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How can flare-ups be prevented?

E

Ecleteric

Hello,
I have had acid-reflux all my life. About 1.5 years ago, when I was 17, I started experience intense stomach pain, and soon my doctor diagnosed me with Crohn's disease and Eosinophilic esophagitis and said I was having a flare-up. My doctor started me on half-a-tablet of Azathiopine every night, along with Pentasa, in addition to Prevacid (which I take for the acid-reflux). Eventually my symptoms went away and I was fine (I still had acid reflux if I ate anything excessively greasy, but otherwise I was ok), Anyway, about a month I began experiencing another flare up. Out of nowhere, I woke up one day and felt intense heat in my chest. A few days later it felt like someone had repeatedly punched my chest. I took a lot of over the counter antiacids (Tums, Mylanta, etc), but those did not help. Eventually this feeling of pain went away in my chest, but then I had diarrhea. Eventually the diarrhea stopped, but now I have an excessive amount of gas coming up from my stomach (it's kind of like burping, but much more severe). About a week after the symptoms started I had an endoscopy, which showed that I had inflammation in my stomach and two ulcers in my stomach. This flare-up has been going on for about one month now. The last flare-up that happened (the one that lead to them diagnosing me) lasted for about two-months. I just want to know how I can prevent these flare-ups. I can't stand the thought of constantly losing months of my life like this. Thank you for reading this.
 
Jim (POPS)

Jim (POPS)

Jim (Pops)
Location
Antioch, Ca
Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry that you going though this flair. I would work close with your GI to see how you can find good health.

Keep your head up and stay posative.
 
Johnnysmom

Johnnysmom

The hard thing is there is no way to really predict or prevent a flare up. Stress seems to be able to bring one on. For some people illness can kick one off.

The best advice I could give you is to get moderate exercise, decrease stress, take vitamins (multi, Vit D3, and B12 is what my son takes) Take your meds everyday. Wash your hands to prevent illness and avoid sick people. Never take NSAIDS (like advil) they can cause a flare. And get checked out by a GI every few months.

I wish like heck I could give you an easy answer, but I can't. But new meds are being developed and I am very hopeful that at some point we will all have better options. You are on pretty mild medications now so contact your GI if they aren't working for you. Simmering inflammation will eventually catch up to you and once the damage is done you can't fix it.

(((((Hugs))))))
 
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