Hi there,
My name is Jen. I'm 32 and live in Northern California. I was dx'd with Crohn's last year, but looking back I've had sx for several years. I have a cousin who also has Crohn's. My sx are usually diarrhea and abdominal pain. Right now I'm in the middle of a flare with joint pain, low grade fevers, fatigue, and SEVERE constipation. I've never had any rectal bleeding which I guess must be unusual because my doc is always surprised I haven't. Because I have diabetes my GI doc is reluctant to put me on prednisone because of its affect on blood sugars, I would probably have to go on insulin.
When I initially went to my local GI doctor with sx of abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting he did a colonoscopy, dx'd me with Crohn's, and put me on Apriso. But I was still having a lot of problems with vomiting. I would throw up food 8-10 hours after eating it. It's like my top half was moving too slow and my bottom half was moving way too fast. The GI doc said once the inflammation in my colon settled down the food would start passing. After 6 months of no improvement I went to a Crohn's specialist at UCSF. He found me to have an unrelated condition of delayed gastric emptying, probably related to my diabetes. I've had 2 botox injections in my pylorus to help food empty from my stomach. It sucks to have two different GI problems. Right now I'm on Lialda for my Crohn's. I have an appt with my GI in a few weeks and am going to ask about being put on something different because I feel like I've hit a plateau.
Outside of my GI issues, I've been an ER nurse for the last 12 years. I love what I do and work with a great group of people who are very understanding about my health problems. I definitely have much more sympathy now when I am taking care of an IBD patient in my ER. I love to travel and have frequently volunteered in third world/developing countries as a nurse. Traveling to third world areas with Crohn's can definitely be a challenge. I am always VERY careful about what I eat and have evacuation insurance in case I need to get home quick.
My name is Jen. I'm 32 and live in Northern California. I was dx'd with Crohn's last year, but looking back I've had sx for several years. I have a cousin who also has Crohn's. My sx are usually diarrhea and abdominal pain. Right now I'm in the middle of a flare with joint pain, low grade fevers, fatigue, and SEVERE constipation. I've never had any rectal bleeding which I guess must be unusual because my doc is always surprised I haven't. Because I have diabetes my GI doc is reluctant to put me on prednisone because of its affect on blood sugars, I would probably have to go on insulin.
When I initially went to my local GI doctor with sx of abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting he did a colonoscopy, dx'd me with Crohn's, and put me on Apriso. But I was still having a lot of problems with vomiting. I would throw up food 8-10 hours after eating it. It's like my top half was moving too slow and my bottom half was moving way too fast. The GI doc said once the inflammation in my colon settled down the food would start passing. After 6 months of no improvement I went to a Crohn's specialist at UCSF. He found me to have an unrelated condition of delayed gastric emptying, probably related to my diabetes. I've had 2 botox injections in my pylorus to help food empty from my stomach. It sucks to have two different GI problems. Right now I'm on Lialda for my Crohn's. I have an appt with my GI in a few weeks and am going to ask about being put on something different because I feel like I've hit a plateau.
Outside of my GI issues, I've been an ER nurse for the last 12 years. I love what I do and work with a great group of people who are very understanding about my health problems. I definitely have much more sympathy now when I am taking care of an IBD patient in my ER. I love to travel and have frequently volunteered in third world/developing countries as a nurse. Traveling to third world areas with Crohn's can definitely be a challenge. I am always VERY careful about what I eat and have evacuation insurance in case I need to get home quick.
