Am I Normal

(For Crohn's). Anyway, I'm 21, I was diagnosed with Crohn's when I was 17, before that they thought I had UC. I had my 4th scope in Sept. and I was healing except for proctitis, (joy). Anyway, I go through bouts of diarrhea and constipation, sharp stomach pain, nausea, extreme fatigue-i take frequent naps, feel exhausted, and have been known to sleep up to 14hours per day. Also, joint aches, sweats and chills, swelling and abdominal bloating too. Sometimes I am fine, but other times I get all these symptoms and I was just wondering if this was normal for a typical Crohn's patient. I have severe Crohn's and I am trying to work as hard as I can in college and my little 8hr per week tutoring job. But most every week I miss either a class or shift of work because of one of these symptoms. I have bloodwork ordered this week to find out why i'm so tired and other issues, but simply am i normal?

I'm on Remicade, 6MP, protonix, zyrtec, yaz, and occassionaly zofran for nausea, and darvocet for pain.

Post Edited (kix2989) : 11/28/2010 9:08:49 PM (GMT-7)

kix you just brought me back 40 years, sounds like yours started bad, like mind, but i had no meds other than pred or alsulfadine and pain meds, so I had major surgery early in my cd life, it was either surgery or die for me. it gave me remission when I was 21 until 39, I was a horse jockey when I was stricken, really bad for 1 year, after they had no choice but to remove disease,(obstuction). i was back at the track riding in 9 weeks after they removed that alien from my body, I woke up in recovery room, my mom was with me and I could feel my stomach was normal.

I would say you could be the poster child for severe CD. Pretty classic case . . .

Unfortunately, those are my typical symptoms too. No fun... Has Remicade helped you at all?

i was diagnosed w UC at 21, had symptoms at 19, diagnosis was changed after further biopsies at 24 I think it was, I'm 34 now. My case is not as severe as yours now, but at the beginning I was pretty similar to you. I was told I was a mod-severe case at age 26. I was switched to Imuran as my medication; I completely altered what I ate then; decided to sleep as best I could, and do my best to not get stressed out. I also did college and grad school with Crohn's, it was really bad in school due to stress, staying up late pulling all-nighters to get stuff done on time or study for exam after exam; I also had kids beginning with my sophomore year in college so almost all my schooling was done with kids and married.
stress relief is huge and sleeping and eating right are huge. I have found when I pay more attention to those things the flareups do not happen as often. Good luck.

Hey, I've been away for a few days but thank you for all the responses. Remicade does help me, but I think I should probably get it every 6-7 week rather than 8. So I guess I am normal to Crohn's standards haha, but yes I just wish the quality of life was a little better. I'm thinking about approaching more holistic methods, maybe diet changes, etc. Has anyone had any luck? But I would never quit taking my meds. And I did see darvocet got recalled, anything else that is a replacement I could ask for because my pharmacy called also. I only take it very sparingly, I'd say I've taken 6-10 pills in 6 months. After finals, I'm going to try to get back to the gym even if only for 30min a couple times a week, it seems like its helped me before. It's just been crazy busy and its currently my hell week in school lol. And again, thank you for your replies.

Thanks, good luck to you do! How do you deal with all the stress of college work? I'm gonna have to up my credit hours from 12-15 and just wonder how other people handle it?

Thanks, good luck to you too.