mikeyarmo
Co-Founder
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2006
- Messages
- 2,517
I never had many medical problems growing up. As a child I had Asthama, but I outgrew it. I of course got sick every now and again, but nothing more than typical. There were no early indicators of anything abnormal in what I could eat or problems with digestion.
About 3 years ago something just changed. I cannot give a specific date or time, but slowly I was becoming more constipated. Over the course of several months my washroom visits went from about one every day to one a week. Early doctor appointments resulted in me trying to eat more fibre and drink more water, but that did not help. I started taking mild oral laxatives, but they did not seem to help. The "force" of the laxatives I started to take began to increase, but still there seemed to be no relief.
My docotor was out of ideas (and luckily laxatives with even more force were not available), so he sent me to get a sigmoidoscopy. That was not a very fun experience, but it did show evidence of what may be wrong. While Crohn's was not exactly found, there were signs that I might have it. A colonoscopy later on would confirm inflammation in about 2 feet (50cm) of my small intestine.
After that I was put on the medication Entocort. For a summer I was not really affected by my newly diagnosed disease, except for the new medication I was on. Eventually though I had a bad experience after eating some nuts (some cramping and vomiting... the first time but definately not the last time) and was put on imuran as a new medication.
I now found that cramps and bloating were a more regular part of my life, and I had to be much more careful in the foods I avoided (mostly just nuts). Still I was able to lead a mostly ordinary life until this past november. For several weeks I was having cramping that was probably a bit worst than normal, but I also started to vomit much more frequently. This was very uncommom, so I went to my gastroenterologist who was able to find that I had a narrowing in my small intestine and prescribed me prednisone.
While the prednisone seemed to bring some early relief, I soon seemed to be able to only tolerate liquids. I thought that this would only be very temporary though and it did not bother me that I would go on vacation under this condition.
After a great 2 weeks in Florida I returned home, where I still was on a mostly liquid diet. The narrowing was still their and was not allowing me to eat much. I started the second semester of my first year of university with hopes that I could avoid any problems until the summer, where it seemed like surgery would be necessary. Things were going okay until february, where after vommiting for a night I went to the hospital. I was there for a week and sent home, where I decided I would still try and delay surgery until the school year was done. In the mean time I stayed at home, and only left the house to write tests at school (which I was able to spend a lot of time studying on at least). While doing this I remained on a liquied diet, and my weight was dropping very fast. My energy level was very low, and my overall mood was pretty bad. Finally it was decided that I could not go on like this and on March 22 I was admitted again in the hospital. After 2 weeks of TPN to get some more weight on me, I had 2 feet of my small intestine removed. After a week I was able to come home, and it now has been just less than two weeks since I have had surgery.
It is amazing that I can now eat SOLID food again, and not experience any cramps or bloating. I am still some time from full recovery, but I am well on my way there.
About 3 years ago something just changed. I cannot give a specific date or time, but slowly I was becoming more constipated. Over the course of several months my washroom visits went from about one every day to one a week. Early doctor appointments resulted in me trying to eat more fibre and drink more water, but that did not help. I started taking mild oral laxatives, but they did not seem to help. The "force" of the laxatives I started to take began to increase, but still there seemed to be no relief.
My docotor was out of ideas (and luckily laxatives with even more force were not available), so he sent me to get a sigmoidoscopy. That was not a very fun experience, but it did show evidence of what may be wrong. While Crohn's was not exactly found, there were signs that I might have it. A colonoscopy later on would confirm inflammation in about 2 feet (50cm) of my small intestine.
After that I was put on the medication Entocort. For a summer I was not really affected by my newly diagnosed disease, except for the new medication I was on. Eventually though I had a bad experience after eating some nuts (some cramping and vomiting... the first time but definately not the last time) and was put on imuran as a new medication.
I now found that cramps and bloating were a more regular part of my life, and I had to be much more careful in the foods I avoided (mostly just nuts). Still I was able to lead a mostly ordinary life until this past november. For several weeks I was having cramping that was probably a bit worst than normal, but I also started to vomit much more frequently. This was very uncommom, so I went to my gastroenterologist who was able to find that I had a narrowing in my small intestine and prescribed me prednisone.
While the prednisone seemed to bring some early relief, I soon seemed to be able to only tolerate liquids. I thought that this would only be very temporary though and it did not bother me that I would go on vacation under this condition.
After a great 2 weeks in Florida I returned home, where I still was on a mostly liquid diet. The narrowing was still their and was not allowing me to eat much. I started the second semester of my first year of university with hopes that I could avoid any problems until the summer, where it seemed like surgery would be necessary. Things were going okay until february, where after vommiting for a night I went to the hospital. I was there for a week and sent home, where I decided I would still try and delay surgery until the school year was done. In the mean time I stayed at home, and only left the house to write tests at school (which I was able to spend a lot of time studying on at least). While doing this I remained on a liquied diet, and my weight was dropping very fast. My energy level was very low, and my overall mood was pretty bad. Finally it was decided that I could not go on like this and on March 22 I was admitted again in the hospital. After 2 weeks of TPN to get some more weight on me, I had 2 feet of my small intestine removed. After a week I was able to come home, and it now has been just less than two weeks since I have had surgery.
It is amazing that I can now eat SOLID food again, and not experience any cramps or bloating. I am still some time from full recovery, but I am well on my way there.
However, I do still have Crohns/Colitis and always will. As we all know there is no cure, as of yet. If there was, it would be just a little to late for me, which is fine, I'm very happy and healthy the way I am now.
