I'm Olivia, I am 25 and I live in NZ. This is my Crohn's story.
I always had what I thought was a 'sensitive stomach', my Mum said I would often be sick if I went to a birthday party and I was always vomiting or feeling sick. When I was 14 I went on holiday to Bali, I got food poisoning and was incredibly sick. I had to be on the toilet every morning when I got to school and this went on for months. I just thought it was still food poisoning and didn't take much notice. When I was at University I would often have to have a sleep in the afternoons between lectures and I always felt incredibly tired. Mum and Dad thought I was just being a Uni student. When I started drinking alcohol I noticed it made me really sick so I stopped drinking. I also started noticing that certain foods made me sick so I avoided them. I lost quite a lot of weight and was very listless and very low energy, and often incredibly anxious and depressed. I constantly had a stomachache and terrible bloating and pain. I went to my GP and told him all my symptoms and he sent me for all kinds of tests. This went on for months until he decided to send me to a gastroenterologist. I am so grateful for my insurance which meant that I didn't have to go on a waiting list to see a specialist.
He said straight away that he thought it could be Crohn's. I was so scared because I knew a few people with Crohn's and they were so sick, I didn't want to be like that. I went for a colonoscopy and they found ulcers everywhere. My diagnosis was bittersweet. I was relieved that I could finally start treating it but I felt so scared about the future. I started taking Pentasa immediately, which is luckily subsidised here in NZ so it doesn't cost me much. I found that my symptoms got a little better, but my energy did not improve. I have spent a lot of money on my disease over the years, I take antidepressants as I feel very low sometimes, which my doctor says is very common in people with chronic conditions like Crohn's. I took Vitamin D for awhile and I took a course of Prednisone when I had a flare-up recently. I've seen a dietician and had my blood analysed to see what foods might make me flare-up. When I went overseas for 7 months, the rigmarole of taking my pills with me was such a pain, i had to have letters from my specialist etc saying that I was allowed to carry my meds on me. And I was living in the UK, where Pentasa is not subsidised, so it cost me a fortune! Living with Crohn's is constant, I can't remember the last time my tummy felt 'normal'. Most of the time I can be logical, and live with it, but sometimes I feel so sad and so sorry for myself. I think that it's tricky because some people don't understand how hard it is to live with an IBD, and how much it affects our lives.
Thank you all for sharing your stories, it humbles me to read about people who have it so much worse than me, it makes me realise that I am lucky, despite this, and that we are all in this together. Take care.
I always had what I thought was a 'sensitive stomach', my Mum said I would often be sick if I went to a birthday party and I was always vomiting or feeling sick. When I was 14 I went on holiday to Bali, I got food poisoning and was incredibly sick. I had to be on the toilet every morning when I got to school and this went on for months. I just thought it was still food poisoning and didn't take much notice. When I was at University I would often have to have a sleep in the afternoons between lectures and I always felt incredibly tired. Mum and Dad thought I was just being a Uni student. When I started drinking alcohol I noticed it made me really sick so I stopped drinking. I also started noticing that certain foods made me sick so I avoided them. I lost quite a lot of weight and was very listless and very low energy, and often incredibly anxious and depressed. I constantly had a stomachache and terrible bloating and pain. I went to my GP and told him all my symptoms and he sent me for all kinds of tests. This went on for months until he decided to send me to a gastroenterologist. I am so grateful for my insurance which meant that I didn't have to go on a waiting list to see a specialist.
He said straight away that he thought it could be Crohn's. I was so scared because I knew a few people with Crohn's and they were so sick, I didn't want to be like that. I went for a colonoscopy and they found ulcers everywhere. My diagnosis was bittersweet. I was relieved that I could finally start treating it but I felt so scared about the future. I started taking Pentasa immediately, which is luckily subsidised here in NZ so it doesn't cost me much. I found that my symptoms got a little better, but my energy did not improve. I have spent a lot of money on my disease over the years, I take antidepressants as I feel very low sometimes, which my doctor says is very common in people with chronic conditions like Crohn's. I took Vitamin D for awhile and I took a course of Prednisone when I had a flare-up recently. I've seen a dietician and had my blood analysed to see what foods might make me flare-up. When I went overseas for 7 months, the rigmarole of taking my pills with me was such a pain, i had to have letters from my specialist etc saying that I was allowed to carry my meds on me. And I was living in the UK, where Pentasa is not subsidised, so it cost me a fortune! Living with Crohn's is constant, I can't remember the last time my tummy felt 'normal'. Most of the time I can be logical, and live with it, but sometimes I feel so sad and so sorry for myself. I think that it's tricky because some people don't understand how hard it is to live with an IBD, and how much it affects our lives.
Thank you all for sharing your stories, it humbles me to read about people who have it so much worse than me, it makes me realise that I am lucky, despite this, and that we are all in this together. Take care.
