Does CD symptoms get better as you get older??

Hi Did your GI include menapause in that because it hit me hard when I went threw menapause .I sure hope that's the case though. I will say one thing about being older I have more determinaton now or was it the pain ,I think a little of both. lol gail

My rhuemy says the same about most of the AI diseases-there is a huge caveat though. Each flare does (potentially) damage. That damage does not heal itself or go away so the actual immune attacks may get weaker or further apart but the cummulative damage may be increasing and you may feel worse.

I don't find that to be true in my case.  I was diagnosed 43 years ago, at age 19.  I found that I had longer remissions when I was younger and healed much faster after my first two resections, the second of which was 18 years ago.

I had my third resection (and gallbladder removal at the same time) in April and am still not feeling as well as I had hoped I would at this point.  I am also much more tired than I was at a younger age, when I was raising my three daughters.  And going through menapause doesn't help the situation.

But, like most things with this DD, everyone has a different experience.  My wish is that a cure will come soon, so that all you younger people (and everyone for that matter) will have many Chrohn's-free years.

LBJ -

          It is my opinion that the reasons some of us get better with Crohn's as we get older is that after years and years of this

     disease we have learned to some extent how to handle it.

          In my case, 53 years with severe Crohn's, 9 operations including six major resections (total loss of intestines - 40%) I finally, after a lot of research decided that the main thing I had to control was inflammation.  I did this by deciding never to go off of daily maintenance drugs again.  I also learned to tell when something wasn't right with my body and what to do about it.  It takes years and years of research and study, but all of a sudden, something comes up and you know how to handle it.

          Even though we are all basically different in Crohn's, each of us that has had it a long time has developed some kind of system to overcome it or to slow the process down.  So the main thing I can tell you is Know as much about your disease as you possibly can.  It will make a huge difference later.

          My first bout with Crohn's was not by a long shot my worst unless you consider that doctors did not know anything about Crohn's in the fifties.  My actual diagnosis for the first resection was "Ileitis" and each resection after that was more severe than the first.

     Kasper87 - I don't really believe that foods of anykind can cause inflammation.  I will eat anything anybody puts in front of me if it looks good and taste good.  Having said that, I will also tell you that if you have a blockage, then any food you eat, fish or anythingelse can cause problems.  One of the main things that causes inflammation in the intestines if you have, really have Chron's will be the little small collections of inflammatory cells that typically surround and try to destroy bacteria and other foreign bodies that are called "Granulomas" oh, there are other ways of getting inflammation but Granulomas come and go, sometimes they even go to sleep for years but if you really have crohn's, they are there whether you or your doctor see them or not during a biopsy.

          I don't usually join in on post and replys because you modern Cronnees use drugs and injections that were unheard of in my days, so I really wouldn't know what I was talking about but I usually log in once or twice a week just to see what's going on.

when your my age you don't try to fix something that's working and for me it's Prednisone 5mg a day, sometimes 10 mgs every other day for a while just to keep my adrenal glands confused so they won't stop working and asulfidine each morning - a B-12 shot once a month and a slofi-Iron tablet every other day. and I'm 80 years old since Feb 6 of this year.

Respectfully 

Panayo,

I to found your post very interesting. I have had crohn's for 28 years and I like to read postings and talk with people whom have had the disease for as long or longer than I have. We all can learn from your experience and knowledge and I ask you to please join in more often. Even after all these years, prednisone is still my miracle drug to for adrenal glands as well as crohn's. Take care of yourself, and I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Julia

gachrons said...
Hi Did your GI include menapause in that because it hit me hard when I went threw menapause .I sure hope that's the case though. I will say one thing about being older I have more determinaton now or was it the pain ,I think a little of both. lol gail

Hi gachrons-  Ya know, I am not ready for menapause just yet so I don't know that he was including that in there.  But thank you for bringing it up because I am going to ask him at my next visit.

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences with me. I understand it being different with everyone because we are definitely all different.
I just thought it was interesting that my GI told me that and wondered what others experienced with it.

My GI has told me the same, and it has proven tobe right in my case. Had initial symptoms at 19, diagnised at 33 after a bad GI bleed, and had periodic flares for some years. Then around my mid-40s it seemed to diminish in intensity. I now have occasionaly mini-flares of a day or so, but no longer ones and my last scope in December showed minimal disease activity. I think some people may be different -- especially those with stricturing or fistulizing disease -- but there seems to be some evidence that a lot of CD patients do expwerience a leveling or decline in symptoms asthey age.

I feel like a faker compared to you guys. But my history may be of some use to somebody. I had a history of digestive problems about 10 -15 years ago and went to a naturopath who did an elimination diet (basically start from a couple of foods and add some gradually to see what is not tolerated). She also had me take some food sensitivity tests which showed wheat and dairy as well as a number of other foods as being the problem. This seemed to work somewhat and I went for about 5 - 6 years using the diet alone. Then I had some acid reflux problems and went to my doctor who put me on a proton pump blocker. I was on that for a while (about 1 - 2 years), but I did not feel that masking the problem was the solution, so I went off it and began logging food reactions. My wife has been extremely patient and by eliminating everything that was a problem - I learned to tell what the triggers were - I eliminated the reflux. Then, recently, I had a hassle with a neighbor and the stress brought out the latent problem. I had the diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and sinus problems that are normally a sign of Crohn's. I went to the doctor again and had a bunch of tests done which were inconclusive. Fortunately, I had been scheduled for a gastroscopy to check that the reflux really was under control when I went to the doc for my checkup. The fortunate part is that the Internist suggested that I get a colonoscopy at the same time as the gastroscopy. That showed up the problem, but before that, I was prescribed some antibiotics in case it was really sinusitis causing the problem. I took them for 8 days and then quit before the colonoscopy fast (they were not doing anything anyway). After the scope, I got some good probiotics and began using them immediately. That alone seemed to help immensely. Then I got the scope results and the doctor wanted me to get a Celiac test. I told her that I had not used wheat for a number of years, so she told me to re-introduce it to trigger any possible sensitivity. I was using a wheat/bran cereal that only lasted about 3 days before the pain in the gut told me that it had to go. Then I was using a plain white bread that was not too awful, but there was a slight knot in the gut where the cereal had caused the pain. Once I had the test and quit the wheat, the problem vanished. I have to say that it is not just wheat that I avoid. I have now eliminated all gluten sources as well as a few personally identified triggers. I have not heard anything about the test, so I assume it was negative for Celiac (two weeks now). I'm 57 now and it looks like I have dodged a bullet. I think that there may be individuals that can't benefit from this approach since Crohn's is so individual, but I have seen research that supports the diet connection.

Hi LBJ & Panayo, thanks you are an inspiration as always.

I've heard both,  with one saying it does get better with age and also heard that it gets worse by my GI, so let me tell you my experience after having crohns for 29 years. 

When this disease first started and in the years to follow I was suffering terribly, but maybe some of the suffering was caused not only by inflammatory pain but also by obstruction pain. 

 Being a woman it did esculate sometimes around the peri menopausal phase and shortly after this I had a resection done.  This operation stopped the rolling around on the floor pain TG but left me with chronic diarrhea which I would rather have in comparrison to that awful pain of days gone by.

Is the inflammation still going on?   Yes, a CT scan months months after surgery has shown that it was back, but these last 5 years have been much much better than in the beginning. 

Because I didn't do well with the newer drugs, I, like Panayo am controlling mine with 5 mg of prednisone not only for the CD but also for a sleeping adrenal gland.  Since I've been using this drug for years and have developed osteoporosis they are very cautious about increasing the dosage over 5 mg.    So many a time do I feel I need more because I feel inflamed yet have to suffer it out on the 5 mg.