Hi all.
This is my first post ever on any type of forum. My name is Luke and I am 24 yrs old from Scotland in the UK. I was diagnosed with Crohn's aged 13 after 6 months or so of various tests and a pretty bad flare up with the usual symptoms - lots of; vomiting, diarrhoea, weight loss, extreme stomach pain etc. I was admitted to hospital on numerous occasions throughout the process until I was successfully diagnosed. I missed a lot of school and wasn’t able to socialise or play sports - as I'm sure you have all experienced.
I was then treated with Prednisone (forgive me I cannot remember which doses) and the symptoms disappeared, only to return a few months later when I stopped taking the steroids. After another long flare the Prednisone finally kicked in and the symptoms settled. At this point I also started taking azathioprine (75mg per day, now up t0 125mg) in addition to the steroids.
After my second flare, aged 15 I was nearly finished my course of steroids when I ruptured my small intestine (at the ileum - where my crohns is) playing rugby. This required emergency surgery that evening and I then lived with a Colostomy for about 6 months until it was reversed.
At the time of rupturing my intestine life could not have been any worse, including the 6 months that followed trying to balance life as a 15 year old with a colostomy. Anger, resentment, fear, pain...the lot.
However after my reversal life began to return to normal. During the initial operation to repair the ruptured intestine, the doctors removed a section of small bowel and as a result my flares have never lasted for longer than 2-7 days as a result. Lucky I think in retrospect.
Now though for the last year I have been intermittently suffering from large amounts of stomach pain, and bloating around the area of my crohns and scars from my surgery 9 years ago. I have had an MRI scan and a capsule endoscopy which suggest I have a stricture which has been caused by my scar tissue from the operations. I am told it is likely to require surgery to remove the stricture as my ileum cannot be reached any other way. Has anyone else had a stricture removed/repaired and how did it go?
Thanks for reading.
Luke
This is my first post ever on any type of forum. My name is Luke and I am 24 yrs old from Scotland in the UK. I was diagnosed with Crohn's aged 13 after 6 months or so of various tests and a pretty bad flare up with the usual symptoms - lots of; vomiting, diarrhoea, weight loss, extreme stomach pain etc. I was admitted to hospital on numerous occasions throughout the process until I was successfully diagnosed. I missed a lot of school and wasn’t able to socialise or play sports - as I'm sure you have all experienced.
I was then treated with Prednisone (forgive me I cannot remember which doses) and the symptoms disappeared, only to return a few months later when I stopped taking the steroids. After another long flare the Prednisone finally kicked in and the symptoms settled. At this point I also started taking azathioprine (75mg per day, now up t0 125mg) in addition to the steroids.
After my second flare, aged 15 I was nearly finished my course of steroids when I ruptured my small intestine (at the ileum - where my crohns is) playing rugby. This required emergency surgery that evening and I then lived with a Colostomy for about 6 months until it was reversed.
At the time of rupturing my intestine life could not have been any worse, including the 6 months that followed trying to balance life as a 15 year old with a colostomy. Anger, resentment, fear, pain...the lot.
However after my reversal life began to return to normal. During the initial operation to repair the ruptured intestine, the doctors removed a section of small bowel and as a result my flares have never lasted for longer than 2-7 days as a result. Lucky I think in retrospect.
Now though for the last year I have been intermittently suffering from large amounts of stomach pain, and bloating around the area of my crohns and scars from my surgery 9 years ago. I have had an MRI scan and a capsule endoscopy which suggest I have a stricture which has been caused by my scar tissue from the operations. I am told it is likely to require surgery to remove the stricture as my ileum cannot be reached any other way. Has anyone else had a stricture removed/repaired and how did it go?
Thanks for reading.
Luke
They say a normal recovery time is 6-8 weeks. I was back to work after 6 with only a few expected niggles which was muscle related. I would say I was a typical textboook case. They do have to warn you about the risk of if things are worse than expected they may need to open you up fully or give you a bag. There is also about a 4% chance of a leak at the join but if this happens they will act quickly and accordingly. Our age helps (I am 26) and apart from the crohns I have no other health issues so this all helps towards a good recovery. They also gave me some stuff to drink on the day before the op which they said was some sort of booster for the body to help it start to heal. Personally the op was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and pain from the op was a doddle to deal with compared to the pain of the stricture. When are you due to see the doc and get confirmation on whether surgery is the next step?
