Hi,
I am new to the forum and wanted to see if I can get some advice. The short version is I am 25 and was diagnosed with Crohn's in April 2012. I was brought to the ER to have a appendectomy. When the surgeon preformed the surgery he found that I had a fistula, hole in my intestine and large abscess. He informed be that he thought I had Crohn's. It took me about 6 weeks to recover from the surgery and I drains put in and a Picc line with TPN for nutrition because the abscess kept coming back.
Finally in early July, 2012 I had a colonoscopy and was 'officially' diagnosed with Crohn's. I was placed on Asacol. In October, 2012 I was admitted to the ER with a partial flare up and placed on Prednisone and Azathioprine. My GI doctor slowly increased the Azathioprine and decreased the Prednisone based on weekly blood tests.
Around December 2012 when my dose of Prednisone got to 10 mg I started to have some pains (I don't really get most common symptoms of Crohn's i.e. diarrhea, weight loss etc. only pain). I saw a Crohn's specialist at a University research hospital who suggested to have surgery to remove my ileum because it was scared from the appendectomy and would keep getting inflamed and causing problems. My regular GI doctor agreed and in February, 2012 I had a small bowel resection and the ileum removed.
I was slowly recovering and even went back to work about 6 weeks later. Then my groin started swelling and I did a CT and they found some pockets of abscess and a fistula. I was placed in the hospital for a week with drains and a Picc Line and strong antibiotics. The short term goal is to have all these things clear up and sort of give my intestines a rest to heal by using the Pic line for nutrition.
I have been talking to my GI doctor about long term options and he said the choice comes down to either going on Remicade/Humira or another surgery to remove that part of the intestine that seems to be flaring up.
I just wanted to see if anyone has gone through anything similar (i.e. flare ups so close together, surgeries so close, choice between meds or surgery) and what there experience has been like. There seems to be some draw backs to both and I just wanted to see what advice anyone had since I am new to this and this is all still overwhelming.
Thanks for any help anyone can give! Sorry this is post is so long!
Candace
I am new to the forum and wanted to see if I can get some advice. The short version is I am 25 and was diagnosed with Crohn's in April 2012. I was brought to the ER to have a appendectomy. When the surgeon preformed the surgery he found that I had a fistula, hole in my intestine and large abscess. He informed be that he thought I had Crohn's. It took me about 6 weeks to recover from the surgery and I drains put in and a Picc line with TPN for nutrition because the abscess kept coming back.
Finally in early July, 2012 I had a colonoscopy and was 'officially' diagnosed with Crohn's. I was placed on Asacol. In October, 2012 I was admitted to the ER with a partial flare up and placed on Prednisone and Azathioprine. My GI doctor slowly increased the Azathioprine and decreased the Prednisone based on weekly blood tests.
Around December 2012 when my dose of Prednisone got to 10 mg I started to have some pains (I don't really get most common symptoms of Crohn's i.e. diarrhea, weight loss etc. only pain). I saw a Crohn's specialist at a University research hospital who suggested to have surgery to remove my ileum because it was scared from the appendectomy and would keep getting inflamed and causing problems. My regular GI doctor agreed and in February, 2012 I had a small bowel resection and the ileum removed.
I was slowly recovering and even went back to work about 6 weeks later. Then my groin started swelling and I did a CT and they found some pockets of abscess and a fistula. I was placed in the hospital for a week with drains and a Picc Line and strong antibiotics. The short term goal is to have all these things clear up and sort of give my intestines a rest to heal by using the Pic line for nutrition.
I have been talking to my GI doctor about long term options and he said the choice comes down to either going on Remicade/Humira or another surgery to remove that part of the intestine that seems to be flaring up.
I just wanted to see if anyone has gone through anything similar (i.e. flare ups so close together, surgeries so close, choice between meds or surgery) and what there experience has been like. There seems to be some draw backs to both and I just wanted to see what advice anyone had since I am new to this and this is all still overwhelming.
Thanks for any help anyone can give! Sorry this is post is so long!
Candace