I don't know if I have Crohn's Disease...

Hello, this is my first post on this forum (or any forum regarding this "condition" I may have). I've never really talked with anyone about this before; I'm a bit embarrassed by it actually, especially since I haven't been able to explain it very well verbally to anyone. I'm hoping that I can try better now that I have a backspace button. But first, a little history;

I'm a young woman, only 20 years old; I've never been married or never had any children, and I'm currently in college. I want to say that this pain I feel is familiar, because I remember having it when I was in high school. It was quite routine, and I dreaded it. But back then, the pain was related to my periods. I would go to the bathroom, find that I'm bleeding and take care of that, but like clockwork, I would get such horrible abdominal pain in just 2 - 3 hours after bleeding began. It would be so severe, that I could not think straight, I would vomit or dry heave (depending on if I ate yet).

After seeing the nurse so many times, she would suggest I take 2 ibuprofens and lay down with the heating pad on my stomach for a bit. The heating pad seemed to work. I'm a bit against taking medication for the little problems, so I never accepted those (I did buy a heating pad for myself when I would have these "episodes" at home).

When I was 17, that's when I started becoming sexually active, and my mother helped me with choosing a birth control. We decided on the Depo Provera injection.

I used to get my periods when they said I would, once every three months, and thankfully, I did not get the pain I was so used to associating it with.

However, now I usually don't get a period at all, which isn't worry-some. What happens now is much more... odd? It usually occurs while I'm sleeping, but I'll wake up with such excruciating pain in my lower abdomen. I always have that body to mind thought of, "Maybe if I go to the bathroom, the pain will stop when I poop." When I get on the toilet, I just don't have to go.

As for triggers, I lived in the school dorms for a year, and one of the triggers was oddly temperature. If it was winter, we had the heat on, but my roommate would sometimes turn it down or completely off (she had more covers than me), and I'd wake up in this pain. It worked the opposite way as well, in the summer, and if they turned the air conditioner off.

Another one is definitely stress induced. These are the ones I would usually get while I'm awake. Though, they are not typically as potent as the ones that wake me up in the night or early morning.

And finally, this is the embarrassing one, but when I have a "dirty" dream, it wakes me up with this pain. I did go through a stage thinking that maybe this pain is psychological, and that I'm inflicting it on myself through some sort of subconsciousness. If only I could remember the root cause of the original pain, maybe it would go away altogether. I don't know.

Funny thing is, my heating pad is not what I desire anymore to make the pain go away. I feel like I need to get cold on my stomach, not hot. So this morning, when a "dirty" dream had caused me to go into pain (oddly enough, it wasn't as powerful as before), I went straight for the ice block in the freezer and a thin towel to lay down with. Other times, I found myself crying on the hallway floor.

As for frequency and duration, I cannot give a straight answer. It's not very chronic in the sense that it happens every day. I may go a month without getting these pains if I have a handle on my stress level. Though if there is a month that I am stressed, it can happen as often as twice a night. The pain, without the aid of heat or cold, has lasted up to 4 hours, but with the aid, it can be reduced to 30 minutes, sometimes resulting with me falling asleep in minor pain, and waking up pain-free.

I posted this in the Crohn's Disease space because my grandmother is a nurse, and when I asked her about this, she suggested that it may be IBS or Crohn's. Of course, she doesn't know about the last trigger. Nobody does until now. And I don't think it's IBS because I don't get these symptoms after eating, nor am I constipated. If anything, I know my body feel my stresse when I get soft feces (not quite diarrhea), and it has a potent smell, but I never related these two.

If anyone could help me figure out what this is, or suggest some action to take, that would be very helpful. My funds are limited, and even if I went to a doctor, I wouldn't know what to tell them so they could accurately diagnose me, if I needed diagnoses at all. If this is psychological, what are the steps I would need to take in solving this problem? Please and thank you so much.

Thank you, Nanners (:

Well, having been woken up today with the pains (much less potent than usual), my activities yesterday may have been a bit strenuous, but I've done worse. I had a psychology midterm at 1pm, student council meeting at 5, then worked from 6 to 10:30pm, when I got home and relaxed after. I did not feel stressed by the midterm, but it could have been related to the stress of the upcoming midterms for my other classes this week. As for food, I know my diet is poor (poor college student, ha ha), but I can't seem to relate it to anything specific that would set it off. Nothing that all of my episodes had in common when it came to food - or at least that I can remember.

I know some of it doesn't sound like Crohn's. My mother has a friend with it, and the way I relieved my symptoms (previously with heat) would make hers worse.

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond (:

Thank you, Bane. Your story really helps me feel like I'm not the only one that gets embarrassed by silly things like this. I definitely will take what you've said with a grain of salt.

I did recently get health insurance, but it doesn't start until the 15th. I guess once it's activated, I'll go see a doctor about this.

Maybe printing it out and having them read it will work better than me saying it verbally. When I talk about this kind of stuff, I get really nervous, and start letting my dyslexia show and probably even stutter. I wouldn't want to miss any important details when letting the doctor know what's wrong, and when I'm nervous, I tend to forget.

I don't go to the doctor's often, except when I get my shot. I have no known allergies (not even to poison oak or ivey), and I rarely get sick - like once in 2 years. I like to credit my immune system for that because I don't take medications for every little thing. I like the old traditional chicken noodle soup, orange juice, and a nap with a cool washcloth on the forehead (if there's a fever).

Hi Zikku

Have you seen a gynecologist? It sounds to me like someting gynecologic. Pain that follow your periods often are endometriosis. I´m a little puzzled that you don´t get your periods any longer? Thats why I think it´s a good ide to go and se the gynecologist.
I have had endometriosis and it is troly painfull. Like the worst attack of my crohn.

"abroad"