New here, long time Crohns patient

[hummingbirdt]

I'm new to this forum, looking forward to sharing my story and meeting others with Crohns. My name is Tracey and I was diagnosed with Crohns in 1984 (I'm 59 now) I had many years of remission after being put on Azulfadine. Around 2000 I experienced more pain and after being in hospital I was started on Remicade. Going back and forth on Remicade I was put on 6mp and other drugs I can't remember, but all were either drugs I had a reaction to or they stopped working. I've had 1 resection and 1 strictureplasty. Over the past 8 yrs I've had many bowel obstructions. A yr ago being in the hospital for a bowel obstruction they did a colonoscopy where they stretched the intestines open and shot steroids in to keep the area open. That lasted about a year, before having another obstruction. I'm having another colonoscopy in a couple days to stretch the area open again. Has anyone had a procedure like this? I can't find anything on the Internet. Thank you.

 

[Scipio]

Hello and welcome. it sounds like you had a balloon dilation of the intestine. I haven't had that but it has become a fairly common procedure in recent years. Here is a research paper discussing its effectiveness:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24528293

 

[ronroush7]

Welcome. I hope the best for you.

 

[cmack]

Welcome Tracey,

I am sorry to hear you are having trouble. I'm pretty sure there are members of this forum who can relate. I hope you find some answers here.

Wishing you the very best of luck with everything you are going through,


cmack