My name is Nikki and I am 40 years old. I was diagnosed with Crohn's at 28 but had been undiagnosed for years, I'm thinking the onset was at 21 shortly after giving birth to my 2nd child.
I was put on Asacol and prednisone back then but due to insurance issues, I wasn't able to afford Asacol for long. I had awful reactions to prednisone so could only take it a couple weeks at a time. After a few years I got my insurance back and was put on Pentasa. Pentasa worked for a bit and then I became pregnant with my 3rd child and I went into remission without drugs for 2 years.
My father died 6 years ago and around the same time my disease came back with a vengeance. Stress has always been a huge trigger for me. I was on Remicade for 18 months and developed rheumatoid symptoms s they switched me to Cimzia. Cimzia made the rheumatoid feel better but didn't help at all with Crohn's. I also ended up having fluid on my lungs and heart and had a pericardial window 2 years ago. The docs believe the fluid was a result of rheumatoid arthritis which oddly enough was brought on by drugs that were supposed to treat it.
This is when I had my resection and did well for about half a year (April 2011).
With the side effects I experienced on Remicade and Crohn's (the rheumatoid disappeared after stopping Cimzia and I never had a recurrence of the fluid afterwards either), I was put on methotrexate which did nothing for me and then
6mp which gave me debilitating migraines.
Well, the past 9 months I have been hospitalized 4 times with abscesses and found that I now have a fistula as well. I changed doctors to a doctor affiliated with Johns Hopkins and tomorrow I start the clinical trial for Stelara.
She is very hopeful that this will work for me while most everything has failed. If not, I'll be looking at a second surgery and I really don't want to get cut open again. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed....:voodoo: and a little voodoo doesn't hurt, lol.
I was put on Asacol and prednisone back then but due to insurance issues, I wasn't able to afford Asacol for long. I had awful reactions to prednisone so could only take it a couple weeks at a time. After a few years I got my insurance back and was put on Pentasa. Pentasa worked for a bit and then I became pregnant with my 3rd child and I went into remission without drugs for 2 years.
My father died 6 years ago and around the same time my disease came back with a vengeance. Stress has always been a huge trigger for me. I was on Remicade for 18 months and developed rheumatoid symptoms s they switched me to Cimzia. Cimzia made the rheumatoid feel better but didn't help at all with Crohn's. I also ended up having fluid on my lungs and heart and had a pericardial window 2 years ago. The docs believe the fluid was a result of rheumatoid arthritis which oddly enough was brought on by drugs that were supposed to treat it.
This is when I had my resection and did well for about half a year (April 2011).
With the side effects I experienced on Remicade and Crohn's (the rheumatoid disappeared after stopping Cimzia and I never had a recurrence of the fluid afterwards either), I was put on methotrexate which did nothing for me and then
6mp which gave me debilitating migraines.
Well, the past 9 months I have been hospitalized 4 times with abscesses and found that I now have a fistula as well. I changed doctors to a doctor affiliated with Johns Hopkins and tomorrow I start the clinical trial for Stelara.
She is very hopeful that this will work for me while most everything has failed. If not, I'll be looking at a second surgery and I really don't want to get cut open again. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed....:voodoo: and a little voodoo doesn't hurt, lol.
