Hello! My name is Austin, and I am 21 years old. I got diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in the spring of 2011, and have been in remission up until these past two weeks.
I hope I don't ramble, but it is my story, so here goes. I had very mild symptoms of Crohn's in April 2010 that only appeared for 4 days, but I didn't tell anyone because I was embarrassed (I know, it was stupid of me not to say something). In January 2011 these symptoms came back, but they never went away, and I told my parents after about a month and a half of the symptoms worsening. A series of tests and an ER visit later, and I was diagnosed with Crohn's.
I've always been a thin kid (norm is 135), and by the time I graduated high school in June 2011 I was 5'10" and 117 lbs. Thankfully, the first treatment that was offered (mercaptopurine and I think mesalamine) did the trick, and I went into remission for a while. I had a really bad habit of not taking meds when I felt okay, which brought flares here and there throughout the years, but I was mostly symptom-free.
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Now the disease has come back with a vengeance. It was mild at first, but in the past two weeks it's become pretty aggressive, and I'm back down to ~117 lbs. I can only eat oatmeal, chicken, cooked and pureed broccoli, and white rice, and even then it can really hurt. I keep losing weight regardless of what I do...
The doctor I'm seeing put me on 60mg Prednisone, tapering off by 10mg every week or so; I'm currently at 40mg. It hasn't helped much, and we're trying hard and fast to begin a switch to Humira, and we should by early next week. He didn't seem to want to add anything to the pill regimen when I came in looking like a ghost, and I'm not sure he should have left this unchecked...I'm losing more weight every day it seems, and I'm honestly a little concerned about my state.
Any advice would be very helpful...
I hope I don't ramble, but it is my story, so here goes. I had very mild symptoms of Crohn's in April 2010 that only appeared for 4 days, but I didn't tell anyone because I was embarrassed (I know, it was stupid of me not to say something). In January 2011 these symptoms came back, but they never went away, and I told my parents after about a month and a half of the symptoms worsening. A series of tests and an ER visit later, and I was diagnosed with Crohn's.
I've always been a thin kid (norm is 135), and by the time I graduated high school in June 2011 I was 5'10" and 117 lbs. Thankfully, the first treatment that was offered (mercaptopurine and I think mesalamine) did the trick, and I went into remission for a while. I had a really bad habit of not taking meds when I felt okay, which brought flares here and there throughout the years, but I was mostly symptom-free.
---
Now the disease has come back with a vengeance. It was mild at first, but in the past two weeks it's become pretty aggressive, and I'm back down to ~117 lbs. I can only eat oatmeal, chicken, cooked and pureed broccoli, and white rice, and even then it can really hurt. I keep losing weight regardless of what I do...
The doctor I'm seeing put me on 60mg Prednisone, tapering off by 10mg every week or so; I'm currently at 40mg. It hasn't helped much, and we're trying hard and fast to begin a switch to Humira, and we should by early next week. He didn't seem to want to add anything to the pill regimen when I came in looking like a ghost, and I'm not sure he should have left this unchecked...I'm losing more weight every day it seems, and I'm honestly a little concerned about my state.
Any advice would be very helpful...
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