I am finally getting around to making my intro post. I joined a few days ago. Support groups have never been my thing. I've always dealt with my crap internally and managed to compress, deal with, and dispose of issues pretty efficiently. But it figures, I turned 25, had a quarterlife crisis, and am now on the mend. I don't feel shame in joining, I'm all about solutions and anything that can help. So here goes:
I turned 10 and pretty much stopped eating. I weighed 59 pounds when my parents took me to the hospital to get examined. It was weird being laid up in a hospital bed and seeing my parents breathe a sigh of relief that I didn't have leukemia. Crohns was definitely a better option.
I don't know if anyone here ever did those tube feedings. from 10-13 I did them anywhere from 3 to 5 times a week. Shove a tube up my nose down my throat and into my stomach, then try to sleep next to a loud feeding machine pumping a nutritional pack into my gut that apparently people cannot drink without throwing up. Upon removing the tube with an upset stomach the next morning, my dad would sit next to me with a hand on my back as I crouched by the toilet to pull the thing out. 60% throw up rate, 0% appetite for the remainder of the day. I have the worst gag reflex in the world. Thank god I'm straight. I eventually threw the machine down the stairs and declared I had had it.
Also did prednisone. Chipmunk cheeks and randomly crying at school.
Enjoyed a stretch of pure remission through college and a few years living in LA. At worst I had a one day flareup once a year that kept me in bed a few hours. I was convincing myself I had "beaten" crohns. A guy in scottland had magically gotten rid of HIV, why couldn't I?
Two years into being a 2D animator I landed a steady gig and finally got health insurance. Sweet wonderful health insurance! My body must have been holding out, because the second I was covered, I began a slow decline involving less gym visits, slowly increasing gut pain, weight loss, and appetite loss. Because my plan listed the head of a free clinic as a general practitioner, even though she was never available and didn't take patients, I ended up in the emergency room because I couldn't see a doctor and changing generalists took a month to set. 5 days at Cedar Sinai and I was back on my old pal prednisone and a 10 day run of antibiotics to fix inflamation in my ilium so tight they couldn't even get the kiddy camera through there, and also mend a dozen or so ulcers in my colon. This all happened a year ago.
Even though prednisone gave me the appetite I always wanted, it made me break out like never before. I had zits ontop of zits. It was bad enough I became a real hermit and didn't want to socialize with people. I ended my run on that last may and have been on imuran since. Up till my quarter life crisis I was weight lifting 4 times a week, going to work, eating well, and symptom free.
At present I am on the mend again, recovering from my silly quarter life crisis. I am supporting myself and my girlfriend who has been job hunting for almost 6 months now. I am on hiatus from work and stringing together freelance. I've gone through emotional stress and anxiety I hadn't dealt with before (taking care of someone, being in love, living with a girlfriend for the first time) ontop of the fact my insurance is moving to cobra and I don't know when I'll be working steady again. I noticed that the increased stress began activating crohns symptoms. I lost weight, was having gut pain and tremendously painful pockets of gas as well. Basically I've spent the last two months trying to relax, regain my swagger, keep a routine going, and ease stress levels so my symptoms will subside. I'm on imuran and id like to switch to asacol so my liver doesn't explode. I'm going to the gym 5-6 times a week and finally getting my weight back. Many days I have gone WITH gut pain going on. I've learned to focus on muscle groups away from it and as long as I don't hit abs, I've been solid.
I still have days where I feel like crap and my mind is chaotic, my emotions(which I had ignored since my parents divorced, and are now in full swing now that a girl has finally gotten under my skin) are all out of control. I'm a guy, we can barely recognize much less categorize emotions. For thousands of years our only job was to kill stuff...
It's not leukemia, but Crohns is a real bitch to deal with and I have been butting heads with it for 15 years now. I got sick of being skinny and I got sick of being sick. I'm very mind over matter and it's worked a whole lot, just not 100% of the time. I suppose I came here to be supportive as well as seek support.
Just cause you have crohns doesn't mean you can't be buff, rough, and tough. David Garrard quarterbacks for the Jacksonville Jaguars and has Crohns. If a guy can be an NFL football player with it, I damn well plan to keep animating, weight lifting, and enjoying korean BBQ.
Everyone here seems very friendly,and I look forward to bantering with everyone. Have a nice night!
-Drew
I turned 10 and pretty much stopped eating. I weighed 59 pounds when my parents took me to the hospital to get examined. It was weird being laid up in a hospital bed and seeing my parents breathe a sigh of relief that I didn't have leukemia. Crohns was definitely a better option.
I don't know if anyone here ever did those tube feedings. from 10-13 I did them anywhere from 3 to 5 times a week. Shove a tube up my nose down my throat and into my stomach, then try to sleep next to a loud feeding machine pumping a nutritional pack into my gut that apparently people cannot drink without throwing up. Upon removing the tube with an upset stomach the next morning, my dad would sit next to me with a hand on my back as I crouched by the toilet to pull the thing out. 60% throw up rate, 0% appetite for the remainder of the day. I have the worst gag reflex in the world. Thank god I'm straight. I eventually threw the machine down the stairs and declared I had had it.
Also did prednisone. Chipmunk cheeks and randomly crying at school.
Enjoyed a stretch of pure remission through college and a few years living in LA. At worst I had a one day flareup once a year that kept me in bed a few hours. I was convincing myself I had "beaten" crohns. A guy in scottland had magically gotten rid of HIV, why couldn't I?
Two years into being a 2D animator I landed a steady gig and finally got health insurance. Sweet wonderful health insurance! My body must have been holding out, because the second I was covered, I began a slow decline involving less gym visits, slowly increasing gut pain, weight loss, and appetite loss. Because my plan listed the head of a free clinic as a general practitioner, even though she was never available and didn't take patients, I ended up in the emergency room because I couldn't see a doctor and changing generalists took a month to set. 5 days at Cedar Sinai and I was back on my old pal prednisone and a 10 day run of antibiotics to fix inflamation in my ilium so tight they couldn't even get the kiddy camera through there, and also mend a dozen or so ulcers in my colon. This all happened a year ago.
Even though prednisone gave me the appetite I always wanted, it made me break out like never before. I had zits ontop of zits. It was bad enough I became a real hermit and didn't want to socialize with people. I ended my run on that last may and have been on imuran since. Up till my quarter life crisis I was weight lifting 4 times a week, going to work, eating well, and symptom free.
At present I am on the mend again, recovering from my silly quarter life crisis. I am supporting myself and my girlfriend who has been job hunting for almost 6 months now. I am on hiatus from work and stringing together freelance. I've gone through emotional stress and anxiety I hadn't dealt with before (taking care of someone, being in love, living with a girlfriend for the first time) ontop of the fact my insurance is moving to cobra and I don't know when I'll be working steady again. I noticed that the increased stress began activating crohns symptoms. I lost weight, was having gut pain and tremendously painful pockets of gas as well. Basically I've spent the last two months trying to relax, regain my swagger, keep a routine going, and ease stress levels so my symptoms will subside. I'm on imuran and id like to switch to asacol so my liver doesn't explode. I'm going to the gym 5-6 times a week and finally getting my weight back. Many days I have gone WITH gut pain going on. I've learned to focus on muscle groups away from it and as long as I don't hit abs, I've been solid.
I still have days where I feel like crap and my mind is chaotic, my emotions(which I had ignored since my parents divorced, and are now in full swing now that a girl has finally gotten under my skin) are all out of control. I'm a guy, we can barely recognize much less categorize emotions. For thousands of years our only job was to kill stuff...
It's not leukemia, but Crohns is a real bitch to deal with and I have been butting heads with it for 15 years now. I got sick of being skinny and I got sick of being sick. I'm very mind over matter and it's worked a whole lot, just not 100% of the time. I suppose I came here to be supportive as well as seek support.
Just cause you have crohns doesn't mean you can't be buff, rough, and tough. David Garrard quarterbacks for the Jacksonville Jaguars and has Crohns. If a guy can be an NFL football player with it, I damn well plan to keep animating, weight lifting, and enjoying korean BBQ.
Everyone here seems very friendly,and I look forward to bantering with everyone. Have a nice night!
-Drew