suppose! They finally did more tests and found that I also had pacrentitis. I reallly started to believe that I would never feel okay again. I was in the hospital for over 4 months straight, and didn't eat for about 6months.lost almost all of my friends because I didn't really fit into their college "go out and be crazy" lifestyle. On the rare occasions that they did visit they couldn't even look at me and treated me differently. I know it must have been hard to see me that sick (I was also swollen from steroids) with tubes all over the place, but it was so hard for me to be treated so differently when I knew I was still the same person. My parents however were amazing. My mom stayed every night and my Dad would drive an hour both ways to see me when he got off work, and would stay on the weekends, which is when we would have our "movie dates". My Mom became my best friend and was one of the only peope who really saw what I was going through and would cry with me, and also managed to help me see humor when I didn't want to but needed to laugh. I was finally able to come home and still had a difficult road ahead of dealing with my colostomy bag, Learning how to eat again (starting with broth), learn how to set up my TPN and take care of my PICC line, etc. My stoma began to prolapse and I had to move my reversal surgery up a few weeks (no complaining here). While they were in there they also took out my gallbladder because it was full of stones, which they think was contributing to the pancrentitis. After all the surgeries I had a difficult time sitting up and my stomach looked crazy! I didn't have much of a belly button anymore. I finally became able to sit up without having to roll to my side first, and so many more accomplishments that meant alot to me, the biggest being just the ablitity to walk. For the longest time I had to actually crawl up the stairs and couldn't stand up by myself after bending down, because of how much my muscles had atrophied. It was so hard for me to go through all of these things, but I realized that they made me appreciate the little things in life. The situation helped me to realize that a good nurse VS a bad nurse can mean the difference between having a good day and a bad day, which lead me to want to become one of the "good ones". It helped me find my purpose in life! I would never want to go through it again, but I know that because I made it through that I will be able to make it through anything life has to throw at me. This past February I had to have another surgery. They found that my rectum was horribly prolapsing and all my abdominal muscles had collapsed and fallen so they had to tack those to the bones in my back. (so thats where the back spasms were coming from!) They also removed a ton of scar tissue, adhesions, diseased areas, and redid the area where they reversed my colostomy because it was put back together at an angle. Before I was nocked out I was loopy on versid and asked one of the surgons standing over me if he would be able to fix my scar "while he was in there". They all started to laugh and then he told me that he would be happy to help me out. Five hours later I emerged with a new belly button, flatter scar, and without a lot of "junk". I was in a ton of pain and my arm was numb bc my epidural was coming out. It was strange not being able to hold a pen in my hand or have any control over it, although I was more concerned with my physical discomfort. I was feeling much better in a few days though, and aside from them finding a hematoma and getting a drain tube placed a week later, my post op was virtually complicated free. What a nice change!!! I am feeling much better now but I still deal with pain and cronic D every day. I think that is just something that Im going to have to deal with for the rest of my life. I am very happy now though and Im in school to become a nurse. 
Sorry for the book. I started writing and it all just came out.
Sorry for the book. I started writing and it all just came out.
