- Joined
- Jul 16, 2010
- Messages
- 17
Hello everyone, my name is Richard and I too am a crohnie.
I am 49 years old and was first diagnosed at 13 years old.
Initial symptoms were the usual flu like symptoms. fever, diarrhea, vomiting, Weight loss 185lbs to 140lbs, etc. My first surgery was at 15, they removed a 2 foot section of my small intestine, the surgery combined with TPN was helpful for about 2.5 years at which time I was struck by a sudden and serious flair up, my large intestine perforated and I had my 2nd surgery, this was a total colectomy resulting in an ileostomy. This was successful and for about 5 years, I was without symptoms my weight went up to 180lbs and life was pretty good. Between the ages of 25-33 I was on and off 2 less serious surgeries many side effects of crohns showing up, gall stones, kidney stones etc. Then by some miracle I had almost 10 years of symptom free living!!
...No flairs, no pain, 185lbs...
Then as history had gone one day in 2003 I awoke to a slight stomach
ache...went to work and as the day wore on the stomach became more and more painful, I had been well so long I chalked it up to the flu, I went home tried to have a bite of dinner and went to bed early. As the hours went by the pain kept me awake, I would get up and walk down stairs back upstairs and by 4 in the morning the pain had become excruciating, my roommate came down the stairs and took one look at me and offered me a ride to the hospital. I was taken immediately into triage with bp at 190 over 105, The Colorectal specialist was called in, after a 5 minute exam the doctor determined that emergency surgery was needed and about 30 minutes later I was under the knife once again, my bowel had perforated again and an obstruction was found.
The surgery went well I recovered well and 18 months later...
again, perforation just under the abdominal wall near the stoma, this caused peritonitis three different types of bacterial infection, surgery once again and a month long stay in the hospital. Rough recovery but once again successful, healthy once again...
Stayed healthy for about 2 years and again gut pain!!!!
Off to the hospital emergency room to find out small bowel had massed and a large section had to be removed... this surgery left me with a total of 183cm of small intestine, total, this is about 5 feet! The recovery period was the toughest of any of my surgeries, post surgery the goal was to reintroduce food and see if I could maintain my nutrition, bouncing in and out of the hospital for the next 2 months proved that I was no longer able to sustain my nutrition, in March of 2009 I was put back on TPN. My current status is;
TPN dependent...
Medications: Prednisone, Pentasa
I have a GI follow up in August at which time they are going to decide if they want me on Remicade this will be new to me, if you have had experience with remicade I would appreciate your feed back.
Thanks to everyone
Richard :bigwave:
I am 49 years old and was first diagnosed at 13 years old.
Initial symptoms were the usual flu like symptoms. fever, diarrhea, vomiting, Weight loss 185lbs to 140lbs, etc. My first surgery was at 15, they removed a 2 foot section of my small intestine, the surgery combined with TPN was helpful for about 2.5 years at which time I was struck by a sudden and serious flair up, my large intestine perforated and I had my 2nd surgery, this was a total colectomy resulting in an ileostomy. This was successful and for about 5 years, I was without symptoms my weight went up to 180lbs and life was pretty good. Between the ages of 25-33 I was on and off 2 less serious surgeries many side effects of crohns showing up, gall stones, kidney stones etc. Then by some miracle I had almost 10 years of symptom free living!!
...No flairs, no pain, 185lbs...
Then as history had gone one day in 2003 I awoke to a slight stomach
ache...went to work and as the day wore on the stomach became more and more painful, I had been well so long I chalked it up to the flu, I went home tried to have a bite of dinner and went to bed early. As the hours went by the pain kept me awake, I would get up and walk down stairs back upstairs and by 4 in the morning the pain had become excruciating, my roommate came down the stairs and took one look at me and offered me a ride to the hospital. I was taken immediately into triage with bp at 190 over 105, The Colorectal specialist was called in, after a 5 minute exam the doctor determined that emergency surgery was needed and about 30 minutes later I was under the knife once again, my bowel had perforated again and an obstruction was found.
The surgery went well I recovered well and 18 months later...
again, perforation just under the abdominal wall near the stoma, this caused peritonitis three different types of bacterial infection, surgery once again and a month long stay in the hospital. Rough recovery but once again successful, healthy once again...
Stayed healthy for about 2 years and again gut pain!!!!
Off to the hospital emergency room to find out small bowel had massed and a large section had to be removed... this surgery left me with a total of 183cm of small intestine, total, this is about 5 feet! The recovery period was the toughest of any of my surgeries, post surgery the goal was to reintroduce food and see if I could maintain my nutrition, bouncing in and out of the hospital for the next 2 months proved that I was no longer able to sustain my nutrition, in March of 2009 I was put back on TPN. My current status is;
TPN dependent...
Medications: Prednisone, Pentasa
I have a GI follow up in August at which time they are going to decide if they want me on Remicade this will be new to me, if you have had experience with remicade I would appreciate your feed back.
Thanks to everyone
Richard :bigwave:
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