Hey everyone, I haven't been on here in awhile and I forgot how much it was helping me emotionally; I've been having a tough time lately so I thought I'd get my little Crohnie butt back here :P My signature gives a brief overview of my situation, but I'm going to talk about
my latest flare in hopes that someone might have a suggestion. Last Friday it snowed a lot so my college closed. I live close to home but I was so weak I couldn't get out of bed; my mom had to drive up to come get me. Since around February 7 I have been having no solid bowel movements--the stool is always very watery and mushy, and it seems like I have to go everytime I eat. Always in the morning and usually 2-4 times a day. So that night I just slept the rest of the day and was shivering and couldn't eat. The next day was more of the same, and more diarrhea as usual. I finally got half a sandwich down, and then threw up. My mom was worried I would be dehydrated so they called the ambulance. The people came and carried me out of my room, down the back steps, and put me on the stretcher to go to the hospital. Soo scary. Anyway, it turns out I was severely dehydrated. They gave me lots of IV fluids (gosh, isn't it annoying waking up every hour in the hospital to pee because of those fluids??), and did a lot of bloodwork. I was there Saturday until Thursday night around 8pm. Oh when I came in I also had over 102 fever I think. They gave me some Tylenol for that I believe and medicine through the IV for the nausea. I was watching Forrest Gump by the way that first night lol. Anyway, then the next day or two I was on a clear liquid diet. I was supposed to have done a small bowel/upper GI series but I hate drinking that contrast stuff..I'm really bad keeping down liquid stuff like that. At least when I had the CAT scan I could sip it over time. But those rock candy type things with water that makes you want to burp made me so nauseas, and then I started drinking the barium and they're like "you have to drink it continuously" and I couldn't do it. My body just wouldn't let me..I wanted to throw up so bad. So we just stopped the test..my gastroenterologist thankfully said it wasn't really imperative to finish the test right now. Hmm what else..so then I was starving and finally got on a soft bland diet..the food was actually really good at the hospital. They were giving me my Flagyl through the IV...and umm what else? They gave me these huge pills since my potassium was low..I choked on one and like spit up..nobody heard me coughing so thank god I managed to get the thing out of my own throat. Also they started me on Protonix (which is really helping my cough YAYAYAY!) and on the Prednisone (now that I'm home I have it orally, I thinkkkkk we started at 40 mg..to be tapered by 5 mg every 5 days). They also continued giving me my Asacol. And they had me drink some of this powder that turns orangy when mixed with water to add bulk to the stool and bind me a little..honestly it was nauseating me so I only ever finished the entire cup once. The stool finally seemed to be better than diarrhea..it was less watery and sort of formed..so I was happy. I was finally discharged and came home last night after meeting with a hemotologist and getting an iron infusion (he also wants to prescribe folate I think and give me weekly shots of iron I guess?). I was having a good morning but I think I was a little too optimistic. I had a formed bowel movement (sort of) this morning, and then later on 3 separate bouts of that all-too-familiar mush/liquid =( The doctor said not to worry..it's going to "be up and down." BUT...what do I do about
this diarrhea/mush?! Any suggestions? It's so inconvenient and embarassing..I feel like I can't go anywhere. Does anyone know of anything to help bind you? I need to find out the name of that powder from the hospital, I think it started with a C. But really, if anyone knows any binding stuff..let me know. I tried Immodium but I don't know that it really helped..maybe I just didn't take enough. Pepto Bismol didn't help...and before the hospital I'd started Lomotil for a day...only 1 pill and I had this dizzy spell where I almost passed out..so I guess I can't take that. Any suggestions would be great, thanks so much!!!!
Also...does Prednisone really make you gain weight? Because I'm crazy thin and I really NEED to gain some weight. I'm kind of around 89-91 pounds now ugh.