You Shouldn't Talk About Bloody Vomit on Facebook

[rsilverlining]

Hello, friends. =) My name is Britney-- rsilverlining, here. I was diagnosed with Crohns of the jejunum in December of 2012, six months after moving out, turning eighteen, and graduating high school. I didn't have much medical care prior to this, because my mother didn't believe in it, but I'd had the symptoms since age fourteen.

Started with a lot of throwing up, usually in the mornings. I got a lot of 'heheheheh, must be morning sickness' jokes, and a lot of 'you're trying to get out of PE' accusations. Then it progressed to diarrhea, loss of appetite, and pain. I was naturally a chubby child, and I got a lot of congratulations on the weight loss; I remember being crazy upset because nothing had happened when I'd tried to lose weight, and it was just falling off all of a sudden.

Remicade works wonderfully well for me, and I get infusions every two months. My primary care doctor gave me prescription for Norco for the back pain that comes with flare-ups, but I use it for both back and stomach pain. I recently also got a cannabis card (between you, me, and I guess the whole of the internet) which I use for the worst days. Because of my mother's stance on medicine, I've come up with ridiculous numbers of home remedies and ways to handle things.

I'm a waitress and an editor at a publishing company, and I also go to school full time. I'm happy to have found a Crohns forum, because so few people seem to know what it is, apparently. And I like to talk, and really should not do so on classic social media. =) Thank you for existing!

 

[DJW]

Hi and welcome.

I'm glad you're doing well.

 

[dave13]

Welcome! I'm glad you found the forum too.

 

[scottsma]

Welcome to the forum Britney,you'll find lots of support here and make friends with people who understand all the ups and downs of crohns/IBD.

Have you found our Young Adults thread yet.? Keep well.

 

[David]

Greetings and welcome to the community!

How long have you been on the Remicade and do the flareups come about at a certain point between infusions?

All my best to you.

 

[rsilverlining]

Hello! They put me on Remicade right off the bat, actually, so it has been about two years. I have recently begun having flares two or three weeks before my infusion, possibly because I missed an infusion due to a chest cold back in January and threw my schedule off.

Actually, my doctor now wants to put me on mercaptopurine, which I don't know much about. I'm really reluctant to try it.

 

[astarks]

Just out of curiosity, why put you on 6-MP if the Remicade is working?

Of course, it's all very personal, but for me, Remi did far more than 6-MP ever did. On the upside, if it does work for you, it's generally way less expensive than Remicade!

 

[rsilverlining]

Well, that's the thing. I still think the Remicade is working perfectly well, and I'm pretty sure it's just because I missed a dose and I threw it off... I think I need a higher dose of the Remicade. But they want me on 6-MP so the Remicade will work better? I'm not completely sure.

 

[astarks]

Oh, yeah, I know in a lot of cases they say that Remicade in combo with another immunosuppressant works better. This is my second time on Remicade, with a several year gap in between, and my GI said if it wasn't working well enough that they would put me on Imuran as well, because I guess together they work better than either one individually.