had a tough few days

started feeling bad last week-extreme fatigue, then nausua all day sunday and down right crummy. no temp. had off and on pain in stomach.  Also, blood preasure continued to rise, to the point of being 175/115 with the hypertension meds i take.  called both doctors- they both said go to ER.  BP was then at 190/134, but settled down to the 150/115 range.   After 7 hours of tests=EKG, blood work, etc, they sent me home.  Had CT scan with dye done on intestines,  no blockage(yeah) but could see the inflamation.  Remind you I had resection done Jan 2010 and a coloscopy back in May.  Plus I started remicade several months ago.  They did nothing for the crohn's...GI doctor said he did not want to give Pred until BP was better and he did not feel inflamation was any worse than a few months ago.  They adjusted BP meds and said call reg Dr in am.  I see her tomorrow. 

So, here is the question.  I feel a little better today but still tired.  My next remicade is next week- Is it even working?  Cimzia did not after 14 months, i had blockage and then surgery.  Then, get this, my Reg Dr says she wants me to stop work (maybe disability) for a while to give them time to get me straight, health wise. She also wants to consider a different GI and she says he is not looking at all my issues.  BTW, i had lost 7lbs in 3 weeks....She has another guy who works with the UNC-Chapel Hill university hospital which does a lot of research.  she says it might be best to go to a place like that which would review my body as a whole. 

I am confused as to what to do next.  but i had feeling like I did yesterday.  I had not felt that bad in a long time.

thanks

Mirowpl

update.  My regular Dr just wrote me out of work for 6 weeks. she said to file the disability claim. She would ensure it  would covered with all the issues i have.  She is sending me to another GI and i will be seeing her every week for the next 6 weeks.  My bp is still high, this am was 156/117 and I am on very strong meds- minoxidil being one of them.  Plus I had actually lost 13lbs from when i saw her 3 weeks ago. 

I am glad that i have such a strong internist who is willing to take action.  I was exhausted just walking upstairs to get on the computer.

thanks for listenig.

I don't have any ideas about your symptoms or what to do next, but I hope the 6 weeks off work gives you enough time to get better.

It is nice to see someone here from NC. I am being treated at Duke and not very happy with my treatment at this time. May I ask who your current MD is and where? I am just excited to see someone on here living close to me. I too am having trouble with my crohns (really never been in remission except maybe 6 months) since my resection. I had my 1st resection at Duke in March 2009 and had to go back Jan 2010 because my site stayed infected due to a switch that stayed in there.  They took out another 2 inches then. I had to quit work at that time because my boss basically said quit or I will have to fire you for missing to much work. I was out so much. I went on disability with the state because I have had a county job. My GI was against going on disability but my primary was for it. I got it based on my history. I wasn't able and still not able to work. My work was too stressful also and i was even worse when I tried to work. I have gained weight since I have been off on work and do feel better than before. I does help to take a break. I really have only had one bad flare since Jan but feel I am having another one now. I am sorry to be going on and on. I tried Cimzia but it didn't work either. The remicade worked wonders about 3 years ago and I am now on Humira. Without the Humira I would be alot worse. My problem with my gastro is she is so hard to get in touch with and will not return calls. It is also hard to get an ER appt with. I also live 2 hrs from Duke. I was wondering if UNC maybe better. I was going to Baptist before Duke but the MD there wouldn't do anything for me. I am just a number at Duke because she has so many patients. Baptist was worried to much about enrolling me in trials all the time, when I needed surgery (had obstruction and they didn't find it).

Hang in there. Make sure if you do change gastro's to get all your records and keep notes for yourself.

 

It's always good to get another GI's opinion. I had a few that were pretty bad, and best thing I ever did for my health was to change doctors. I've got a really good one right now, and he has sent me to another GI a few times just for second opinions and having another GI confirm that his treatment plan made sense.

I was very glad I did that.

As for the job, mine isn't too stressful most of the time, when equipment breaks down or we are working on a big project, it can get stressful. Getting called out in the middle of the night for issues is pretty bad. I know when the job gets like that the Crohn's starts to get a bit out of control. I've been lucky enough to share the on-call rotation with two others, so I get two weeks break from it. Getting away from work stress might do a lot of good, but in my past experiences, it's difficult to really get away from it. E-mail can be a big problem when other co-workers still want you working when you are on disability.

I hope it works out well for you. Sometimes getting another doctor to take a look can be a really good thing.