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Survey about diagnosis

survey about diagnosis

hey everyone! hope you all have been enjoying your weekend :)


okay so i know there have been lots of threads relating to what age you were diagnosed and most of us have had the symptoms for years and years before getting diagnosed...

but i'm curious to know, how many of us had to end up in the emergency room of a hospital before the word 'crohn's' (or colitis) was first brought up?

i've read some people have had emergency surgery immediately after first learning they have crohn's...


i know that if it wasn't for my emergency visit to the hospital last december, i don't think that the crohn's would've been discovered this soon (despite the obvious symptoms i've had for years, i also had less obvious ones).

so what about you?
 
I did end up in the emergency room, but only because I was going to have to wait 2 months to see a GI and the anemia was hitting me pretty hard, so I just went to the ER and they partially diagnosed me with a CT Scan that day... the next day I was scheduled for an emergency colonoscopy. Then I was diagnosed and started Pred and Imuran. No surgeries yet... knock on wood.
 
Hi Cheeky,

I had a 'dodgy' gut for years and thought little of it - considered it stress-related IBS.
In June this year got really sick with fevers, sweats, paind and constipation and whne it didnlt get better in a month (they thought it may be flu so told me to rest), took myself off to the hospital and was there for 10 days on IV steroids and antibiotics with a stricture (ileum) and several abscesses. No surgery and things are apparantly good now (had visit with GI this morning).

Shaz
 
I was only sick for a few months when I decided to go to my regular doc. He sent me for a CT scan, which showed inflammation. From there it was a colonoscopy, upper GI and then they talked to me about Crohn's. Pretty quick for me. I had never heard of Crohn's before.
 
I first went to my doctors after having problems with D in June 2008, initially I was told probably IBS as at that point I had no other symptoms. But the anti-spasmodics I was prescribed didn't help one bit. Then I started to get a lot of pain (I was taking Fentanyl and still do) and began bleeding, went back to the doctors and they did think it was a massive red warning sign that something more sinister was going on. I mean I was also vomiting bile and had lost a massive amount of weight. I was asked to go for blood tests start of December 2008 which I did, then was put on pred and January 2nd I ended up in hospital as my doctor got me admitted. I was told at the hospital basically I was a heart attack waiting to happen due to my electrolytes being so messed up because of all the d. I had an emergency colonoscopy the next day and a CT scan and then stayed a further 2 weeks. I started on the elemental diet after that and pentasa and azathioprine. I've also had 2 colonoscopies since. I no longer take either medication as I got some nasty side effects. I'm currently just taking painkillers and pred really until I can get another form of long term treatment prescribed. :(

I too don't think if I hadn't ended up in the hospital things would have moved along so quickly. I've ended up at A&E since my diagnosis but atleast I go there knowing what is wrong with me.
 
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heya ladies, i guess i should share my hospital story too...

i had symptoms for 8 years, but over the last 2 years, things were getting worse.. more specifically the fatigue and the sharp pains, cramping and nausea around meals. also bleeding in BMs and joint pain.

i had a couple of episodes where i vomited along with the cramping... thought it was food poisoning or just plain nausea lol...

*edit - i thought this because i had been complaining about symptoms for years, and was told i had an autoimmune disorder having to do with my joints...also was told i had a couple of ovarian cysts, so i thought it was that stuff but deep down i knew something else wasn't right...*


so the day i ended up going to emerg, the cramping was more consistent and getting stronger and stronger... and harder to bare... very immobilizing.

so when i went to the emerg, they did blood work... my results were off the charts! crazy numbers... they finally gave me painkillers.... but had me do an ultrasound the next day.

that's when i first saw the words 'crohn's disease' mentioned in my results.

a few days later i saw my family doctor who made an urgent referral to the GI... saw the GI by Jan 5th (yeah it was pretty brutal waiting those 18 days between but it was christmas holidays so i had no choice)...

the GI tried to perform the colonoscopy, but quickly stopped because it was horribly painful for me and he couldn't pass my stricture. officially diagnosed with Crohn's that day.

so he put me on prednisone... and eventually imuran... and recently i've begun remicade.
 
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i'm curious to know what makes them decide to perform surgery so quickly?

ever since i've been diagnosed, surgery has come up repeatedly to me, saying 'you will likely need to have surgery'... even my old GI said, he brought my case to a round table of GI's and they all said in my case, surgery is the best answer.

i have a stricture, and what they've been doing is trying various treatments...

i assume it's to get my symptoms under control before performing surgery.

but the fact is, they've been treating me for 10 months now... so is it only when you have fistulas or some life threatening type of blockage or infection that they quickly react with surgery?

maybe some doctors are quicker to do surgery than others?
 
I suffered for 'years' with diarrhea and pain. However, it wasn't until I couldn't walk or stand up because the pain was do bad, I went to the ER. I was admitted with possible appendix rupture. Emergency surgery, they found Crohn's. I weighed 100 lbs. Stayed in hospital 6 weeks. During that time I had 2nd surgery and lost to 82 lbs. They thought they were gonna lose me, but I showed them. Ha.
 

imisspopcorn

Punctuation Impaired
I went for an emergency CT scan to rule out appendicitis. That is how they found the Crohn's. It took about 4 months of various treatments before I got the CT scan. I wish it would have been appendicitis.....
 
I went in for an out patient routine hernia surgery. Woke up 5 hours later to hear it wasn't a hernia but an abcess. They then found a bunch of stuff wrong and did a resection after taking care of the abcess. Then I got diagnosed with Crohns the next day or was it two days. <shrug> I never knew before that day that I had it. I had heard the name mentioned a few times, but didn't really know what it was.

Ok .. that's the short of it. :)
 
imisspopcorn said:
I went for an emergency CT scan to rule out appendicitis. That is how they found the Crohn's. It took about 4 months of various treatments before I got the CT scan. I wish it would have been appendicitis.....
"AMEN" imisspopcorn. Why couldn't it have only been appendicitis? :yfrown:
 
I was very poorly for 8 weeks with uncontrollable D and pain before I went to the doc. The first doc I saw wasn't my usual doc and she just shrugged and gave me some immodium.

I booked straight back in to see my usual doc (the man is a legend) the next day and the first thing he said was "it sounds like Crohn's Disease".

Within a week I had seen the consultant, had my colonoscopy, got the diagnosis and started meds...

However.... I think I have had Crohn's for MUCH longer than that 8 week onslaught... more than 10 years ago I had an emergency appendectomy, but they discovered an apparently healthy appendix, was diagnosed with Celiac around the same time, about 5 years ago I had gall bladder surgery and when they went in they found I was bleeding all over the place... I have always had problems with D but had attributed it to the Celiac... Maybe if I had been more on the ball I could have got diagnosed sooner..?
 
I went in the emergency after having fever and severe abdominal pain and cramps. They did a CT scan, and found inflammation in my terminal ileum and an abscess. A week later in hospital and on IV antibiotics and Prednisone , i had a colonscopy and then small bowel follow through and was diagnosed with Crohn's....
 
Mine came out of nowhere. I was fine one month and the next I started having out of control D and I just assumed it was stress or something and let it go for 3 months then after losing quite a bit of weight and having constant RLQ pain, went to a walk in clinic at the request of my boss and a couple co-workers and was sent to the ER for a CT to look for appendicitis which was negative of course. Started going to my PCP and couple months later GI started with the Crohns dance.
 
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