When were you diagnosed?

I'm 20, diagnosed at 19. I attend school full time so I don't work at the moment, but I am trying to find some sort of odd job that can somehow fit in with my school schedule--very scattered...

School itself has been stressful but doesn't seem to have made things worse. In fact, I'm feeling better than I did all summer, and I can eat a lot more than before.

I suppose I can't really answer the age question :)

I am 25 years old, diagnosed last November.

I've always had a sensitive stomach and been rather gassy! ever since I was a baby (says my mom). I started having severe pain and problems summer 2003 but doctors said - everything was fine. But got incredibly bad winter 2006 but didn't find a doctor who would listen until winter 2007. I was put on 6mp but developed hives and stopped taking any medicine. In denial I thought I could take care of it myself, but it seems stress gets me down. This July I flared again and finally accepted my doctors care and medication. I've been improving since then and slowly actually gaining weight! - coming to terms with my denial as well.

I work full time at a help desk for a printing company and go to school part time for my masters. Desperately need a new job. My boss pretends to understand, but when I feel my worst and want to go home, he refuses.

I'm glad to have this site and the people to get me through each day <3

28 diagnosed at 14...Crohns

Hi Melissa I am Over 50 and had CD long enough but guess it is something to get used too.I sure like the sounds of your job got to admit I'am a sweet lover. I was DX with severe CD a few years back and it has been busy years for me. I spend alot of time here and really like and care for the others that take the time to be here. I enjoy helping others as well and all the good info and mostly just being apart of and relating to something that is a part of our lives. lol gail

Hi Melissa, I'm another one over 50. Been DX for a long time now. I'm suffering with a lot of spin off diseases as well.
I get tired if this DD never letting go!!

I don't work, although I baby sit my grandson a lot, so I guess I do work, but at least in my work place my bathroom is very handy!!

Hi i'm 46 was told i had Crohn's at 33 I'm currently employed at Staples "That was Easy" LOL!!! had to say that. I pretty much do everything there most of the time in the computer section. Sometimes i'm do some tech work there. The people that work there are great. Sometimes it can get stressful there with angry costumers other then that the jobs ok. Its been a rough ride over the years with this disease but i still kicking.

 Hello Melissa,

     I'm 50, Mom to 4 grown children, and many Grandchildren. I had symptoms from about 7years old and had 6 miscarrages that I now blame on the Crohn's. I was hospitalized in 1990 with Hydronephrosis, and told I had an unspecfied autoimmune disorder, after 9 days and 19 bags of  various antibiotics. I displayed many different symptoms over the next 12years including hives, swelling of joints, a few GI symptoms(not many)but mostly depression (never experenced before 1995), memory loss,serious, fatigue, arthritic and muscle pain. I could not comprend what I read, after teaching myself to read at about 3 years old. In 1995 I resigned a  high stress job that I dearly loved, because I felt to weak and venerable to perform my duties.In 2002 within 6 months after Sharon Osborne went public with her Colon Cancer on the reality show, one hospital where I live had 15,000 women between the age of 35-50 years old request Colon scopes, they were all self pay as insurance only covered the scopes for people over 50 at that time, and of those about a third were DX'd with Crohn's, Celiac, or UC. I just happened to chose a OB/GYN who was on staff there to do my female maintainance. She DX'd me on the spot, and sent me for a scope to confirm. It was the best thing to happen for me in a long time. I now work in the natural products industry, a good idea for me so I can afford the SCD diet I use for control.Sometimes it is stressful. I talk to  people every day who have major illnesses, some the Doctors have given up on, but it must be my calling, when I get home I come here and do more of the same. I remember what it is like to have the Doctors shrug and say "we just don't know", and how wonderful it was to find a forum like this one where people knew what it was like to suffer before things presented well enough for the Doctors to piece it together and help me.      

                                                       

I'm 41 and got sick and fairly easily DX at 24yrs of age, I've been flaring to some degree (mostly severe to moderate) for my entire 17 yrs of having this DD because of complications with my perianal crohn's skin tags...my disease actually started with perianal crohn's skin tags which I noticed in my late teen yrs around 17-18 yrs of age but with absolutely no other symptoms, just these stupid bumps (which I was told were hemheroides) which would come and then quickly go, there was also the one time when I was 19 that my lower lip swelled up like a balloon, I thought it was just a blister cuz I'd gotten them from time to time like most people but instead of just a blister which is what it looked like it was starting out as, my entire bottom lip swelled up, other than those episodes in my teens I had no bm, frequency or any other issues that were CD related.

Since I didn't get sick until my first baby was about a yr and a half old I was already a stay at home mom, getting sick just ensured that's what I'd remain, I have 2 gorgeous kids, one boy (16 yrs old come march) and one girl (19 yrs old come January) and they are fantastic and I love them to death, I've got a pretty good hubby too, we've actually been together since I was 15, married for 19 yrs this yr, pretty much together for 26 yrs (minus one yr, which I call my relaxing break LOL).

I find my disease to be too random to say it gets better with age, besides which, researchers have already discovered a cluster of 9 different genes that contribute to the severity and behavior of the disease for each person, so there's no guarantees one way or the other if it gets better or worse as you age because it's different for each persons genetic make up.

My mom also has an IBD, she has UC which she got sick with a few yrs after I got sick with CD, which is weird...when I got DX it was like she was banging her head trying to figure out how I could get such a thing, then whamo, she gets UC a few yrs later in her mid 60's...IBD is definitely a strange disease.

Stress has it's place with IBD as well, yrs ago (around 16ish yrs) I had a colon and rectom surgeon tell me to try and keep my life as stress free as possible. Some people's IBD may be more affected by stress than others with IBD but in general it's always good to try and not sweat the small stuff, the less things you let get to you the better for your health overall.

:)

im 21 got dx when i was 20,

im currently unemployed

I am 51 and have lived with this DD for 33 years (this month). I was diagnosed in 3 weeks when I was 18 years old. I work in the Financial industry and really don't have too many stress problems from my job. I am a mother of 3 grown daughters and 5 grandbabies. The grown daughters give me more stress than anything. And I am extremely, happily married.

MAG,

I too have been here a short time. Thanks for starting this great string!

Everyone else,

It's wonderful to meet you!

I'm 44 (soon 45), had symptoms since '93 but dx with crohns colitis in '02. I chose to ignore the symptoms as flares would come and go through those years. Finally in '02 it got bad enough to see a specialist. Had a colonoscopy which dx the crohns colitis, a few days after the scope things got real bad, they tried everything to control the bleeding but ended up in emergency surgery xmas eve '02 where they removed my large intestine. Now have an ileostomy and scheduled to get rectum removed this fall/winter. I've felt great since surgery with no flares or problems since.
I think stress does definately play a big roll in flares. In '93 when I got my first nasty flare I was under a lot of stress due to the husband's drinking and his party friends invading and trying to destroy our life. It wasn't a pleasant time and I do blame all of that to how I ended up.