New to crohns and a bit scared

well I had a horrible night. I spent hours on the toilet in horrible pain. it comes in waves. It feels as if I am backed up. When it comes, the stool is forced out in small ribbons and is bloody. Its so powerful, I get hemorrhoids and fissures.

I have been having this for about 3 months untreated. I am going to start Asacol tomorrow. I am bit nervous about these drugs, but hopefully they will help. It appears my issues are in my bowl.

I hope there is no serious damage from going this long without medication. Does this all sound familiar to you guys?

My colon is in massive pain. One question I have is when do I need to go to the hospital? Is this life threatening? I called my doc but he said im probably just backed up. I would hate to ignore an issue that needs hospitalization.

thanks guys

sigmoid is one....it seems to all be in the mid and lower colon. Its not too high up. I would not say its a lot of blood. There was heavy bleeding a month ago, but its somewhat light now. Enough to tint the water and some streaks on the stool, but no enough to make the water red, more pink.

How long before serious damage sets in? do I have time for the asacol to do its thing? Did Asacol help you?

thank you for the tips, I do have the enemas as well (Rewasa), but I am waiting for an xray of the colon. doctor wants to make sure I am not too inflamed to shove an enema stem up there and disrupt anything.

hours after first use of rewasa, I had nausea and watery diariah. I think I may be intolerant to mesalmine

I'm new to Crohn's also. Only took 7 months plus of diarrhea, and other manifestations (including not being able to walk due to extreme inflammation in my knees), before the doctors finally admitted me into the hospital. So frustrated that the docs are so blase about it all, when I'm trying to get back to a "normal" life, like working and taking care of my kids. My joints are giving me a lot of pain, and have to walk with a cane at 50 yoa. My rheumatologist put me on 50 mg of azathioprine and 10 mg of prednisone, saying if my GI doc wanted to put me on Remicade, he would be agreeable to that, and it would help heal me faster. My GI doesn't want to put me on Remicade because of the possibility of lymphoma, so increased the azathioprene to 100 mg. Problem is, it won't make me feel better for a while, right? He said may have to increase the prednisone. Who wants that!? I'm still in the midst of a flare up, I guess. They can't seem to answer any of my questions! I asked about diet, (I put myself on gluten-free, dairy free, and low-residue), and he just says that those can't hurt, but they don't help either! Excuse me!? No wonder so many people self-diagnose and self-medicate. Won't have an appnt with the rheumatologist for another month, but guess I will have to call and let him know I can't function with the pain the way it is. I totally understand the pain you are having during the bowel movements. My CD is in my colon too, and I feel like I'm having labor pains when I have a BM. They thought I had Ulcerative Colitis first, and put me on Asacol, which seemed to do nothing. My GI doc thinks it won't do much for me either. My understanding was that is was more for the small bowel problems, of which I have no problem with right now. I was given all the antidiarrheal drugs which never helped either. Was given Questra to try to bulk up the stool, but no avail there either. I went to the ER twice because of the pain etc. The first time they did a CT scan and said UC and sent me home with Flagyl and Cipro. The second time, when I couldn't walk, they ran all kinds of blood tests and an xray on my knees, (I have had osteoarthritis in my knees for 10 years, so didn't tell me anything I didn't already know!), and sent me home with pain meds, and told me to call my GI guy. 6 hours wasted, basically, and the next day the GI doc put me in the hospital anyway! And the guy is supposed to one of the best! Hah!

Well I just left the hospital. I can pretty much say with certainty that I am intolerant to mesaline. I had watery diarrhea all night after taking the suppository along with nausea. Then, I began to run a fever and feel weak and dizzy. I went to the ER scared I had an infection in the GI track. While there, a few hours later, my fever went away. They gave me no fever reducer while I was there, only saline and some anti nausea medication.

All of these are listed in the the medication side effects, and only came on after taking it, then the fever left.

I've had diarhea for 10 mos now. Was in ressesion for 3 yrs with cimzia. Just got put back on pentasa. Asacol was no help. Because of these terrible open sores from mesquito bites before I went on cimzia I'm going off it for awhile, and talking to the doc about switching to Humera. My stool has been water for the last couple mos, and I do have hemheroids from a long time ago. Usually if you're bleeding is red or pink as you said it's from hemheroids. If the bleeding is internally it's black and tarry. Why do these docs take ther time doing anything? I don't understand. It took me mos to get him to give me Pentasa. That was after 2 stool samples and a colonoscopy. He told me I have colonitis and scar tissue where I had surgery 3 yrs ago. Good luck!

Hello! I am new to HW. I discovered HW while searching for help because I just had a cervical disc removal and fusion. Then I discovered the Crohns forum. I wanted to weigh in on your new diagnosis. My diagnosis came when I was 19, I am now 41. I had similar symptoms with the extreme pain and thread stool and bleeding. It was discovered that I was almost completely obstructed from scar tissue from years of undiagnosed Crohns. I had a resection that saved my life. My obstruction was the ileocecal area. I did have Crohns manifestations beginning in my esophagus (horrible pain with swallowing) and continuing throughout the digestive area. I say all that to say, Crohns doesn't just affect one area. Before my resection, I was placed on a no fiber diet to decrease volume. That may help.... I also discovered a book that was extremely helpful. It's called the "Eating right for a bad gut" by James Scala. After I had the resection and changed my diet, things improved. Avoid all processed foods and preservatives. Not easy but easier on your body! I also had lots of predisone, & pentasa. Hope this helps.

Post Edited (Ms Lysa) : 5/7/2013 8:14:56 AM (GMT-6)