I was diagnosed with Crohn's October 2003. It took approximately 8-10 months to arrive at a diagnosis. It began with sharp upper abdominal pain (under my ribs and at the center of my sternum). Eventually the pain grew so severe and felt like a stabbing pain I would have to hold my breath or just cry my way through it. After a couple of months I began feeling pretty fatigued and nauseated. From there, I began vomiting, experiencing diarrhea (I'd had a cholecystectomy performed in 11/99), chills, bone/muscle aches, low-grade temps, and appetite/weight loss.
I was subjected to upper and lower scopes, but nothing was found, so my GI essentially believed nothing was wrong and that it was just a simple case of IBS. I was constantly on Prednisone and 6MP, Colozal, Asacol, Mesalamine and others. I continued to grow sicker and more miserable. Depression slowly crept in as I suffered yet tried to put on a brave face.
Many months later, I'd been put in the hospital for an elevated white count. No imaging was performed at all. They just did another CBC/CMP the next morning, and they sent me home as my white count had dropped a little. Several days later, I was seen in my doc's office worse than ever. My nurse practitioner began pressing on my belly than instructed me to wait and she'd return. She returned with my regular physician. He palpated my abdomen as well, instructed me that I was to be hospitalized again and immediately sent me over for an abdominal ultrasound.
After the ultrasound was done, a friend of mine was walking me towards the door when my doc caught us. He told us that he was personally taking me to the E.R. because we had things to discuss. I was alone and scared to death. I believed it had to be extremely bad if my doc was personally escorting me to the hospital.
As soon as we got there, I had a CT done and two hours later a surgeon informed me that I had an abdominal mass the size of an orange, and he would take me for emergent surgery early the next morning. I shot past scared straight to petrified!
My mom, sister and husband were there to hear the news, and that the doctor suspected that Crohns was the culprit.
The next morning I had surgery and the doctor's diagnosis was confirmed. I did, indeed, have Crohns.
Since then it's been a constant battle and I feel like hell more than I feel good. But that's the way it is, I suppose. However, it could always be worse, or so I tell myself.
Anyway, that's pretty much the beginning of my battle. I just discovered today that my B12's so low that I have to get a double shot of it tomorrow afternoon at the doc's office.
Maybe one day we'll be lucky to have a cure for it...one day.
I was subjected to upper and lower scopes, but nothing was found, so my GI essentially believed nothing was wrong and that it was just a simple case of IBS. I was constantly on Prednisone and 6MP, Colozal, Asacol, Mesalamine and others. I continued to grow sicker and more miserable. Depression slowly crept in as I suffered yet tried to put on a brave face.
Many months later, I'd been put in the hospital for an elevated white count. No imaging was performed at all. They just did another CBC/CMP the next morning, and they sent me home as my white count had dropped a little. Several days later, I was seen in my doc's office worse than ever. My nurse practitioner began pressing on my belly than instructed me to wait and she'd return. She returned with my regular physician. He palpated my abdomen as well, instructed me that I was to be hospitalized again and immediately sent me over for an abdominal ultrasound.
After the ultrasound was done, a friend of mine was walking me towards the door when my doc caught us. He told us that he was personally taking me to the E.R. because we had things to discuss. I was alone and scared to death. I believed it had to be extremely bad if my doc was personally escorting me to the hospital.
As soon as we got there, I had a CT done and two hours later a surgeon informed me that I had an abdominal mass the size of an orange, and he would take me for emergent surgery early the next morning. I shot past scared straight to petrified!
My mom, sister and husband were there to hear the news, and that the doctor suspected that Crohns was the culprit.
The next morning I had surgery and the doctor's diagnosis was confirmed. I did, indeed, have Crohns.
Since then it's been a constant battle and I feel like hell more than I feel good. But that's the way it is, I suppose. However, it could always be worse, or so I tell myself.
Anyway, that's pretty much the beginning of my battle. I just discovered today that my B12's so low that I have to get a double shot of it tomorrow afternoon at the doc's office.
Maybe one day we'll be lucky to have a cure for it...one day.
