New Crohn's Diagnosis

[Crohns10]

I believe I have had Crohn’s for about ten years undiagnosed, I treated it with over the counter drugs for diarrhea, and reflux pain, which didn’t work great, but I thought that was just the way it was. You know, if you don’t know better, you think it is normal or somewhat normal. And the fact that the problems that come along with this disease are things you just don’t want to talk about with most people doesn’t help you to realize these are not things most people are dealing with. My husband has been trying to get me to go to the doctor for sometime (he would tell me the pain and diarrhea is not normal), but I really hate going to the doctor (I didn’t feel that I got real help) so I would refuse.

Finally, in the middle of October I went to my family medicine doctor because I started have quite a lot of blood and blood clots along with some pretty significant pain. My doctor wanted to do a colonoscopy, so we did (I woke up before this was over and remember him taking the biopsies), when it was over he told me he was sure I had Crohn’s, but we would wait to get the biopsy results before moving forward. About a week later we got those and I was sent to a Gastroenterologist who has started to treat me.

I do feel like I have more energy so far, but haven’t noticed a lot of improvement in any of my other symptoms. I am currently going through more tests, to get a good baseline for where I am at with the disease, like CTs and next week an upper GI. My gastro doctor told me we might have to change my medications a few times before we find what works for me; I hope it doesn’t take too long!

 

[georgiegirl]

Wow, your story sounds almost exactly like mine! I too had problems for years that I thought were "normal" and didn't seek out any diagnosis on. Once I did, I was diagnosed pretty quick.

I started on Pentasa, and after a few weeks when that wasn't making any difference, my GI put me on Prednisone and Imuran. Those have made a huge difference to me. I had a little trouble tapering off the pred (I only made it from 50mg down to 30 and started having problems again) so I went back up and started tapering again.

Hopefully you find the right drugs for you nice and quickly - when they started working for me I realised how crappy I'd been feeling for so long...it was nice to realise that that wasn't actually "normal"!!!

You'll find lots of information on this site. My GI was surprised at how much I've learned in such a short space of time!!!

 

[Nica]

Hi
So sorry you are feeling bad, but you now have a name to what is causing all the trouble, with that name you can get it better managed and be able to have a life that does not exists entirely around where the next loo is. Lots of people on here with lots of Crohns experience feel free to ask ANYTHING, none of us shy away from poop talk.( I think most like poop talk LOL)

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I like your profile pic! Black and white kitties are so cute! (My cat's mostly black but she's got little white patches on her belly and white toes on her back feet.)

As far as trying different medications, unfortunately no two of us are alike and sometimes it takes awhile to figure out which medications work and which don't. Same thing for diet. It's all trial and error. As someone in another thread said, that's why they call it "practicing medicine" instead of "performing medicine"! Good luck with your meds, I hope they do work well for you.