Hello All—I’m new to the forum and was hoping to both share my crohns story and hopefully get some advice as well to help me with my next steps in dealing with this disease.
I am a 24 year old female and up until recently, I have been quite healthy. It all started about 1 year ago when I developed an anal fissure. I had no other issues, no diarrhea, no pain, nothing. Within a few months the fissure didn’t heal, and then a few months after that it still wouldn’t heal after my doctor had tried injections, creams, you name it. Finally I opted for the surgery to rid me of the fissure. I was told it would take up to 2 weeks to fully heal but unfortunately for me things only seemed to get worse after those 2 weeks. The fissure pain had gone, but I now had a chronic wound from the incision site that was giving me extreme pain and would not heal. I ended up having another surgery to clean up the wound and I had to take a total of 6 weeks off work. During these 6 weeks (and up until now) I’ve had non-stop diarrhea. At first I figured it was due to the stool softeners the surgeon had prescribed me, but after stopping those and seeing no change, it was clear that something else was going on.
Fast forward another few weeks and I ended up having a CT scan which showed some definite inflammation and ulcers around my small bowel. I finally got referred to a GI and she set me up for all the tests and scopes needed to diagnose me. Had the scope last week and it turns out it’s definitely crohns. It’s weird because aside from the diarrhea, I have not had any other symptoms. No abdomen pain like I know so many others experience. Oh—and the surgery wound is still not fully healed, I’d say it’s probably about 60% healed.
After the scope last week, she recommended I start on 40mg’s of prednisone for the next couple months until another medication (Imuran) kicked in. At the time it was a shock, and I was likely still somewhat impaired from the drugs that I had been administered during the procedure. I ended up telling her that I needed time to think it over, as I know there are some horrible side effects that can come from steroids. While I’m not in need of surgery, I did have some narrowing in the opening to my small bowel. I guess the worry is that without taking care of the inflammation, a blockage can occur.
I guess I have a few questions for those of you reading: What’s the deal with Imuran not kicking in till 3 months? Is waiting the three months a bad idea? Will the Imuran do the same thing in three months’ time that the prednisone will do? Any advice is welcome!
I am a 24 year old female and up until recently, I have been quite healthy. It all started about 1 year ago when I developed an anal fissure. I had no other issues, no diarrhea, no pain, nothing. Within a few months the fissure didn’t heal, and then a few months after that it still wouldn’t heal after my doctor had tried injections, creams, you name it. Finally I opted for the surgery to rid me of the fissure. I was told it would take up to 2 weeks to fully heal but unfortunately for me things only seemed to get worse after those 2 weeks. The fissure pain had gone, but I now had a chronic wound from the incision site that was giving me extreme pain and would not heal. I ended up having another surgery to clean up the wound and I had to take a total of 6 weeks off work. During these 6 weeks (and up until now) I’ve had non-stop diarrhea. At first I figured it was due to the stool softeners the surgeon had prescribed me, but after stopping those and seeing no change, it was clear that something else was going on.
Fast forward another few weeks and I ended up having a CT scan which showed some definite inflammation and ulcers around my small bowel. I finally got referred to a GI and she set me up for all the tests and scopes needed to diagnose me. Had the scope last week and it turns out it’s definitely crohns. It’s weird because aside from the diarrhea, I have not had any other symptoms. No abdomen pain like I know so many others experience. Oh—and the surgery wound is still not fully healed, I’d say it’s probably about 60% healed.
After the scope last week, she recommended I start on 40mg’s of prednisone for the next couple months until another medication (Imuran) kicked in. At the time it was a shock, and I was likely still somewhat impaired from the drugs that I had been administered during the procedure. I ended up telling her that I needed time to think it over, as I know there are some horrible side effects that can come from steroids. While I’m not in need of surgery, I did have some narrowing in the opening to my small bowel. I guess the worry is that without taking care of the inflammation, a blockage can occur.
I guess I have a few questions for those of you reading: What’s the deal with Imuran not kicking in till 3 months? Is waiting the three months a bad idea? Will the Imuran do the same thing in three months’ time that the prednisone will do? Any advice is welcome!