my bowels

I have sort of been dignossed with chrons. My Doctor says the first fistula surgery. he thought it was caused from child birth I had a lot of damage in the vagina I didnt even know I had. They did a full histro june24 2011 -. ten days later I was getting another drain tube. The fistula histro surgery showed three fistula. all were cleaned out and mesh wall placed between butt and vagina with in ten days I was having drain tube placed and being set up for exam under anastisa. I awoke with a seaton and told that again there was more than one fistula. august 24th I had flap surgery and three more fistula had been cleaned out and a bit of inner thigh has now been used to make a stronger wall between butt and vagina . two week post opp. went ok however I was still hurting more thaan he thought I should be. one week later back to doc with fistula again. I knew the minute the fistula was back sweating and freezing incressed pain in perinum and I always get sores in the conners of my mouth and feel exhausted. I am lined up for another exam under anastisa. I too have terrible joint pain. I wanna say it is from always having to sit on one cheek, however the joint pain is bad bad shoulders, knees,hands, elbows, low back and neck. I will have exam while sleeping on december twentith. I am sure they are gonna do colostomy next? Can anyone talk to me about how to deal with that. I was teaching when I got sick I threw up for nine months and nine days I have not been able to work for almost two years. I have sspent most of my adult lifee going poop no less than seven times per day. I am sick it has been a very long time. I am so tired aand I just hurt all over. for the few days I had no fistulas I felt great execpt recovering from surgery. blam again. blam again blam again. I have almost used up my cobra health insurance. I am scared.

Oh Poopsy, I'm so sorry you've had to go through all that. You need to get yourself to a great GI who will treat the Crohn's as aggressively as it's been treating you. There are some awfully good meds out there that can help you.

As far as Cobra goes, there is an extension if you become disabled during the normal time of coverage. Speak to your Benefits co-ordinator about it. You should also consider filing for SSDI if you have not already.

There is a type of auto-immune arthritis that often goes hand-in-hand with Crohn's. Spondyloarthropathy(SpA) or Spondylitis. It is treated similarly to RA and luckily, most of those treatments are the same ones used for Crohn's. Those of us with this type of arthritis kill two birds with one injection/infusion. Here's a link for more info about SpA. I seriously recommend that you have a complete exam by a Rheumatologist experienced in treating SpA.

It also sounds like you need to find a good Pain Mgmt Doc. The problems you are going through certainly are painful and you should have pain relief from someone trained in that area. Honestly, my Pain Doc, Rheumy and Endocrinologist are my 3 favorite Docs. I honestly don't know how I'd get by without them. If you noticed that I left GI off the list that's cause I want to smack him and am currently searching for a new one.

I sure hope that your Doc gets it together and finds some relief for you. If things keep on like this, get another opinion.