- Joined
- Feb 17, 2011
- Messages
- 29
This is my first post on this forum. Hello everyone, I'm Caleb, 22 years old, a student at the University of Arizona, double majoring in computer science and mathematics. Why do I choose to inflict both of these majors upon myself? Because I evidently have mental problems as well as physical.
So I guess I'll tell my story
Around age 14 or 15, I started having chronic diarrhea 3-4 times a day, with the weight loss / malabsorption. No cramps or anything, just malabsorption / weight loss and constant diarrhea. It went on for probably the better part of a year while doctors horsed around and my mom tried ridiculous things like "Maybe you're allergic to shrimp! Stop eating shrimp and maybe you won't have diarrhea anymore." Which was completely absurd because who eats enough shrimp to induce 3-4 runs of diarrhea per day, and chronic malabsorption?
Anyways, I finally got scoped and got diagnosed with Crohn's disease, after the better part of a year. It was sort of frightening to learn that I had this thing, but I went on a run of Prednisone, then stayed on a regimen of Asacol, Culturelle, Nexium, and 6MP. Within days of going on the Prednisone, I was hungry again, could eat again, and could poop normally again, and just to be able to eat/digest properly was like having a whole new life. The Asacol/Culturelle/Nexium/6MP regimen worked great for years, and I'd be like "Oh yeah...Crohn's? Yeah, I have that....I guess."
Fast forward to about a year and a half ago, when I started noticing WEIRD bowel movements. No pain or running to the bathroom, but poop that looked REALLY strange, with stark patches of vivid green (has anyone else experienced this?). It got me thinking "Hm...that's odd" but there was no pain or anything else, so I just figured I'd bring it up at my next regular GI visit. Well, by the time my next GI visit came along, I was having semi-diarrhea pretty frequently. GI puts me on another round of Prednisone, which seems to calm things down for a bit, but then I end up right back where I was. Also, all this is progressing very slowly because I'm in college now, and trying to keep up the pace in school. Oh, and I find a GI doctor in Tucson, near my school (my "real home" is in Phoenix, 150 miles away), and this guy ups my 6MP dosage from 75 to 100 mg, which doesn't make a difference. Summer 2010 comes along and I make it back into my GI for a 'scopy through both ends. He says, yep, your Crohn's is back with a vengeance, and in fact the connection between the large and small intestines was so swollen that he couldn't get the scope into the small intestine, so I had to have a CT scan done of that. Then the real fun begins. The GI I've been seeing all this time, who was FANTASTIC both as a doctor and just as a nice, kindly person, announces to me that he can't treat me anymore because he's a pediatrician with Phoenix Children's Hospital, and I'm no longer a children. Then my winter break, just this past Christmas, is basically an absurd cluster!@#$ of trying to deal with medical bureaucracy, getting my records transferred from the incompetent morons at the Records Dept. at Phoenix Children's to other hospitals, and trying to find new doctors that aren't terrible. I drove 50 miles to go see a doctor in Scottsdale who was a total jerk, and his nurse/receptionist was even worse; their office truly had an atmosphere of dismay and borderline hatred in it. I'm not exaggerating. At the same time, my Crohn's is getting exponentially worse (a lot of it is probably due to stress) to the point where I'm hardly eating anything at all because I get so semi-blocked-up in there, and not absorbing a single nutrient I try to put in there.
To make a long story short, after a long and laborious wrestling match with the healthcare system, I finally found a good doctor in Phoenix, and collaborated with him and my Tucson doctor to get approved for Humira, of which I got my first shipment a few days ago, and gave myself the first four injections today. I have a bit of insomnia tonight and I'm not sure if it's just me being myself (I inherently have trouble sleeping sometimes, just the way I am I suppose) or if I can blame the Humira....:<....anyways, my insomnia prompted me to get out of bed and get on the computer for a while, and I wandered onto this forum...
If anyone actually read that whole thing, thanks for hearing me out, and I look forward to being BFFs 4evar with you. I've looked around on this forum and people seem insanely kind and caring here :3
So I guess I'll tell my story
Around age 14 or 15, I started having chronic diarrhea 3-4 times a day, with the weight loss / malabsorption. No cramps or anything, just malabsorption / weight loss and constant diarrhea. It went on for probably the better part of a year while doctors horsed around and my mom tried ridiculous things like "Maybe you're allergic to shrimp! Stop eating shrimp and maybe you won't have diarrhea anymore." Which was completely absurd because who eats enough shrimp to induce 3-4 runs of diarrhea per day, and chronic malabsorption?
Anyways, I finally got scoped and got diagnosed with Crohn's disease, after the better part of a year. It was sort of frightening to learn that I had this thing, but I went on a run of Prednisone, then stayed on a regimen of Asacol, Culturelle, Nexium, and 6MP. Within days of going on the Prednisone, I was hungry again, could eat again, and could poop normally again, and just to be able to eat/digest properly was like having a whole new life. The Asacol/Culturelle/Nexium/6MP regimen worked great for years, and I'd be like "Oh yeah...Crohn's? Yeah, I have that....I guess."
Fast forward to about a year and a half ago, when I started noticing WEIRD bowel movements. No pain or running to the bathroom, but poop that looked REALLY strange, with stark patches of vivid green (has anyone else experienced this?). It got me thinking "Hm...that's odd" but there was no pain or anything else, so I just figured I'd bring it up at my next regular GI visit. Well, by the time my next GI visit came along, I was having semi-diarrhea pretty frequently. GI puts me on another round of Prednisone, which seems to calm things down for a bit, but then I end up right back where I was. Also, all this is progressing very slowly because I'm in college now, and trying to keep up the pace in school. Oh, and I find a GI doctor in Tucson, near my school (my "real home" is in Phoenix, 150 miles away), and this guy ups my 6MP dosage from 75 to 100 mg, which doesn't make a difference. Summer 2010 comes along and I make it back into my GI for a 'scopy through both ends. He says, yep, your Crohn's is back with a vengeance, and in fact the connection between the large and small intestines was so swollen that he couldn't get the scope into the small intestine, so I had to have a CT scan done of that. Then the real fun begins. The GI I've been seeing all this time, who was FANTASTIC both as a doctor and just as a nice, kindly person, announces to me that he can't treat me anymore because he's a pediatrician with Phoenix Children's Hospital, and I'm no longer a children. Then my winter break, just this past Christmas, is basically an absurd cluster!@#$ of trying to deal with medical bureaucracy, getting my records transferred from the incompetent morons at the Records Dept. at Phoenix Children's to other hospitals, and trying to find new doctors that aren't terrible. I drove 50 miles to go see a doctor in Scottsdale who was a total jerk, and his nurse/receptionist was even worse; their office truly had an atmosphere of dismay and borderline hatred in it. I'm not exaggerating. At the same time, my Crohn's is getting exponentially worse (a lot of it is probably due to stress) to the point where I'm hardly eating anything at all because I get so semi-blocked-up in there, and not absorbing a single nutrient I try to put in there.
To make a long story short, after a long and laborious wrestling match with the healthcare system, I finally found a good doctor in Phoenix, and collaborated with him and my Tucson doctor to get approved for Humira, of which I got my first shipment a few days ago, and gave myself the first four injections today. I have a bit of insomnia tonight and I'm not sure if it's just me being myself (I inherently have trouble sleeping sometimes, just the way I am I suppose) or if I can blame the Humira....:<....anyways, my insomnia prompted me to get out of bed and get on the computer for a while, and I wandered onto this forum...
If anyone actually read that whole thing, thanks for hearing me out, and I look forward to being BFFs 4evar with you. I've looked around on this forum and people seem insanely kind and caring here :3
