Decision about Surgery info:

I have 2 strictures that are now tiny. I've had them for years, but there is a deep inflammation that won't stop.
When I flare the pain is to the point of being unbearable.
They have partially obstructed, Dr says they will fully obstruct if left.
I am at the point where food choices are becoming fewer and fewer.
I not quite 50 yet (49) and I want some quality of life as I get older.
I'm back on pred

I only had one surgery, and the disease is back a year later, but the year with no problems was worth the surgery!

Hi there,

Ok this is  a little bit long, but a bit like if you were actually talking to me, or rather listening to me, as I write how I talk......

Im just curious as to how they tell if your bowels are partially obstructed?, And what is the definition of a stricture? Can you tell if you have one? what are the symptoms?

Im still waiting to see the doc on the 13th i think lol, its either the 13th or the 15th, and im going to ask him to send me to a gi, or send me for the test, that involves them sticking a tube down your throat under sedation?

Right now i am in the middle of what I call a flare up, my tummy is crampy, very badly crampy, i have went to the washroom about 8 times today, all diarrhea, well really really soft, but I had to push them out, meanwhile, before i had to go, I felt like if I didnt get to the washroom I may have an accident, i just dont get it!!

Is there anyone else who experiences this? P.s. People think that i am anorexic, i have lost so much weight, I had a funeral today for my nanny, it was the hardest thing ever, so there were quite a few people who hadnt seen me in a while, and they were all commenting on me, and saying how great I looked, and I said, well I wish i felt great, and I tell them that Im sick, and then they feel bad, i dont want people to feel bad, I want people to become familiar with what is happening to me......

I find that when I feel sick and crampy, which is about 90 percent of the time, i do not feel like eating at all...... but when I do get a little bit of an appetite, i generally binge, my abdomen, gets so distended, but sometimes this happens only when i eat a few pieces of something, or just a smally quantity or something, I look like im 4 or 5 months pregnant seriously, its disgusting..... The rest of me is fading away, but my abdomen, is disgusting, and when its not distended, its all lose, like as if I had a baby or something, i do have a little girl who is 5, but, that is what it feels like, since i lost all my weight.....

anyways, im sorry to make that so long, just really really curious, and frustrated, and scared,............

Thanks to you all for listening, or reading for that matter, if i can think of anything else, i will add it in later

Take care all

kelly

My tummy swells too. I look pregnant. I have terribly loud gurgling. I am so extremely limited on what I can eat because of the stricture. When the pain comes it is almost unbearable. gacrohns is correct. They can see them with a sbft (small bowel followthrough) xray. It involves a 12 hr fast, drinking barium with fizzy crystals. The rest is waiting for it to move through the intestines. It's not a big deal.

Hi Jelly it is possible you might have a fistula so perhaps talk to your Dr. since you see a whole there it sounds like there might be one. The swelling is probably from the intestines not being able to clean themselves out properly. lol gail

gachrons, i have not seen a hole, however I have felt what felt like a tear somewhere, wether it was in a hemorhoid, or if its a fistula Im not sure, but i was trying to figure out what it was, touching it I guess you could say, and it felt like a lose hemorhoid, with a hole in it, it was rather disturbing, but never thought anything of it, as i thought it was just a hole in the hemorhoid, i have also had thombrostic hemorhoids, two of them, wondering if a fistula formed from the former absess, that was a size of a golf ball,
I am a very curious person, just in case you all have not noticed ****
take care
kelly