Rough year, need to vent

[Joleen23]

I’ve not posted in so long as I had a wonderful, long remission period.
So much so that we decided to try for a baby & my little girl arrived in June 2020.
My Crohn’s flared during and after pregnancy and I ended up having a rupture and emergency surgery 5 days before Christmas 2020. They removed my terminal ileum.
I have since then suffered with anemia, multiple (10>) BM daily and extreme fatigue & loss of appetite. I have now been diagnosed as having acid bile malabsorption and am taking cholestyramine (Questran)
I work a full time job, have a nearly 1 year old and these health issues, it has finally taken too much from me and I broke.
I’ve been signed off work for 4 weeks.
I am constantly exhausted, lost my confidence in leaving my house and am just feeling like a complete failure.
I just really needed to write this all down, I have my husband to talk to but I feel like a burden and don’t want to moan about myself constantly.
Just feeling quite alone & useless

 

[Jo-mom]

Congratulations on your baby girl. So sorry you are feeling defeated right now. This is a safe place to vent. Have you looked into a Crohn's support group? Are you doing anything for your anemia right now?

 

[Joleen23]

Thankyou, I’m taking ferrous gluconate, ive had 3 other types but they haven’t helped so far. Hopefully these help to raise my levels.
I haven’t looked at the support group yet but I will. The sites changed slightly since the last time I was on but it was always a big comfort to me when going through difficult times with this illness x

 

[Scipio]

Hi - I hope you are feeling better soon. One piece of advice I can offer is on iron pill absorption. The iron in your diet absorbed is in the duodenum small bowel section just south of the stomach. For this reason you should not use the "delayed release" type iron pills because they release the iron too far downstream in the gut - too late to do much good. Another thing is to take the iron pills on an empty stomach when you first wake up in the morning. That will also enhance absorption. Unfortunately it will also increase your chances of feeling some nausea due to the pill. I usually take the pill first thing and then 30 - 45 minutes later if I'm feeling any nausea I eat a little yogurt, which helps a lot.

Hopefully this will help you get the most out of your iron pills and fix your anemia.

 

[Guerrero]

Hi Joleen,
I hope you’ll feel better soon.
The questran should help with BM. Regarding the iron you could also ask your doctor about injection, it’s much quicker to reach high levels.
Is your disease under control with medicines now?

 

[valleysangel92]

Im sorry I'm late in on this, I've been away from the forum on and off myself.

I just wanted to say I'm sorry you're having such a rough time, emergency surgery in any circumstances can be overwhelming and takes a big physical and mental toll, I can't imagine trying to deal with that as well as caring for a new baby.

It may not feel like it now but taking time off to recover may be the best thing you do for yourself. If you need longer please be kind to yourself and take it (if its financially possible of course) .

If you're still struggling to get your iron up it might be worth adding some vitamin C in, as this can help with the absorption of iron. I have had issues with anaemia all my adult and most of my teenage life, I started vitamin C on the advice of my GP and its made a big difference to how long I can go between needing infusions. It may be that your levels are so low that an infusion is the only thing that will help though, so if no one brings it up and you're still feeling the affects of the anaemia I would definitely ask about it.