Newly Diagnosed.

[Terri311]

I was told yesterday that the biopsy confirmed Crohns. I am very very surprised as I am 77 years old, and very active.

I am very unaware of what is what with this and have started to educate myself.

Just found this forum, hope I can get some info from you all.

I am worried about taking the Entocort prescribed as I become diabetic when on any steriods, had prednisone when I had pneumonia. Will be talking to my family doctor about this next week.

I am searching for information but have no idea what I am looking for.

Thanks for reading

 

[_aprillll]

Hey there. I try to control my diet very well and notice any changes in my body as mine is a tougher case whereas it seems your doing well with yours. I would just advise staying away from nuts, seeds, kernals. I stay away from lettuce, meat, and raw veggies and fruit right now because I have a fistula and abscess. Lettuce is hard to digest though. I'm actually on an all liquids diet right now. I would consider using tylenol instead of NSAIDs like motrin because it can slow things down inside your gut. Hope some of that information helps!

 

[POTTYTIME!]

Diet is a big part of control for crohn's. I also have trouble with my blood sugar when on the prednisone. I have just started to taper down from being on 40mg for 2 months. I had to start out on pentasa which is for mild cases. It was only due to my insurance wouldn't cover humira until I tried the pills first. I fall into the sever category so I wasted some time due to Insurance company. I am waiting results from a CT SCAN so I can schedule a bowel resection and fistula surgery. Everyone is different when it comes to this disease. Hopping for the best for ya.

Current meds :

Humira injections every 14 days
Pentasa 4000mg a day
Prednisone 20mg a day " started taper on Friday"
Nexium 40mg a day
Bentyl 60mg a day
Norco 10-325 when needed
Liquid Omega 3 800EPA / 500DHA
Chamomile oil
Jarro-Dophilus EPS probiotics

 

[Terri311]

I am becoming aware that living in Canada is a big plus for me. No insurance to deal with. Luckily I was referred to a Gastro specialist who is a prof at our university and is what I call a gentle doctor. He listens, he questions and reads your file. I am already seeing a dietitian once a month, he is helpful and has taught me how to test out various foods.

Thanks Aprillll for confirming to me about the raw foods, already had noticed that one, and the nuts and seeds etc. This is a great help to me as I thought I was being silly about the raw foods. I do seem OK with bananas. I seem to be able to tolerate fish and chicken, not too often though, but my main protein seems to be eggs which are OK for me.

I am also very Gluten intollerant and am religious about staying away from gluten, and am allergic to one of the proteins in milk, already do take Tylenol for my back. I have thin blood and am not suppose to take anything with aspirin and Ibuprofen gave me the lovely side effect of some hearing loss.

PT, I have already had a CT scan. I noticed that you take probiotics, I did for a few months when into a severe time and it certainly did help a lot. I have had to stop taking my fish oil as it went right through me, eliminating that seems to have helped to lower the frequency of my bowels.

It it normal to never know what causes a flare up? Just when I think I have the food intake part right it comes back again, as if my body is rejecting another food and I have to start solving the mystery all over again. Starting to feel like the Miss Marple of my body.

Thanks to you both it helps to have someone to talk with about this who is knowledgeable.

 

[24601]

Guts are so complicated and there are so many factors that affect how they behave that it is definitely hard to know for sure what causes a flare up. And for most of us there is probably not one trigger but multiple triggers.

I think that while most of us have to pay some attention to our diets and make some changes and while some people have a lot of success with diets like SCD or Paleo or GAPS, you will see on the diet forum here that even those who follow diets religiously for long periods of time may well need meds to control the disease as well.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which foods caused me trouble using EEN followed by elimination diets and like you say as soon as I thought I'd got the foods right, the symptoms would come back and there were so many potential causes that I didn't know whether I was getting useful information about how each food affected me.

I'm not saying don't try - just be prepared that you may need other treatments too!