Hello, my name is Aimee and I was diagnosed with crohn's disease in August 2010. I have had symptoms my whole life and as a child was admitted for numerous 'stomach and blood viruses' but no one ever did any tests to really find out what was going on. For years I have been suffering with joint pain and have been sent to several doctors and no one could tell me what was going on, I seriously thought I was crazy the way doctors talked to me, your too young to be having these problems was my favorite response.... obviously I wasnt! Starting in September of 09 is when my symptoms became persistent and have not stopped since. I began having severe diarrhea which has not stopped since then I began to get severe abdominal pain in my left side, I also had frequent vomiting. My GP requested that I see a Gastro asap. The Gastro did a colonoscopy which was a horrible experience. I have always had problems with nurses finding my veins. When this nurse tried to insert the IV she had a very hard time, finally she thought she had it. During my colonoscopy I was in excruciating pain and remember everything. My doctor told me that he could not give me anymore pain killers because I was maxed out and he physically could not give me anymore. He came close to stopping the procedure but i told him to continue. He found ulcers at the end of my small intestine and told me that he 100% thought it was crohn’s. However, this was right at the end of summer and I moved to a new province in September so I had him refer me to another doctor in the area. He put me on prednisone for eight weeks than eight pills of pentasa everyday. During the wait time I ended up in the hospital with an attack. I have never felt that type of pain before... what did the hospital do? Pumped me full of morphine and sent me home. I was in pain and didn’t feel right for a week after. I finally got into my new doctor this month.
My new doctor told me that he was not convinced of my diagnosis due to the report from my old doctor. He also told me that he thought pentasa was horrible and should never be used because it wouldn’t help anything. Instead to tied me over he put me on dicetel three times a day and gave me buscopan if I have an attack and can’t bear the pain, both which are commonly used for IBS. He ordered blood work and a repeat colonoscopy in two weeks so that he can confirm or deny the diagnosis himself. Needless to say I kind of held onto the hope that maybe this wasn’t crohn’s and it was something that could be cured. However, yesterday my doctor called me to say that he received my blood work and that my lipase levels were increased to 316. He told me that this is usually associated with abdominal pain and wanted to see how I was feeling. I always have abdominal pain, it never really goes away; however, my pain has not been any worse than normal lately. He told me that if I experience an attack and have severe abdominal pain I need to not take the buscopan and go directly to the emergency room and demand a CT or an ultrasound. So now I am not sure what to think. I am just patiently waiting for my colonoscopy in two weeks and hoping that I don’t have an attack and end up in the hospital. Hopefully we can figure out what is going on and I can have a clear diagnosis so I can start to manage whatever it is and begin to feel better.
My new doctor told me that he was not convinced of my diagnosis due to the report from my old doctor. He also told me that he thought pentasa was horrible and should never be used because it wouldn’t help anything. Instead to tied me over he put me on dicetel three times a day and gave me buscopan if I have an attack and can’t bear the pain, both which are commonly used for IBS. He ordered blood work and a repeat colonoscopy in two weeks so that he can confirm or deny the diagnosis himself. Needless to say I kind of held onto the hope that maybe this wasn’t crohn’s and it was something that could be cured. However, yesterday my doctor called me to say that he received my blood work and that my lipase levels were increased to 316. He told me that this is usually associated with abdominal pain and wanted to see how I was feeling. I always have abdominal pain, it never really goes away; however, my pain has not been any worse than normal lately. He told me that if I experience an attack and have severe abdominal pain I need to not take the buscopan and go directly to the emergency room and demand a CT or an ultrasound. So now I am not sure what to think. I am just patiently waiting for my colonoscopy in two weeks and hoping that I don’t have an attack and end up in the hospital. Hopefully we can figure out what is going on and I can have a clear diagnosis so I can start to manage whatever it is and begin to feel better.
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