Hello everybody! It was quite a sudden decision to join the site. I was diagnosed with Crohn's/IBD when I was in my last year of Primary school around the age of 11. Previously I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at just 3 years old, and diagnosed with primary schlerosing cholangitis 3 years ago which forced me to drop sixth form. I'm now 20 years old, 3 years after my PSC diagnosis which had me jaundiced and fairly ill for a while, and after the ERCP there I was unlucky enough to have an acute pancreatitis attack (From the ERCP). After about a months recovery I was about fully back on my feet and have had a fantastic few years including a 3 week holiday in Thailand which was great.
Last Thursday (19th May) around midnight I had another acute pancreatitis attack caused by a gallstone blockage. The gallstones were removed via ERCP though the gallbladder was left intact and I presume it will be unless it happens again. So I was in the hospital for said ERCP and am still recovering from the pain of the pancreatitis, and was released from hospital on Monday as recovery was looking good and I could manage some food... Though now I'm unsure if I'm also have a Crohn's relapse currently. Very unsure.
My Crohn's has pretty much become an afterthought in the past 9 years as it hasn't affected me at all, my bowel movements have been perfect and my appetite too for the whole 10 years. I'm experiencing the need to go to the toilet 4-5 times a day and have had very runny diarrhea. The pain is very mixed, I still have some pacreas pain but it also feels like there is a little elsewhere a bit lower. I can't recall my last pancreatitis recovery apart from the fact it took a fair few weeks to fully get over the pain, but not the actual location of the pain and my bowel movements. I'm still recovering from my jaundice so my stool is still quite yellow. I should also make that point, my diarrhea was incredibly runny for the first few days after my procedure at the hospital but currently my first 1-2 bowel movements are far more solid and usually followed by 2-3 runny diarrhea movements afterwards. The need to go to the toilet isn't painful or quite as desperate as I remember back 10 years ago, and there is no visible sign of redness or blood.
I'm probably overthinking it having such a myriad of different diseases. I'm having a blood test on Tuesday which should clear everything up. I've definitely been anaemic over the past few weeks but I also remember this happening back during my PSC diagnosis. I mean, having a damn camera down your throat and an incision to get rid of a gallstone blockage AND an acute pancreatitis has probably just messed up my digestive system temporarily. I went from 80 kilos to 75 kilos while in hospital for 4 nights and it seems to have increased to around 77, which could instantly rule out a Crohn's relapse when my appetite isn't even that brilliant.
In terms of medication since this is my story, I've been on a lot of different things, most obviously prednisilone as all of my problems are inflammatory. I take to prednisilone fantastically, it doesn't make me feel down or depressed, though the large dose I was on 10 years ago made me devour planets and I became quite the chubby child. I was on a 10mg dose (Which was reduced to 2.5mg over the course of time) for almost 3 months due to arthritis flare, I was told to stop by my liver specialist when I became jaundiced with the gallstones as we didn't know what was causing the jaundice at the time, so I stopped them around the start of May.
I was started on Pentasa literally 2 months ago, which seemed odd to me. I had a colonoscopy last December but it seemed unusual that he just started me on it. The colonoscopy was fine, nothing urgent just the obvious signs of Crohn's in remission, I was probably put on them for precautionary reasons.
I'm also take Azathioprine which I've been taking since my PSC diagnosis. Works great, had no trouble. I'm on Ursodeoxycholic tablets to help my bile flow, again, no problems for the past 3 years. I'm on an iron tablet which I take every morning with my Azathioprine which I started to help the anemia. There are a few other vitamins I'm on but nothing really worth mentioning.
So hopefully this is just acute pancreatitis recovery I've got to worry about for now. I'll keep a close eye on the progression of my bowel movements and contact my doctor if I consistantly need to go multiple times per day as I never needed to go more than once a day, twice at most, previous to this attack. I'm getting very little sleep and trying to get plenty of exercise which is difficult with this fatigue and lack of sleep >.> But hopefully it'll all be good in a week or so.
Seeing my doctor in 3 weeks time. Hopefully I won't need to see him earlier. He's a great doctor but the communication is absolutely horrendous, I mean, compared to my doctor in leeds who sorts my liver problems (I have his private number, if I get through to his secretary, he's usually back to us within the hour) and his e-mail for posting blood test results and generally saying if I have a problem and he usually gets back the next day. On the contrary, my other doctor who handles my Crohn's etc. (I've completely forgotten the medical term), we usually only get through to his secretary and he just about never gets back to us. At the beginning of May he was the first person we tried to contact about my jaudice... His secretary said she would get back to us. I received an appointment in the mail for October. That isn't acceptable really, but the doctor himself is a great guy and always helpful when I actually manage to see him.
That's my story. If you read all that, you're probably worn out now. If you did, thanks for reading and take a good break
Last Thursday (19th May) around midnight I had another acute pancreatitis attack caused by a gallstone blockage. The gallstones were removed via ERCP though the gallbladder was left intact and I presume it will be unless it happens again. So I was in the hospital for said ERCP and am still recovering from the pain of the pancreatitis, and was released from hospital on Monday as recovery was looking good and I could manage some food... Though now I'm unsure if I'm also have a Crohn's relapse currently. Very unsure.
My Crohn's has pretty much become an afterthought in the past 9 years as it hasn't affected me at all, my bowel movements have been perfect and my appetite too for the whole 10 years. I'm experiencing the need to go to the toilet 4-5 times a day and have had very runny diarrhea. The pain is very mixed, I still have some pacreas pain but it also feels like there is a little elsewhere a bit lower. I can't recall my last pancreatitis recovery apart from the fact it took a fair few weeks to fully get over the pain, but not the actual location of the pain and my bowel movements. I'm still recovering from my jaundice so my stool is still quite yellow. I should also make that point, my diarrhea was incredibly runny for the first few days after my procedure at the hospital but currently my first 1-2 bowel movements are far more solid and usually followed by 2-3 runny diarrhea movements afterwards. The need to go to the toilet isn't painful or quite as desperate as I remember back 10 years ago, and there is no visible sign of redness or blood.
I'm probably overthinking it having such a myriad of different diseases. I'm having a blood test on Tuesday which should clear everything up. I've definitely been anaemic over the past few weeks but I also remember this happening back during my PSC diagnosis. I mean, having a damn camera down your throat and an incision to get rid of a gallstone blockage AND an acute pancreatitis has probably just messed up my digestive system temporarily. I went from 80 kilos to 75 kilos while in hospital for 4 nights and it seems to have increased to around 77, which could instantly rule out a Crohn's relapse when my appetite isn't even that brilliant.
In terms of medication since this is my story, I've been on a lot of different things, most obviously prednisilone as all of my problems are inflammatory. I take to prednisilone fantastically, it doesn't make me feel down or depressed, though the large dose I was on 10 years ago made me devour planets and I became quite the chubby child. I was on a 10mg dose (Which was reduced to 2.5mg over the course of time) for almost 3 months due to arthritis flare, I was told to stop by my liver specialist when I became jaundiced with the gallstones as we didn't know what was causing the jaundice at the time, so I stopped them around the start of May.
I was started on Pentasa literally 2 months ago, which seemed odd to me. I had a colonoscopy last December but it seemed unusual that he just started me on it. The colonoscopy was fine, nothing urgent just the obvious signs of Crohn's in remission, I was probably put on them for precautionary reasons.
I'm also take Azathioprine which I've been taking since my PSC diagnosis. Works great, had no trouble. I'm on Ursodeoxycholic tablets to help my bile flow, again, no problems for the past 3 years. I'm on an iron tablet which I take every morning with my Azathioprine which I started to help the anemia. There are a few other vitamins I'm on but nothing really worth mentioning.
So hopefully this is just acute pancreatitis recovery I've got to worry about for now. I'll keep a close eye on the progression of my bowel movements and contact my doctor if I consistantly need to go multiple times per day as I never needed to go more than once a day, twice at most, previous to this attack. I'm getting very little sleep and trying to get plenty of exercise which is difficult with this fatigue and lack of sleep >.> But hopefully it'll all be good in a week or so.
Seeing my doctor in 3 weeks time. Hopefully I won't need to see him earlier. He's a great doctor but the communication is absolutely horrendous, I mean, compared to my doctor in leeds who sorts my liver problems (I have his private number, if I get through to his secretary, he's usually back to us within the hour) and his e-mail for posting blood test results and generally saying if I have a problem and he usually gets back the next day. On the contrary, my other doctor who handles my Crohn's etc. (I've completely forgotten the medical term), we usually only get through to his secretary and he just about never gets back to us. At the beginning of May he was the first person we tried to contact about my jaudice... His secretary said she would get back to us. I received an appointment in the mail for October. That isn't acceptable really, but the doctor himself is a great guy and always helpful when I actually manage to see him.
That's my story. If you read all that, you're probably worn out now. If you did, thanks for reading and take a good break
