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Trying to Get a Grip

I was diagnosed with Crohns in 2004 but know I had it since I was in college many years ago. I thought it was irritable bowel because it seemed to act up when I was under stress. In 2011 I had small and large bowel resection because of blockages and I also had a fistula. I have been doing fairly well, with small flare-ups here and there, but in the last two months I have been suffering. I was in the hospital in June because of a blockage that had me in such incredible pain. I came home, things were going good and then in the past two weeks I've had two episodes. I thought I was going to die last Friday night with the horrendous cramps, vomiting, etc. I knew it was another blockage and decided to "suck it up" and keep myself hydrated until it passed. I am currently on Pentasa, vitamin D, Fish Oil, Probiotics, etc. and absolutely refuse to take Remicade or Humira because of increased cancer risk due to family history. I read research all the time and want to find some way to control this but I can't--its not controllable. So, I'm incredibly frustrated and angry and just tired of pain I guess. Remarkably, I just discovered a cousin who was diagnosed with Crohns in 2011, my mother has Crohns and several family members as well. Lucky gene pool!
 
This is just like hearing my own story, I have crohns also and last year had 19 obstructive episodes. Surgeon thought it was adhesions so faced 6hr surgery, 3 wound abscesses and 4 months of being ill. Since the op I have had 4 obstructive episodes the last one I had to go to hospital a CT scan showed bleeding into the lumen of small bowel. At crohns clinic last week bloods showed something as I have to get another CT next week. I don't think it was adhesions more likely narrowing of the illeo rectal anastomoses from my sub total colectomy which first showed granulomas in the pathology a sure sign of crohns. My GP is fantastic and has allowed me to have morphine at home providing that if I require another dose I have to go to A and E usually the first sign of obstructive episode is feeling bloated stop all food and dring 1 glass of water every 15 mins if you can tolerate, and keep going with this for as long as possible. If you start to vomit you need to get to hospital fast. However I staved of a lot of hospital visits using this method. I also sometimes when I get bloated use a suppository to try and clear the narrowing. Sounds like you have an inflamed area where food doesn't pass easily and low residue diets are very useful in getting rid of fibrous bolus which in our case stick. I have found fresh apples, pork, beef, minced beef, mango, pineapple, vegetables such as cabbage broccoli and corn are definite no no foods as well as oranges and musli or grain cereals. In fact think white everything but this doesn't always work either. See if you can get a scan or small bowel follow through.
 
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