When to call doctor

[Cosmojo]

I'm an experienced Crohn-ie, going on 7 years, have had very minor remissions guess it just takes me a long to time to heal and I usually have flares that start very slow. That being said I have yet to master when to get medical care.

I guess for the past few years I've been doing triage, and only going in when it was real bad because I've gone in at way early stages before and all tests were normal and had doctors start to even doubt I was sick. I've also been in the situation where I went in far to late and ended up in the ER. So whats the line?

Do I call when I have fevers every day? When I need pain meds the cramps are so bad? When I can't live my "standard" life cause I'm ill? What is the line where I need help vs just feeling kinda crummy?

My hesitancy to call right away is that they don't do much at that point anyways, I don't do roids so thats out. antibiotics have never seemed to do much either.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

Our administrator Jennifer puts it perfectly: "if you think you need to be seen, you probably do"

You know your body best and if you are in so much pain and having fever it's best to get to the doctor or ER. Steroids might be out and antibiotics may not work for you but they can administer pain meds and run tests to see what's causing your problem.

 

[CrohnsChicago]

The best way I can think to describe when to call.......

It seems you are familiar with what your flare symptoms are. You know what is not normal for you. The moment you start to see or even suspect symptoms is when you should AT THE VERY LEAST call your doctor and put them on notice. Your doctors know your medical history with crohn's so they can also help you decide what to continue to look out for that would require you to go to visit them right away or go to a hospital. You want to try and nip it in the bud BEFORE it starts to get worse if at all possible.

If you aren't sure what's going on, it might be a good idea of you to start keeping a journal of symptoms. Also it's very important that you keep the lines of communication open with your doctor so they can better help you with situations like these.

Best of luck to you! :hug:

 

[shamrock15]

You don't indicate if you are on any maintenance meds. Are you on something such as azathioprine? For me, it has made a difference. I was on 6MP for a while early in my disease, and it did do a reasonable job of controlling severity for me, while I am on aza now in conjunction with remicade and am honestly in the first remission period since being diagnosed 25 years ago. Do you alter your diet when you are starting to feel ill? How else do you try to manage it, or is it basically a "sit-and-wait" approach to see what happens?

 

[Cosmojo]

I'm on 15mg MTX weekly. I do start to alter my diet, normally I notice that foods set me off into stomach pain long before the fevers start ect. By the time I'm to where I am now I'm on low resolute diet and eating less and less. Remicade stopped working for me a year ago, and I had already tried humira. I did 6MP awhile ago but not in the past few years.
Before my doc ever perscribes me anything else he wants a colonoscopy, and I've had like 15 scopes (upper and lower) in the past 7 years. Frankly I'm not doing another, I think that might be part of my hesitancy. I don't feel great, but I'm not doing the whole barium, MRI, colono again.

 

[lblair]

I talk to GI a couple times a week!!! I think that some times its to much but he tells me its fine lol!!!

 

[nogutsnoglory]

You average 2 colonoscopies a year which is really a lot! Is this all with the same doctor? I get an annual colonoscopy with imaging tests in between. I think it would need to be a very good case by the doctor to warrant more than 1 colonoscopy per year since the MRI is so effective.