HOW WERE YOU DIAGNOSED WITH CROHN'S

After reading the stories here, I realize how lucky I was to be dx so quickly. I don't think I'd have the strength to go years without help.

My Crohn's was triggered by an overuse of antibiotics and a surgery, I'm convinced. I had constant pilonidal cysts that I took z pac after z pac for. Finally had the surgery to remove it and almost immediately started having extreme gas, joint pain, weird gurgling sounds, tiredness, gut pain, etc. More importantly, my wound wouldn't heal.

6 MONTHS after surgery, I still had a gross wound on my ass. They are supposed to heal in weeks. My surgeon had no idea what to do with me.

I went to a wound care center for help. First thing he did was run a blood panel to find out what was wrong. Up popped the issues with iron, hemoglobin, magnesium, etc. Though maybe I had Celiac.

Went to a GI, said maybe Celiac but maybe something else. In the meantime, my wound and my other symptoms were getting worse. I was not able to eat solid foods and was dropping weight like crazy.

Upper scope ruled out Celiac, as did a gluten free diet. Went to a CT scan - saw the thickening of the walls of the colon. Went to a colonoscopy, obvious signs of Crohns.

Started immediately on Remicade; within weeks, my surgical wound closed up. It had been open and draining and infected for 9 months.

And here I am, 5 years later.

pb4 said...
My husband had pilonidal but he has no issues with IBD, I wonder if your pilonidal was actually a fistula and not pilonidal?

:)

The GI thought maybe one of the cysts was attached to a fistula, but couldn't be sure (he scoped while the wounds were still open). My dad had pilonidal cysts, my brother has them, my sister has them, and I had them for years before my Crohns issues started. I do think something IBD related complicated the wounds, plus I had limited ability to heal myself due to the deficincies.

Well, I'm 34 have had problems since I was 13. Was always told I had stomach bugs IE selmanela sorry spelling. Was finally diagnosed when I was 24. All this time I had severe pain. bleeding, the runs and weight loss. This took about 3-4 colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy. I was told that a biopsy is what diaganosed me. I think a good GI is a must I had two before my current dr who is amazing. Recently had sigmoid coloctomy for diverticulitis and the surgeon told me that there are no signs of Chrons, I guess my meds are working. Took Remicade, ASA, immuran

Jay