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Are you a slow recoverer?

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Posted 8/3/2011 4:40 PM (GMT 0)
Whenever a bug, surgery recovery or whatever ill hits you, does it take you super long to recover?  I feel  like a take a step forward then 3 steps back everytime I get sick.  Sometimes I feel like I am gonna feel like crap forever.  Its really getting old and pretty quick.

Hugs!

Posted 8/3/2011 4:51 PM (GMT 0)
Oh for sure!! Just seen the surgeon, for follow/up and staples out. I've lost another 5lb, I feel as bad
as I did before surgery, if not worse! So I ask hims, 'what's wrong with me, if you've removed the bad
bit, why don't I feel any better'. He said he couldn't answer that cuz, he's just the guy who cut's you, then
sew you up again!! He thought maybe a course of TPN. I told him I thought that's why I had surgery, was to
avoid TPN!!

To cut a long story short, he's given me dilaudid, thinking I need a better handle on my pain, and told me
to get a bottle of Kaopectate OTC. So yea this **** is getting very old, very old indeed...

Excuse the rant Gail, but I'm pissed. No-one seems to know or even care!!
Posted 8/3/2011 5:06 PM (GMT 0)
It depends, after surgery I usually recover and get over it really quickly. But if it is a flare and have to wait for medication to kick in that it can seem like it is never ending. Then once I start to feel even a little bit better I think I should go back to work and so end up going back far too early and knackering myself but can't break the habit.

They say that with age comes wisdom but think that somehow they removed the wisdom and common sense along with my colon :)
Posted 8/3/2011 5:31 PM (GMT 0)
I seem to have recovered from surgery rather quickly. I'm 4 weeks post op and feeling good in that area, but I know when I get colds and other things it takes forever (compared to other people) to get over.

I've also noticed that cuts, bruises and other things seem to take forever to heal. Four weeks post op my incision is looking great, but the places where I had IVs have still not gone away. Strange...
Posted 8/3/2011 6:10 PM (GMT 0)
Hmmmm...so far it seems its kinda 50-50. Vicky do you think its harder for us because we are older? I still feel kinda rough myself and one of my good friends, keeps telling me us older gals take longer to recover. Doc has me out of work thru 8-19-11. I can tell already thats no wheres long enough. It always takes me like a month to recover things like I have gone thru. I am sooo weak still, had to have my niece drive me all over town yesterday as I was just too weak. Hugs~
Posted 8/3/2011 6:48 PM (GMT 0)
OK Nanners...the older ? really???? It can't be age because we are all young as we want to be on the internet....yep foooling myself here.

Seriously though, I have been a slow healer for as long as I can remember.  Even things like the mark left after a mosquito bite remain longer than others seem to have them.  I hold onto colds long enough that people think I have a new one starting.  Some surgeries, they thought I was healing fast, but it was just because I pushed myself too hard....developed lumps on my back post surgery due to over working it then those took forever to go away.  i think some of us just tend to heal slower......just don't leave us at the back of the herd please!

I hope both you and Vicky see some sunshine on your cloudy days soon.

Posted 8/3/2011 7:17 PM (GMT 0)
I'm doing good since my resection. Feeling good, getting back to normal life. Not back to work yet, but in 1.5 weeks. Though I'm not in any rush. :) Still getting twinges of pain every now and then in the area of the resection, but not doing bad overall.

I guess I recovered pretty quickly from surgery. Though I caught a nasty cold in the hospital that I can't seem to get rid of. Everytime I get sick, it takes FOREVER to go away. Probably the Remicade....
Posted 8/3/2011 7:21 PM (GMT 0)
Nanners & Vicky

I am 53 and thought I was doing well. I am 3 1/2 months post-resection. After 2 months my energy went way up and my pain way down. Good stuff, right?

Now that I am over 3 mos. post-op, my pain seems to be recurring ( I was hoping to wean off my pain meds, which I have been on for 6 years.) Also, the small hematoma I had in the hospital, which caused the surgeon to open 3 or 4 staples so it could heal from the inside out is MUCH worse. Last wound care appointment it went from reducing in half to double in size. (From 1.2 cm to .7cm to 2.4 cm). BAAAD.
I am not happy. It doesn't hurt, and the drainage is not like a fistula, but still.

And I have to agree that I have never been a good healer. My fistula lasted 1 1/2 years after throwing everything possible at it (expensive dressings, flagyl, humira). I bruise very easily and they take forever to heal. I can still see the bruise from the hospital where a transfusion backed up.

It gets very tiring - I really had high hopes after my successful surgery.
OK whine over. We all need some magic medicine or prayers that work!

Sudsmom
Posted 8/3/2011 7:54 PM (GMT 0)
Lets see, I have been off work since the beginning of February, surgery in March and I still am not feeling good. The last resection, I was back to work in 6 weeks and I had small kids to take care of, so I think age is part of it. But for me it is also, they have no freaking idea what is going on, so they can't even start to treat me. I probably didn't even need the surgery in the first place. But I digress....

Every time I get a cold or flu, I am down for weeks. A stomach bug puts me in the hospital. I used to recover a lot faster. I also didn't used to get every bug that came my way. I guess it is all part of this DD and getting older.
Posted 8/3/2011 8:07 PM (GMT 0)
Sudsmon I am 53 also. It really does get discouraging sometimes. I have to tell you what my family doc said to me yesterday. He says you know they couldn't find anything wrong with you. I want you to know this is all while I am reading my cscope report over his shoulder. It said they were able to reach anamastosis and all looked good. BUT there was some inflammation just past it. Also just about a month before that, my sed rate shot up for the first time since 2007.

Also, he did admit that my GI agreed with me that it was more than likely a partial obstruction. Hello, at 5:30 am. just 2 hours after taking 8 mg Zofran, I start throwing up and throw up food I had ate at 2:30 pm the prior day, and I was also throwng up my meds from the previous night. Then I was throwing up for hours and hours after that, so much so that a NG tube was required. let alone the pain in my right side.

I have been fighting and fighting my Gi for a pill cam for so long. Even argued there is a patency test I can do first to make sure it passes. I think I have something going on somewhere a scope can't reach. I do admit I have had some serious stress of late, but I don't think that would have caused all this.

I just want to feel better. I am tired of being sooo weak I can barely walk. Maybe it is age that is making my recovery harder, but I sure do feel something else is going. Thanks for sharing how you recover with me. Hugs!
Posted 8/3/2011 8:13 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Becky

It´s the same for me. My cuts bruses and IV-places takes forever to heal. I´ve been told that it´s because of Humira/pred.
I´ve also have problems with adherenses And after three operations there are so many of them that the surgeon told me that they can´t operat me other on vital indikation ( if my life depend on it! shocked ). With my crohn- lovely! shakehead

"Abroad"
Posted 8/3/2011 8:53 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all, I am 66, soon to be 67. I heal slowly, too. I had to have my upper teeth extracted 5 months ago due to pred bone damage. They wanted them out before putting me on 6 mp. I was told it would take 3 months before I could get dentures. I waited 5 months. The dentist says I have to wait 6-8 more months in order to be healed enough to get dentures without replacing them every 2 months. Since I can't pay for 3 sets of dentures, I am now going without teeth and crying all the time because it is soooo embarrassing. Nobody told me this might happen. See what you have to look forward to in 10 years?!!
Posted 8/3/2011 9:27 PM (GMT 0)
Having Crohn's for 35 years may sometimes mean malabsorption of nutrients for 35 years. Everyone knows how Crohn’s can impair absorption of vitamin B12 and folic acid, that is why so many here regularly take B12 shots and supplement with folic acid. But Crohn’s can also cause deficiency of other nutrients especially zinc, not to mention magnesium and potassium. Zinc is crucial for wound healing.

This is from The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine by Michael Murray and Joseph Pizzorno, page 597:
Evidence of zinc deficiency occurs in approximately forty-five percent of Crohn’s disease patients and in similar numbers with ulcerative colitis…many of the complications of the disease may be a direct result of zinc deficiency: poor healing of fissures and fistulas, skin lesions, retinal dysfunction, …

So maybe a zinc deficiency can exacerbate slow healing. Perhaps it is a good idea to take a multivitamin that has generous amounts of zinc. Just a thought. I don't think it could hurt.
Posted 8/3/2011 9:35 PM (GMT 0)
Hey all, I don't know whether it's an age thing, or what the hell it is. I'm just so sick and tired of
trying to tell people what's wrong and all they seem to want to do is pass the buck. You know, at
the beginning of this DD we all, or most of us, went through 'it's all in the head ' stage. WEELLL I
just have a feeling that I'm at that stage again. If it's not biting their ass, then it can't be there.
I have news for 'em, it's not in our heads, and yes we do feel as bad as we say we do. Who in
their right mind would feel like they've been run over by a bus, if they really didn't feel that way!

Ok rant almost over, but I'm still irked, for myself and everyone else who seems to be fighting
a losing battle.

Sorry folks I think it's the TPN issue. Why be sliced and diced in order to avoid it, just to be told you
need it 2 weeks later.

Sorry Gail I've hijacked your post:(
Posted 8/3/2011 9:47 PM (GMT 0)
I'm really slow at recovery whether it's from surgery, illness or physical injuries...even from cuts. Not to mention after blood tests I bruise like a bona fide drug addict. When it comes to being ill I'm always so impatient to get better that it seems even slower! I'm only 21, and most of my peer group can shrug these things off so quickly - it's terribly frustrating. I guess the soul is willing but the flesh is weak ;)

Nanners -it sounds to me like you definately need a pill cam done. There's so much area that the endoscopy and colonoscopy doesn't cover. I would have assumed that would be the logical step if nothing in particular showed up on the scopes. Any particular reason your GI is reluctant? As you said, a check can be carried out to make sure the cam will pass first so that shouldn't be a concern - both you and he need to know what's going on in there to develop the best course of action.
Posted 8/3/2011 9:55 PM (GMT 0)
I'm a slow poke even to the point of not healing at all. I still have cuts from 3 or more years ago that refuse to heal and neither doc nor skin specialists know why or what to do for it.
Posted 8/4/2011 9:48 PM (GMT 0)
Hi

Vicky, what´s TPN? I´m not from the states so I just had to ask you.
Im with you al the way in your frustration. when I came back to work, after I´ve been on holiday and 2 weaks of being reported sick, my colleges asked how i was. And I started answering but after just a few words I could se that they weren´t listening anymore. That makes me so sad and angry, Why ask if you´re not ready to listen to the answer?

"abroad"
Posted 8/5/2011 2:06 AM (GMT 0)
TPN in short means IV feeding., Total Parenteral Nutrition. It's given when the body is not absorbing
nutrition via the GI tract.

Hope this helps.
Posted 8/5/2011 2:09 PM (GMT 0)
Babe I wish I could take a multivitamin and feel better. But not even the childrens ones agree with me. I do take B12 shots every 2 weeks, 800 mcg Folic Acid, 4,000 units Vit D3, Calcium, and probiotics.
Posted 8/5/2011 2:15 PM (GMT 0)
Nanners, like most of us you take lots of pills. Wish I could get vitamins from food but all I seem to absorb is fat . All the pills have one good effect though. When I shake my booty I rattle like a maraca .
Posted 8/5/2011 6:20 PM (GMT 0)
Nanners, Someone just told me about vitamins that are food based. They have no chemicals and so your body recognizes them as food. Supposedly they are easier on your system. My source is having all sorts of issues and can't tolerate anything. She is going to get them at a vitamin store. Don't know if that would help you, but I am sure a little internet surfing would help you locate them in your area if you were interested.
Posted 8/5/2011 10:52 PM (GMT 0)
I think I am just slow - fullstop - these days ;P

My brain fog is VERY bad at the moment to the point my sentences trail off mid way as I loose focus - really entertains the family but work are less impressed <chuckle>

Hope you are beginning to get your strength back after your truly awful hospital adventure

hugs
Lesley
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