When you say, "I've been sick" or "I don't feel good"....

I know it's different for everyone since we all have different forms of Crohn's, different stages of Crohn's and just different symptoms of Crohn's.  I guess I'm just curious to know a little bit about how everyone "flares". 

And when you DO go through a flare period, do you always go see your GI or do you simply acknowledge that you're flaring and deal with it for a certain period of time?  If you do simply acknowledge it as a flare, how long do you wait until you go see your GI for new answers?

For me, flaring means:

1) I've had loose BM's/D that make me sick to my stomach - usually 5-15 times a day

2) I've had a "spastic colon feeling" that day, which constantly makes me feel like I need to go to the bathroom

3) My bowels are gasy/crampy/icky/yucky feeling which drags me down physically & emotionally

4) I'm massively lethargic

5) My bowels have been waking me up several times in the middle of the night with loose BM's/D, exhausting me for the day ahead

6) Rapid weight loss in a short period of time which makes me feel weak and puny

7) Immediate cramping or loose BM's/D right after/during eating

8) Badly swollen ankles

9) Muscle and joint pain...all over body aches

10) Mouth sores

So what about YOU???

But the thing that concerns me is that I have fistulizing Crohn's so I constantly worry about what is going on inside of me.  Last fistula was to the bladder which made it necessary to have emergency surgery and resection.  It's when I found out that I even had Crohn's

The last few days I've been running a low grade fever so I'm figuring that I'm flaring but as long as I can continue to get my butt to work, or nothing else shows up I'm not calling my GI.  I do have an appointment with my PCP next week and I'll check out what my blood work has to show.  As far as I know, the only thing out of wack prior to the CD discovery was that my platelets were way too high.  I think I'm going with that as an indication of disease activity.

You sure got that right:  People do NOT understand chronic illness at ALL when they are healthy.  Because of the isolation this brings, stress and depression often follow for many... which brings about worsening of symptoms.

HW (as I have said before and will probably always say) has been my only source of comfort and information throughout my dealings with this wonderful illness. 

Has anyone looked at how many posts the CD forum has compared to all the others?!!  WOW  I think that speaks volumes to the kind of support that everyone brings to one another.  Good folks here... mighty good folks.  I am finding myself logging on now here and there at work for comfort. 

... now if only they could find a cure!!!!

-Leslie

I think one reason there is so much support for us Crohnies on HW is because in general, MOST people just don't talk about BOWEL MOVEMENTS in open conversation!  It's very taboo.  Even in my office when one of the gals has a child that gets sick...and they come to work and tell about it the next day, they will say out loud that the child threw up, dry heaved and vomited all over the place but then they will whisper that he also had *shhhh*  DIARRHEA  *shhhh* !!!!!

Diarrhea and gas and intestinal cramping just isn't discussed!!! So it's great to come on here and be able to tell people what your bowel movement LOOKED like and find out what everyone's opinion is on it!!! Seriously...can it GET better than that?  You can't get that kind of support from any GI....

Congrats, too Texan, on becoming a regular member...I wonder if there is some OTHER term they could use for that here on the Crohnies  board?!?  I mean, come on...REGULAR?!  I would venture to guess that MOST of us "regular members" are RARELY regular...if you know what I mean.