Hi, My name is Trevor Cobb out of Birmingham AL, I am happily married and have been so for two years. My first flare up took place several months before we got married in December 2008, I didn't know what was going on and didn't want to talk to anyone about it for a while, it affected all aspects of my life - and if you ask me was partially responsible for me being laid off amidst the beginnings of the economic crisis. Stressed out and nowhere to go, I finally made my way to a Gastro, he performed a colonoscopy, told me it was Ulcerative Colitis and sent me and my prednisone on our happy way. The prednisone calmed my bowels down and besides the "moon face" and emotional tole they were a Godsend. May 16 2009 we got hitched down at the beach, I got a new job, and things were looking golden. Then the new job turned out to be my own personal hell, August came and I became extremely sick, blood in the stool, extreme dehydration, the hole shebang. I tried to see my previous doc but he was booked out and I ended up seeing someone else in his practice. I was immediately admitted to the Hospital where I spend the next 9 days (My wife used my email, to notify my boss of the situation, that I was in the hospital, and the only response was "ok", needless to say I did not return to work for that man), I received a colonoscopy, blood test, etc... and the new Doc informed me that he wasn't ready to rule out Crohn's disease and referred to my condition as Crohn's Colitis. Once again I was sent home with Prednisone (my poor wife, that stuff makes me act like a crazy person) and Imuran. My conditions improved drastically and my new Doctor now at age 72 was set to retire, I loaded up on refills of my meds and kind of ignored the situation thinking that I was healed, and I would just wean off of the prednisone and imuran (I didn't really have any better directions). In the past month and a half I weaned off of all my medicine and was moved by a book I was given 'Self Healing Colitis & Crohn's' by David Klein. I followed this book to the T, as miserable as it was, as hungry as I got, and as terrible as I felt until a week ago, when I finally had my wife call and schedule an appointment with a Gasto for me, I was too weak to call myself. While attempting the lifestyle and diet change advised for Healing in Klein's book I started a flare up, lost approximately 20 lbs., became so inflamed and dehydrated that the only time I could get out of bed was to rush to the restroom. *I am simply stating my personal experience with this book and not intending to make any broad statements about the book* However, personally I do believe that Crohn's is in our DNA and that while a diet may be a great tool in preventing a flare up, from my personal experience it is not suited for alone curing or settling a flare up. Back to my story, the newest Gastro (Doc #3) after much more extensive testing than either of the other ones informed my wife and I that I have Crohn's disease. I am on a short order of prednisone with tapering down starting in two weeks (starting at 30 mg) also on three pills three times a day of Asacol HD, and going to be starting Remicade infusions really shortly, I have not exactly gone this route or ever gotten on a distinct path with a doctor before, please advise in any way you can and thank you for having me on your forum.
-Trevor
-Trevor
