- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 15
Hello all...
I am very glad I found this forum. And here's my story:
I have to say I feel quite blessed to have gotten a diagnosis as quickly as I did. The weekend before Xmas is when I first noticed my symptoms - pain in the abdomen, diarrhea. I had just eaten some fantastic Italian food and I thought it just didn't agree with me. Then on Xmas-eve I had dinner at my best friend's parents house - perfectly cooked duck and yummy traditional Danish food. Wow...the pain was nearly unbearable afterward. But still, I thought it was a stomach bug, no big deal.
The week between Xmas and New Years things just seemed to get worse so I finally decided to go to an urgent care place to see if I could get something to take. They said it was a virus, go on a liquid diet for a few days and all should be well.
Fast forward a month, and I still feel terrible. Yes, I should have followed up sooner, but I have always been relatively healthy and I hate going to the doctors. I just "wait it out." But a month? Viruses don't last that long! So I headed back to the urgent care place to tell them I still didn't feel better. This was on 1/26. They do a blood test and tell me I am extremely anemic, go to the ER right away. I was a bit skeptical, but I went. In the ER they performed a CT scan and recommended I go see a GI as soon as possible. The next day I call and get an appointment for the following day. What a great doctor! Young, friendly, easy to talk to. He schedules me for a colonoscopy, small bowel follow-thru and blood work to test for Celiac Disease. On 2/2 I get the colonoscopy and he prescribes me Pentasa and Predisone the same day. A few days later, in the middle of a blizzard, I get the small bowel follow-thru done. On 2/8 I have the follow-up with my GI and he tells me it's Crohn's. So, on 1/26 I start to take my symptoms seriously and I had a diagnosis by 2/8. My Crohn's is throughout my colon and just barely in my small intestine. He said it looked more like UC at first, but biopsies and the small bowel follow-thru confirmed for him it was Crohn's colitis.
I have so many questions I am sure I will ask in the coming weeks on this forum. My first is about prednisone. I was on 40mg for 7 days, then 30 for 7, then 20 for 7 and now I am on 10mg and 2 days away from stopping altogether. After the first couple days I felt great! Could eat anything (and I did! never had an appetite like that in my life!) But now, my symptoms seem to be coming back. Yesterday I was in terrible pain after eating oatmeal. Is this normal? My next appointment with my GI isn't until the 18th. I feel like I should call him and tell him my symptoms are returning already, but I don't want to be a whiner.
Sorry for the novel. And thanks for having this forum! I have already learned so much and I know it will be a great resource!
I am very glad I found this forum. And here's my story:
I have to say I feel quite blessed to have gotten a diagnosis as quickly as I did. The weekend before Xmas is when I first noticed my symptoms - pain in the abdomen, diarrhea. I had just eaten some fantastic Italian food and I thought it just didn't agree with me. Then on Xmas-eve I had dinner at my best friend's parents house - perfectly cooked duck and yummy traditional Danish food. Wow...the pain was nearly unbearable afterward. But still, I thought it was a stomach bug, no big deal.
The week between Xmas and New Years things just seemed to get worse so I finally decided to go to an urgent care place to see if I could get something to take. They said it was a virus, go on a liquid diet for a few days and all should be well.
Fast forward a month, and I still feel terrible. Yes, I should have followed up sooner, but I have always been relatively healthy and I hate going to the doctors. I just "wait it out." But a month? Viruses don't last that long! So I headed back to the urgent care place to tell them I still didn't feel better. This was on 1/26. They do a blood test and tell me I am extremely anemic, go to the ER right away. I was a bit skeptical, but I went. In the ER they performed a CT scan and recommended I go see a GI as soon as possible. The next day I call and get an appointment for the following day. What a great doctor! Young, friendly, easy to talk to. He schedules me for a colonoscopy, small bowel follow-thru and blood work to test for Celiac Disease. On 2/2 I get the colonoscopy and he prescribes me Pentasa and Predisone the same day. A few days later, in the middle of a blizzard, I get the small bowel follow-thru done. On 2/8 I have the follow-up with my GI and he tells me it's Crohn's. So, on 1/26 I start to take my symptoms seriously and I had a diagnosis by 2/8. My Crohn's is throughout my colon and just barely in my small intestine. He said it looked more like UC at first, but biopsies and the small bowel follow-thru confirmed for him it was Crohn's colitis.
I have so many questions I am sure I will ask in the coming weeks on this forum. My first is about prednisone. I was on 40mg for 7 days, then 30 for 7, then 20 for 7 and now I am on 10mg and 2 days away from stopping altogether. After the first couple days I felt great! Could eat anything (and I did! never had an appetite like that in my life!) But now, my symptoms seem to be coming back. Yesterday I was in terrible pain after eating oatmeal. Is this normal? My next appointment with my GI isn't until the 18th. I feel like I should call him and tell him my symptoms are returning already, but I don't want to be a whiner.
Sorry for the novel. And thanks for having this forum! I have already learned so much and I know it will be a great resource!
