Anyone as old as I am with this disease? Getting scared.

I am 66 years old with this dd, and I am flaring.  I don't think I know of anyone else  as old as I am on this site.  Things start to change when you get to be this old.  I am a widow and live alone.  I seem to spend half my time trying to get back and forth to doctors and labs in snowstorms.  I fear that I will be the little old lady in the nursing home that no nurse wants to be assigned to because she has Crohn's disease.  I have no kids and a dog who depends on me.   I worry about what will happen if I have to have resection surgery at my age. I want to keep my independence but how do I recover alone?  How hard are the meds on you as you age?  My options are getting more and more limited.  Is there anyone out there facing this  disease as old as me and how do you deal with it?  Sorry to go on like this...I guess I'm having one of those sad days. 

I'll be 60 this year, and I'm still flaring. I often have days like you're having, and I know there's nothing
I can say that will alter things. I take an awful lot of convincing that things will get better, but I'm still
waiting!!

Just wanted you to know that you're not alone, (((Hugs)))

Hey, lots of us old-timers hang out here! I'm 63. Fortunately, my disease seems to be relatively under control right now, but there's no way to know how long that will last. If you have to have a resection and there's no one to go home to, there are solutions, as one poster noted above. I'd also recommend that anybody who lives alone and is older and unwell should always take his/her cell phone into the bathroom--in case any kind of problem develops and they need to call for assistance.

I'll be 61 next month. The gal I replaced at my last job when she retired is now 78. She has had Crohn's in her small bowel for 55 years. She had her flares over the years but in the last 10 years or more has been very stable. She has been taking Imuran for 15 years and it has kept her CD well-controlled. She travels a lot and has not let her Crohn's slow her down.

I am a widow also. I am fortunate to have two children that live close by. They were most helpful when I was recovering from my last surgery. But other than needing rides until I could drive again, I could have managed fine by myself during the recovery. I have always been very independent. My husband was career Army and was gone over 180 days every year he was in. I got used to doing things on my own.

My mother is 85 and has ulcerative colitis and a widow too. She lives alone and is fiercely independent. I live an hour away and cannot always drive up to help her [not from the Crohn's but from the ankylosing spondylitis (AS)]. She has friends and neighbors that fill in when I cannot get up to help her. She knows that sometime in the future she will likely have to go to a retirement center but she is not planning on that soon.

My reason for citing all these examples is to give you hope. If I recall you lost your husband not that long ago. In the first year after my husband died, I often had the feeling that I would not be able to go alone without him to help me. I had become dependent on him when I got more acutely ill with the AS. With the help of a counselor, I regained my confidence and independent drive. {Not saying you lack confidence.]

You can do this! The months following a diagnosis are often the most difficult. Lots of doctor visits, tests, and changing of meds to get one stabilized. I still have lots of doctor appointments to deal with my many health issues. But my doctors work hard to keep me at my optimum for which I am thankful.

Not as old as you, but I had a patient a while back that was just diagnosed with CD at 73. I was doing a SBS on him. It was a couple years ago, but it stuck in my head because it was so unusual to be diagnosed so late in life.

Dear OTD,

       I was 84 years old Feb. 6, and I've had this DD for 54 years with all  the goodies that go along with it.  Ten surgeries including six major re-sections, gall bladder, hemmies, etc. which cost me 60 percent of my intestines.

       Last August I had to have back surgery during wich they had to place six titanimum screws to hold my spine together.  While I was in the hospital I caught another disease called urinery pseudomonas while they were putting a catheter In me and the only way they could get rid of it was with a Pic Line that I had to wear for three weeks.

      I've been a widow for over five years now, Live alone since I lost my best friend and wife of 55 years.  My son and daughter call me at least 4 or 5 times a week and come over regularly and visit but they do respect my wishes that I am fine and dandy and I can take care of myself.   I've even got myself a lady friend now,  an old friend who lost her husband about eight years ago, we're having a great time together, she's 77.

       OTD,  I use 5mgs of Prednisone a day and B-12 once a month as a maintenance drug, and that's all I use now.  It's kept me in remission for the last 25 years.  

       To all the younger people with Crohn's.   I wish I could help all of you but the drugs you people take now were not available in my days it was either Pred. or nothing.  Heck, they didn't even know what Crohn's was so they called mine "Ileitis"  because that's where the problem was.

       I never let Crohn's get me down.  When the doctors told me they didn't think I could take anymore I sold my business and went to work for a new company.  I turned down last rights twice when I was so dehydrated they didn't think I would last thru the night.  I didn't want anybody up there to think I was ready to go.  I put all of my efforts in my work and before I knew it I was running the business. I retired 22 years ago.  My retirement gift was a new Cadillac Seville, and they kept me on insurance until I was 65 and on medicare.

        I really think as we get older and fight Crohn's, it gets tired of fooling around with us and sort of eases up, I don't know, I just take my 5mgs of Pred each day or so.

       Being that you take Pred. it might be a good idea if you checked with your doctor and see if you night up the dose for a little while.  Sometimes ladies that fall into your age group tend to have tired Adrenal Glands and they get to where they don't produce as much Corftiisol as they should, it would be a good idea to have them checked.

Respectfully

      

       

     

     

      

Ha! And I was going to call you all a bunch of wet behind the ears babes in the woods!!! I'm 68. But then Panayo had to steal my thunder!!!

Good on you, Panayo. Here's to many more good years, eh! Imuran and Pentasa have been my buddies.

Panaya, wonderful to see you posting again. I love the advice you always give, so no nonsense:) See ODT you are not alone at all. I hope all these posts have helped to quiet your worries. Big hugs!