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Thanks to those who created this site! My story.

It's a recent Saturday morning, and I am having a very unsuspecting and small amount of diarrhea. No pain, and no chronic history of diarrhea or abdominal pain, and certainly no history or diagnosis of any type of chronic GI issues. I'm up...showered, and the rest of the day is spent playing paintball.

On paintball days I will have one, or maximum two ibuprofen tablets, and one Excedrin, some electrolyte supplements, a single 16 oz monster energy drink, and all of that mixed into a full gallon of water that I use to stay hydrated and electrolyt-ed up through the day's activities, and help keep the aches and pains of old age in check as well.

The following Monday at work, I am eating a great BBQ sandwich (that I evidently didn't chew well), and by midnight I'm in cyclical pain that awakens me. The pain continues through 5am, when I finally call into work. By 10 am Tuesday I'm being admitted to the hospital with a partial bowel obstruction and receiving and anti spasmodic and anti emetic after the emergency room's doctor's ct scan has been read. By about 5 pm the cyclical pain that is 2/10 in between cycles, and 8-9/10 for 8-11 seconds in the bad part of the cycles, and that had been resolved by the previously mentioned medication - returns for an hour or so, and then - magically, I have a stool that has two moderate sized chunks of improperly chewed, and rather stringy BBQ in it- surrounded in watery stool, and the severe pain cycles stop; my stomach does remain irritated/sore form the insult of the event but begins improving quickly.

By Wednesday at 2 pm, a small bowel gastrograffin study ordered by the surgeon is complete, and he has brought in the GI army, and the infamous go-lytely (that's an oxymoron) is just about in.

By Thursday at lunch, the infamous colonoscopy is complete, and the diagnosis of: 1. A single rectal polyp, 2. A few small internal hemorrhoids, and 3. Terminal illeocecal valve wall thickening with a small irritated/very mild ulceration and........ you guessed it - Crohn's.

Still on Thursday: By 3 pm I'm in blue jeans, first Entocort taken and the filled prescription in hand, and waiting to make my escape. Mildly tender in the abdomen, but no pain.

Friday, I work. The "running" joke at work it being full of sh.... that's now all run out (full pun intended :) ). By 3pm, my new best friend, and GI guy, is on my cell telling me that the cultures came back positive for Campylobacter food poisoning, that he has called in antibiotics, and to continue the Entocort. I'm becoming slightly confused.

Saturday I rest.

Sunday we play a tournament of paintball in clarksville, tn.

Skipping to now: I've been told the biopsies indicated a chronic wall thickening in the area of the illeocecal valve (please forgive my awful spelling) that is highly suggestive that it is still Crohn's despite the known food poisoning. I have been asked to complete the steroids, and do the research on the immuno-suppressive medications so that we can discuss them after my follow up colonoscopy in January.

Note: There is a strong skin, prostate, and gi cancer history in the family, and I have already had trouble with my skin fussing about past exposure to the sun. Further; although I am in seemingly great health, I do fight annually with the seasonal flu and/or pneumonia for which i generally have to take a round of antibiotics.

The core of my confusion is surrounding this question: Assuming this is really Crohn's; with it so localized and with only one remotely diagnosed flare (with the campylobacter food poisoning involved simultaneously), and with the personal and family history of annual pulmonary infections and cancer, shouldn't I be more concerned with the side effects of starting immunosuppresive therapy at this point, and especially before resolving this "flair" and seeing if it takes another 51 years to be a problem again? You know... if this can be managed with a non offensive diet and lifestyle?

My GI guy, who seems quite intelligent - is ordering an antibody study I've agreed to (ASCA if believe), but according to what I have read, although this is an accurate test - it still has about a 10 percent error rate. I know that doesn't seem like a very high error rate, but...I am genuinely concern
ed that for me, if I end up on immune suppressor therapy, i will likely suffer with severe infections and cancer, and still end up in the OR, or dead.

I am open to any and all discussions and opinions from you all, and without judgment. I need some folks smarter than me, and that's not hard for me to find, so I know there are plenty of you here... Thanks for reading, and in advance for the coming discussions and opinions. I mean it.
 
The thing is if it is CD and it's not kept under control then symptoms are not as much the concern as the condition of your bowel.

Simmering inflammation even if you are asymptomatic can lead to serious repercussions. My son's CD was dx and even after medI cations the damage and simmering inflammation led to surgery. The area removed (in the TI) was at the point of perforation.

Those with CD are already at a higher risk for bowel cancer.

There is a diet section on here. It journals others experiences with paleo, SCD, etc. You could browse through it. There are also some studies on a diet IBD-AID that you might get some info on.

I wonder if there is a possibility if given some time after the food poisoning clears you could have repeat testing to determine if biopsies still show sign of CD? I can understand your concern. I'm not certain if the infection you mentioned would thicken the TI and so on so I don't have any info there.
 
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