• Welcome to Crohn's Forum, a support group for people with all forms of IBD. While this community is not a substitute for doctor's advice and we cannot treat or diagnose, we find being able to communicate with others who have IBD is invaluable as we navigate our struggles and celebrate our successes. We invite you to join us.

New member hello.....

Hello to all of you! I am new here. After 8 years of continuous abdominal pain I have recently (last week) been diagnosed with Crohn's disease.

I have started to read up on this disease that I knew so little about before being diagnosed. Although I have found the information that is available online to be very helpful, I am very curious about all of your personal experiences with this nasty disease and I have many questions.

If you don't mind, here are my most pressing questions at the moment:
1) I am on 9 mg of budesonide per day, and I was wondering when it will start to kick in? So far it just makes me feel very fuzzy, if that description makes sense.
2) My journey towards a diagnosis has been a looong one... it took almost every test in the book to confirm it. I have had several biopsies come back negative for Crohns but then eventually they were able to confirm it during the last round. Is this common?
3) I appear to have a lighter version of it, in the sense that they have not found that many ulcers, but it sure as hell does not feel light... is this weird?
4) During my last gastric endoscopy (my Crohn's is in the small bowel only) they found that my stomach lining was extremely red as well. Does this usually occur with Crohn's?
5) How often do you have to visit your doctor for check ups?

Many more questions will probably follow, but I would greatly appreciate any answers or advise to these first questions.

Sorry voor the spelling mistakes, but English is not my first language...

Thanks so much for your help!
 
First of all, welcome to the group. It is very supportive. Everyone else is different. I was on budesonide for a few months and didn't see a big difference. My own personal experience was that in 1989 I had surgeries for both hemorrhoids and later on a fistula. I had trouble healing from both surgeries. I went to a surgeon and it didn't seem all that complicated to determine that I had Crohn's. Let us know how you are doing.
 
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