Posted 1/6/2010 12:54 PM (GMT 0)
Hello all,
Like a lot of people, I have beenn lurking on the boards for a while. I decided I should stop lurking and hop into the water, so here I am.
I am a 36 year old male from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. I was diagnosed with Crohn's in 1993. Up until that point, I had been steadily losing energy. Of course, I had been losing massive amounts of blood. I didn't want to tell anyone because well, it is pretty embarrassing for a guy (or anyone) to be pissing blood from his ass. I was 19. Yeah, it was rough. Finally, my mother(thanks mom) scooped me up and took me to the hospital. That was the first of many 3 nighters at the hospital. I couldn't walk so the staff wheeled me into the hospital. I had my first blood transfusion then, and have had many since. I am 6'1" and weighed 160 pounds. I was stick thin and everybody thought I was doing major drugs, lol! Finally, in Feb 2007, I had a resection. 8 damaged inches of intestine was removed. By Sept, I was back in the hospital for another 3 nighter and more blood transfusions. I started IV iron infusions last July. I started out with Venofer but had bad leg and body cramps. We tried the dexferrum but I had an anaphylactic issue and went back to the Venofer. So I get IV iron once a month now.
It seems like I have always had symptoms. Yes, there have been stretches of 2-3 months without any major issues, but I always seem to drop back into the Crohn Zone pretty quickly. My current flare started last October with bloody diarrhea and gurgling belly noises. Then came the pain. I thought it was Crohn's related. My Gastro ran most of the tests (C-scope, Barrium, CT, bloodwork,...) but couldn't find any issues. I still had major pain. My Gastro told me that he couldn't treat pain if he couldn't find a cause. After two years of his crap, I fired him and got a new Gastro. Active disease was confirmed with a pill cam, and I have been on 2 Humira pens a week( have been taking Humira for almost two years). It is obvious that the Hurmira is not working anymore, so it is on to the next drug. I have taken a good bit of the Crohn's drugs available. I have an appt on Thursday for new meds and a new game plan.
As other posters stated, I could write so much more, but even this seems too long. Even this little bit seems to long for a forum. Anyway, good morning (depending on where you live:)!