- Location
- Rochester, NY
Hi all you wonderfully supportive people. I was diagnosed with Crohn's last year (at age 44 - how's THAT for denial), and the journey was sort of interesting so I wanted to briefly share how I got there. My family has a significant history of cancer, particularly breast, so my GYN wanted me to get breast MRI in addition to mammograms. Insurance wouldn't cover it until I had genetic screening. During the screening, it came out that my sister had had colon cancer, so they strongly recommended I have a colonoscopy. While I'd had some colon symptoms for many years, I'd recently started having lots of pain with BMs so I agreed, and they diagnosed me with Crohn's after the scope.
When I was younger and had symptoms, I was just told "you have your father's bowels" and to put up with it. I thought it was somewhere in the range of "normal". So many things began to make sense after my diagnosis. I wonder how many people suffer in silence instead of seeking help (until forced to). Anyway, I didn't respond to Lialda, or to just Entocort. I tried Humira, but after two months, had an allergic reaction. I'm now on Cimzia two shots every two weeks and Entocort. Still having a lot of pain, but we just increased the frequency of the Cimzia so we'll see if that helps.
This is a very isolating disease. Having read a lot of the posts, I just want to thank you all for the wonderful support you provide here. You people are superstars!
When I was younger and had symptoms, I was just told "you have your father's bowels" and to put up with it. I thought it was somewhere in the range of "normal". So many things began to make sense after my diagnosis. I wonder how many people suffer in silence instead of seeking help (until forced to). Anyway, I didn't respond to Lialda, or to just Entocort. I tried Humira, but after two months, had an allergic reaction. I'm now on Cimzia two shots every two weeks and Entocort. Still having a lot of pain, but we just increased the frequency of the Cimzia so we'll see if that helps.
This is a very isolating disease. Having read a lot of the posts, I just want to thank you all for the wonderful support you provide here. You people are superstars!