Hi all,
Allow myself to introduce.........myself (quoting Austin Powers!)
My name is Shannon, I'm 38 years old and was diagnosed with Chron's at aged 21 after being unwell all through my teenage years, via appendectomy.
I was relatively well after starting on mesalazine and prednisolone bought symptoms under control at that stage of proceedings.
Pregnant with DS1 at 24, had a really REALLY horrendous natural childbirth with lots of complications. The day I took him home - bang, flare. I was sick on and off for 2 years after that (including a lovely run in with PND). When DS1 was 2 1/2 I became EXTREMELY unwell, scope both ends showed nothing (more about this later) but I was in absolute agony and I was losing weight at an alarming rate. I had a resection in 2001. Recovered from that and then my husband walked out, leaving me with a three year old child and no financial way of supporting myself or my son.
It gets better, way better, after that. I'm a qualified teacher and was able to get work to support ourselves, and I met my lovely man who has been an incredible support to me. Since the op I've only been hospitalised once and have been relatively well. I even carried another beautiful DS2 to full term and had him via c-section.
Things have gone really well in the interim - I've worked my butt off and had a leadership job at my school and I've been really happy!
Then - disaster. Hubby got sick, blood in his stools. After testing he's fine, they think he had an infection - but it's bought everything slamming back twenty fold. I was awake for both scopes and can remember everything but couldn't move or tell them what was going on, I can remember everything. I was very very sick when I had the scopes done and it was excruciatingly painful, but I couldn't move to tell them what was going on. I became so sick at that time I nearly died. His having to go through scopes this week as led me to freak out, and I've been having panic attacks - I've been diagnosed with PTSD from the scopes and the really hard birth of DS1 (I'm now on valium and my GP is looking at more permanent medications - also going to see a psychologist).
The hardest thing - my doc is saying I need to have scopes done but I jus't - cant. I mean I CAN'T. It's simply too distressing and the memories of what I've been through before just makes the thought of things too much.
I'm at the stage where I'm tearing my hair out, the panic attacks are enough to break the camel's back. Most of the time I'm really together, but I'm at my wit's end at the moment. I've investigated pillcam endoscopy and CT colonoscopy, both are available and covered by my insurance. So, happy to have both of those but no colonoscopy!
Anyway looking forward to getting to know you all
Allow myself to introduce.........myself (quoting Austin Powers!)
My name is Shannon, I'm 38 years old and was diagnosed with Chron's at aged 21 after being unwell all through my teenage years, via appendectomy.
I was relatively well after starting on mesalazine and prednisolone bought symptoms under control at that stage of proceedings.
Pregnant with DS1 at 24, had a really REALLY horrendous natural childbirth with lots of complications. The day I took him home - bang, flare. I was sick on and off for 2 years after that (including a lovely run in with PND). When DS1 was 2 1/2 I became EXTREMELY unwell, scope both ends showed nothing (more about this later) but I was in absolute agony and I was losing weight at an alarming rate. I had a resection in 2001. Recovered from that and then my husband walked out, leaving me with a three year old child and no financial way of supporting myself or my son.
It gets better, way better, after that. I'm a qualified teacher and was able to get work to support ourselves, and I met my lovely man who has been an incredible support to me. Since the op I've only been hospitalised once and have been relatively well. I even carried another beautiful DS2 to full term and had him via c-section.
Things have gone really well in the interim - I've worked my butt off and had a leadership job at my school and I've been really happy!
Then - disaster. Hubby got sick, blood in his stools. After testing he's fine, they think he had an infection - but it's bought everything slamming back twenty fold. I was awake for both scopes and can remember everything but couldn't move or tell them what was going on, I can remember everything. I was very very sick when I had the scopes done and it was excruciatingly painful, but I couldn't move to tell them what was going on. I became so sick at that time I nearly died. His having to go through scopes this week as led me to freak out, and I've been having panic attacks - I've been diagnosed with PTSD from the scopes and the really hard birth of DS1 (I'm now on valium and my GP is looking at more permanent medications - also going to see a psychologist).
The hardest thing - my doc is saying I need to have scopes done but I jus't - cant. I mean I CAN'T. It's simply too distressing and the memories of what I've been through before just makes the thought of things too much.
I'm at the stage where I'm tearing my hair out, the panic attacks are enough to break the camel's back. Most of the time I'm really together, but I'm at my wit's end at the moment. I've investigated pillcam endoscopy and CT colonoscopy, both are available and covered by my insurance. So, happy to have both of those but no colonoscopy!
Anyway looking forward to getting to know you all
