Hi, I'm AbbyLeigh. I'm an 18-year-old college student at Syracuse University (go big orange!). I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in December of 2009, at 16 years old. I don't really know a lot of other people with IBD in real life, so I thought I'd sign up here and give it a shot! I had to come home from Syracuse for this semester because of my Crohn's. So, I thought I'd see what wisdom people have to impart upon me and introduce myself!
EDIT: After perusing some other posts, I thought I'd add more about myself here.
I was diagnosed 12/09 after two years of symptoms building up and getting worse. I was very sick all throughout 2009, but I was studying abroad in Italy and did not have access to great healthcare. By the time I came home for the summer, I was much sicker than I'd been before and my mom took me to a GI doctor. We did the normal diagnostic dance, lots of tests and ruling things out, before I had an endoscopy and colonoscopy done in December and was subsequently diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I was immediately placed on 6mp and Prednisone. I was on Prednisone for about 10 months as we tried again and again to get me into remission. During this time, they dc'd the 6mp and tried me on a dozen other things- Asacol, pentasa, acupuncture, you name it. I was extremely sensitive to the Prednisone... my weight ballooned up 60 lbs, I was acne-ridden, moody, experiencing hot flashes and hypersensitivity. I went off the Prednisone for 10 weeks of remissed bliss during the summer of 2010, during which time I was living in Central America. However, shortly before I came home I flared up again, and was back on the steroids. In November of 2010, they started me on Remicade and rescoped me in December, almost exactly a year after I was diagnosed.
The Remicade in conjunction with Chinese healing finally got me into a good place for my first semester of college by May of 2011. However, I flared back up in January 2012, and here we are. They recently increased my dosage of Remicade and put me on Plaquenil to help with the arthritis. I'm still flaring, and I guess I feel really hopeless like I'll never be in remission or successfully be able to complete college.
So, that's my full story!
EDIT: After perusing some other posts, I thought I'd add more about myself here.
I was diagnosed 12/09 after two years of symptoms building up and getting worse. I was very sick all throughout 2009, but I was studying abroad in Italy and did not have access to great healthcare. By the time I came home for the summer, I was much sicker than I'd been before and my mom took me to a GI doctor. We did the normal diagnostic dance, lots of tests and ruling things out, before I had an endoscopy and colonoscopy done in December and was subsequently diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I was immediately placed on 6mp and Prednisone. I was on Prednisone for about 10 months as we tried again and again to get me into remission. During this time, they dc'd the 6mp and tried me on a dozen other things- Asacol, pentasa, acupuncture, you name it. I was extremely sensitive to the Prednisone... my weight ballooned up 60 lbs, I was acne-ridden, moody, experiencing hot flashes and hypersensitivity. I went off the Prednisone for 10 weeks of remissed bliss during the summer of 2010, during which time I was living in Central America. However, shortly before I came home I flared up again, and was back on the steroids. In November of 2010, they started me on Remicade and rescoped me in December, almost exactly a year after I was diagnosed.
The Remicade in conjunction with Chinese healing finally got me into a good place for my first semester of college by May of 2011. However, I flared back up in January 2012, and here we are. They recently increased my dosage of Remicade and put me on Plaquenil to help with the arthritis. I'm still flaring, and I guess I feel really hopeless like I'll never be in remission or successfully be able to complete college.
So, that's my full story!
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How long have you been on the increased dosage? Is your doc aware that you are still having symptoms? Have you looked at diet at all? Whilst it is not a cause or a cure it may help to follow a low residue diet for a while so the tum can calm down. Perhaps have a nosy at our diet ane sups forum about this: 
