Hi my name is Travis and I am 16. I was diagnosed officially on April 7, 2010. I had crohns symptoms for almost 8 months before i was diagnosed though. I have crohns in luckily only my colon and not in both the small and large bowel. I had a progressive down decline in health for months. At my lowest point I was measuring at 6 foot and 125 lbs. I looked almost like a skeleton.
The first meds i went on were 50mg pred and apriso. I felt much better and thought that maybe I would be able to go on these and live a normal. Well we all know that you cannot stay on pred forever, or at least on high doses. I eventually started to practice soccer with my high school team again. Never have been right on the pitch since crohns has hit me. I was regressing as i tryed to taper and my GI doctor decided 6MP was the next step for me. The immunosuppresion took some time to kick in, but I started to feel better. I got back to the practice field and thought that playing soccer may actually be possible. Of course my symptoms got right back as soon as I tryed to cut down the pred. I was doing nothing but sleeping and barely moving for a month. I could hardly keep any food down, had incredible salivation during bowel movements, horrible gut pain, vomitting, and absolutely zero energy or will to do anything. Had to end my dreams of playing soccer for this school year. I had to go back up on pred and started to feel way better. I just recently tried to kick pred again and got down to 5mg. Of course I could not stay there because I was getting very sick again. Now as of today I am on 6MP, 20mg of pred, Cipro, Flagyl, Align, and luckily discontinued the Apriso. I am going to see a pediatric GI specialist next month. Probably wont do any good but my doctor wants a pediatric to see me in case there is something that they do different. I am currently prepping to undergo Remicade. I want to go on Remicade so much so that hopefully I can resume a normal life as a 16 year old kid. I understand the risk but the way that I look at is that living 20 years of a healthy, remicade induced life would be way better than 20 years of hell with non stop Crohns complications. It has been hard on me because really none of my friends understand the disease or what I have to go through everyday. Started an organic diet and sometimes my friends will almost make fun of me for it. I have had people comment on my facial swelling (luckily not permanent like moon face is). Quitting soccer has been hard but I have really gotten over it now. Going to school everyday wears me out tremendously and makes it tougher on me. I am lucky that I am in decent shape for a crohns patient. I have read what some other people have been through and i cannot even imagine how hard life is for them. Hopefully i can help answer questions that others have on the forum. Thanks!
The first meds i went on were 50mg pred and apriso. I felt much better and thought that maybe I would be able to go on these and live a normal. Well we all know that you cannot stay on pred forever, or at least on high doses. I eventually started to practice soccer with my high school team again. Never have been right on the pitch since crohns has hit me. I was regressing as i tryed to taper and my GI doctor decided 6MP was the next step for me. The immunosuppresion took some time to kick in, but I started to feel better. I got back to the practice field and thought that playing soccer may actually be possible. Of course my symptoms got right back as soon as I tryed to cut down the pred. I was doing nothing but sleeping and barely moving for a month. I could hardly keep any food down, had incredible salivation during bowel movements, horrible gut pain, vomitting, and absolutely zero energy or will to do anything. Had to end my dreams of playing soccer for this school year. I had to go back up on pred and started to feel way better. I just recently tried to kick pred again and got down to 5mg. Of course I could not stay there because I was getting very sick again. Now as of today I am on 6MP, 20mg of pred, Cipro, Flagyl, Align, and luckily discontinued the Apriso. I am going to see a pediatric GI specialist next month. Probably wont do any good but my doctor wants a pediatric to see me in case there is something that they do different. I am currently prepping to undergo Remicade. I want to go on Remicade so much so that hopefully I can resume a normal life as a 16 year old kid. I understand the risk but the way that I look at is that living 20 years of a healthy, remicade induced life would be way better than 20 years of hell with non stop Crohns complications. It has been hard on me because really none of my friends understand the disease or what I have to go through everyday. Started an organic diet and sometimes my friends will almost make fun of me for it. I have had people comment on my facial swelling (luckily not permanent like moon face is). Quitting soccer has been hard but I have really gotten over it now. Going to school everyday wears me out tremendously and makes it tougher on me. I am lucky that I am in decent shape for a crohns patient. I have read what some other people have been through and i cannot even imagine how hard life is for them. Hopefully i can help answer questions that others have on the forum. Thanks!
