Hi All,
I'm Alan and I'm happy to be a part of such a caring group. When I was in my 50's I had some bouts of severe cramping and nausea which I chalked up to food poisoning (working in the food industry I was a little concerned I was making my diners sick!). I had good doctors who ran lots of tests but with no conclusive evidence of anything except ulcers.
I had a pill cam test when I was 60 and my GE suspected Crohn's and started me on Pentasa. The cramping became less frequent but my primary care Dr. told me to go to the ER as soon as I had my next bout of pain. The hospital did some testing and introduced me to the surgeon who suspected a blockage (BM's had always been normal). The other ER docs wanted to send me home but I convinced the surgeon to do an exploratory. He did and took out a piece of small intestine as well as my appendix. The appendix had a tumor in it and he diagnosed the infected part of intestine as Crohn's disease. He suggested Biologics but my GE told me to stay with Pentasa. My Primary doc. urged me to see a Crohn's specialist. About 7 months after the surgery I started seeing my new specialist who ran some other tests including an MRE which showed inflammation of the intestine just above the surgery. He started me on Humira with Entacort as needed.
So...now I'm almost 63 and coping quite well with Crohn's. I ride my bike to work and refuse to let this disease stop me. I write down my trigger foods as I've seen suggested on this most helpful site.I am also taking part in a 7 city study of Crohn's disease.
I am leaving for a riverboat cruise in Europe this coming Friday and it will be my first travel taking my Humira with me. The boat company and Airlines have said that refrigeration won't be a problem...I'm hoping they are right.
I hope I can contribute to future discussions.
I'm Alan and I'm happy to be a part of such a caring group. When I was in my 50's I had some bouts of severe cramping and nausea which I chalked up to food poisoning (working in the food industry I was a little concerned I was making my diners sick!). I had good doctors who ran lots of tests but with no conclusive evidence of anything except ulcers.
I had a pill cam test when I was 60 and my GE suspected Crohn's and started me on Pentasa. The cramping became less frequent but my primary care Dr. told me to go to the ER as soon as I had my next bout of pain. The hospital did some testing and introduced me to the surgeon who suspected a blockage (BM's had always been normal). The other ER docs wanted to send me home but I convinced the surgeon to do an exploratory. He did and took out a piece of small intestine as well as my appendix. The appendix had a tumor in it and he diagnosed the infected part of intestine as Crohn's disease. He suggested Biologics but my GE told me to stay with Pentasa. My Primary doc. urged me to see a Crohn's specialist. About 7 months after the surgery I started seeing my new specialist who ran some other tests including an MRE which showed inflammation of the intestine just above the surgery. He started me on Humira with Entacort as needed.
So...now I'm almost 63 and coping quite well with Crohn's. I ride my bike to work and refuse to let this disease stop me. I write down my trigger foods as I've seen suggested on this most helpful site.I am also taking part in a 7 city study of Crohn's disease.
I am leaving for a riverboat cruise in Europe this coming Friday and it will be my first travel taking my Humira with me. The boat company and Airlines have said that refrigeration won't be a problem...I'm hoping they are right.
I hope I can contribute to future discussions.