Hello all,
I have been diagnosed with Crohns since May 2008 but have had gastro issues pretty much my entire life - my first colonoscopy was at age 6. I was hesitant to post on here - I have recently been accused of being a very private person by one of my close friends. I am aware that I tend to keep problems to myself because I want to be able to fix things myself and not burden the people I love. I believe I was in denial about how serious the Crohns was when I was first diagnosed. After a few months of trial and error with the meds I was on prednisone and started Humira in Dec. 2008. I went into a long remission period and was able to come off the prednisone in May 2009 and was thrilled.
In October 2009 my dad died unexpectedly. I was very focused on being strong for my mom and younger sister and ended up holding a lot of my grief inside. It of course set off a flare up in Feb. which I got under control with flagyll and cipro. In May 2010 I had surgery to remove what my gyn thought was a cyst in my posterior vaginal wall. It turned out to be scar tissue and what my gyn thought was a blind sinus tract. I then started having gas/discharge from my vagina. I told my gyn about it and she looked at me like I had lost my mind. It was so comforting to get on here and read that I am not the only one that has ever experienced that! So I got an infection near the surgery site and flared up again and went back on the cipro and flagyll again. The gyn did a ct scan and said it came back clean - no fistula for me. This calmed things down for about 3 weeks. At the end of July I felt a flare up coming on - I am now a master at catching the early signs of a flare up - and called my gastro to try to catch it before it started. I keep a log of my fevers which were ranging from 100.5 up to 103.1 and was told I had to have them for 10 consecutive days before they would see me. I then started having severe abdominal pain that got sharper and sharper every day. When I went in to see the gastro he did an incredibly painful exam and stated that the tissue he could feel was so diseased he believed it was past the point of responding to meds and sent me to a colo/rectal surgeon. The surgeon scheduled surgery for the next day. Turns out I had a large absess at the base of my spine and a rectovaginal fistula. He installed a seton drain that was incredibly difficult for me to adjust to but after the first week I am now handling it much better. I felt good for about a week and a half and now am flaring up AGAIN. I am bad about overdoing it when I start to feel good and am pretty sure I have contributed to the onset of this flare up.
I am on here because I need help learning how to manage my stress levels because I am horrible at that. One important lesson I have learned through my summer of sickness is to stop fighting the disease. I have been telling my family the entire summer "I refuse to let Crohns control my life!" I realize now though that this attitude does not help me in any way - if anything it hurts me. I try to work and go like I am 100% healthy and all it does is run me into the ground. I have been talking to my mom and husband and a few friends about everything but no one knows what to say - especially my poor husband who has told me it kills him to watch me suffer and not be able to fix it. So here I am - finally open to accepting the support and advice of others. Everyone's story is so touching and I am honored to be a part of this group.
Thanks for reading,
Allison
I have been diagnosed with Crohns since May 2008 but have had gastro issues pretty much my entire life - my first colonoscopy was at age 6. I was hesitant to post on here - I have recently been accused of being a very private person by one of my close friends. I am aware that I tend to keep problems to myself because I want to be able to fix things myself and not burden the people I love. I believe I was in denial about how serious the Crohns was when I was first diagnosed. After a few months of trial and error with the meds I was on prednisone and started Humira in Dec. 2008. I went into a long remission period and was able to come off the prednisone in May 2009 and was thrilled.
In October 2009 my dad died unexpectedly. I was very focused on being strong for my mom and younger sister and ended up holding a lot of my grief inside. It of course set off a flare up in Feb. which I got under control with flagyll and cipro. In May 2010 I had surgery to remove what my gyn thought was a cyst in my posterior vaginal wall. It turned out to be scar tissue and what my gyn thought was a blind sinus tract. I then started having gas/discharge from my vagina. I told my gyn about it and she looked at me like I had lost my mind. It was so comforting to get on here and read that I am not the only one that has ever experienced that! So I got an infection near the surgery site and flared up again and went back on the cipro and flagyll again. The gyn did a ct scan and said it came back clean - no fistula for me. This calmed things down for about 3 weeks. At the end of July I felt a flare up coming on - I am now a master at catching the early signs of a flare up - and called my gastro to try to catch it before it started. I keep a log of my fevers which were ranging from 100.5 up to 103.1 and was told I had to have them for 10 consecutive days before they would see me. I then started having severe abdominal pain that got sharper and sharper every day. When I went in to see the gastro he did an incredibly painful exam and stated that the tissue he could feel was so diseased he believed it was past the point of responding to meds and sent me to a colo/rectal surgeon. The surgeon scheduled surgery for the next day. Turns out I had a large absess at the base of my spine and a rectovaginal fistula. He installed a seton drain that was incredibly difficult for me to adjust to but after the first week I am now handling it much better. I felt good for about a week and a half and now am flaring up AGAIN. I am bad about overdoing it when I start to feel good and am pretty sure I have contributed to the onset of this flare up.
I am on here because I need help learning how to manage my stress levels because I am horrible at that. One important lesson I have learned through my summer of sickness is to stop fighting the disease. I have been telling my family the entire summer "I refuse to let Crohns control my life!" I realize now though that this attitude does not help me in any way - if anything it hurts me. I try to work and go like I am 100% healthy and all it does is run me into the ground. I have been talking to my mom and husband and a few friends about everything but no one knows what to say - especially my poor husband who has told me it kills him to watch me suffer and not be able to fix it. So here I am - finally open to accepting the support and advice of others. Everyone's story is so touching and I am honored to be a part of this group.
Thanks for reading,
Allison
