Hi all! My name is Kristen and I am a 31 year old female from deep South Texas (I live 10 minutes from the TX/MX border). I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease 11 years ago and for the first six years I was fortunate enough to not have too many problems/flare ups and controlled the disease with just Pentasa. I weighed 330 pounds when I was first diagnosed but decided to start taking care of myself better and was able to lose 115 pounds before the disease reared its ugly head. When I was 26 I started having really bad flares which caused me to be admitted to the hospital for a week at a time. I started taking Lialda, Imuran, and Prednisone but didn't tolerate Prednisone at all. It ended up putting me in the hospital multiple times and caused ulcers in my duodenum. I then tried Cimzia and hallelujah it worked for a few years! Sadly, about a year ago it stopped working for me so after a lot of thought and conversations with my family and GI I decided to try Remicade. Remicade was okay for me, but I still had a lot of problems with abdominal pain. I would get these flare ups where I would be in this intense pain and be vomiting for hours on end. I can deal with diarrhea at work no problem, but the abdominal pain gets so bad that I have to call in sick a lot. Thankfully I have FMLA, plus a very supportive employer and boss. I just hate when I have to call in sick because I love to work and love my job. I am all out of vacation time so when I am home sick I am not making money which has put me into a financial hole.
I got off of Remicade and started Entyvio about a month ago. I have had two infusions so far and have seen minimal improvement but I am still hopeful. I am also anemic so have been taking Ferrex and have recently started to question if iron is what is causing the severe abdominal pain and vomiting. Has anyone else experienced what I am describing taking iron pills? I take Vicodin for pain, but medicine like that has never quite worked on me and I have to take three at time to get pain relief. Am I the only one out there like this? I get frustrated a lot, and sad because I feel like my family and boyfriend don't understand what it's like. All weight loss attempts have been haulted because I just feel so crappy a lot of the time. I feel as if my boyfriend thinks I'm "faking" sometimes but that is not the case in any way, shape, or form. I have been looking for a support group down here but unfortunately this part of the country doesn't have a lot to offer. I apologize if I am rambling, I'm new to this.
I know there are people out there that have it a lot worse than me, and to those people I pray for you every night. Despite the lows of having this disease I have a lot to be thankful for such as my wonderful family, friends, a great boyfriend (I just want him to be more understanding), a job that I love with an outstanding company who have been nothing but supportive, and a friendly albeit sometimes crazy, loveable, charismatic pit bull named Loki. :sign0144:
I got off of Remicade and started Entyvio about a month ago. I have had two infusions so far and have seen minimal improvement but I am still hopeful. I am also anemic so have been taking Ferrex and have recently started to question if iron is what is causing the severe abdominal pain and vomiting. Has anyone else experienced what I am describing taking iron pills? I take Vicodin for pain, but medicine like that has never quite worked on me and I have to take three at time to get pain relief. Am I the only one out there like this? I get frustrated a lot, and sad because I feel like my family and boyfriend don't understand what it's like. All weight loss attempts have been haulted because I just feel so crappy a lot of the time. I feel as if my boyfriend thinks I'm "faking" sometimes but that is not the case in any way, shape, or form. I have been looking for a support group down here but unfortunately this part of the country doesn't have a lot to offer. I apologize if I am rambling, I'm new to this.
I know there are people out there that have it a lot worse than me, and to those people I pray for you every night. Despite the lows of having this disease I have a lot to be thankful for such as my wonderful family, friends, a great boyfriend (I just want him to be more understanding), a job that I love with an outstanding company who have been nothing but supportive, and a friendly albeit sometimes crazy, loveable, charismatic pit bull named Loki. :sign0144: