Bowel Obstruction?

Hi everyone! I haven't posted in quite a while but things have been happening. First off, I was finally able to get confirmation that I do have Crohn's. I went on Asacol for a couple of weeks, which made me extremely fatigued and I had constant headaches. Then I switched to Apriso, and was on that for 3 months. Even though I was not feeling all that great, the Prometheus blood work was coming back with lower numbers over time (dropped from a 62/100 to a 43/100). In November I ended up with a hospital stay for a bowl obstruction. I was put on Prednisone 30 Mg, but after a week my doctor tapered me off of them. The lower in dosage I went, the worse I started to feel again. I notified my doctor and she switched my medication from Apriso to Sulfsalazine. I have been getting increasingly worse, so I decided to make a appointment with my GI. When I went I was told my insurance was denied. So I have spent all day on the phone and was told my insurance was terminated because I made $1 too much to qualify. So I am gathering up the money to see my GI on the 11th, but am worried about my obstruction being back. I am nauseated and vomiting, but unlike last time, I am having more bowel movements and am passing gas. I have tried a liquid diet for a couple of days, but no improvement on the nausea and vomiting. Is this a side effect of the new medication, or something else? I have lost 10 lbs in the last month and a half, and I am scared on how much longer this will go.

I don't know the details of your insurance situation, but that is something you need to get in order. It's critical to have insurance coverage when you're in the US and you have a disease like Crohn's.

As I've stated before, your doctor is not treating you properly at all. Asacol was not an appropriate medication for Crohn's, and neither was Apriso. Sulfasalazine is a *little* more appropriate - it has some chance of helping - but it's not used very often either. Its benefits are modest and its side effect profile is pretty high. In other words, it typically only helps somewhat, and side effects with it are quite common.

If you really do have a blockage, or partial blockage, these medications aren't nearly enough to help. And 30mg of prednisone for a week isn't long enough to help much either.

What Prometheus blood test are you referring to with the numbers you gave?

Work on making sure you're covered with insurance for 2019, and then find a doctor who knows what they are doing with IBD. It's painfully clear that yours does not.

Hi! I got diagnosed with Crohn's about 5 years ago and have tried many many different medications. In summer of 2017 I got a stricture in my small bowel. I ended up going to the hospital at least once every month to do the same thing every time get a ct scan, get morphine, and go on a liquid diet until I felt better. This kept going until March 2018 when I guess it became an obstruction and I had to get surgery basically the next day. The doctor removed about one foot from the end of my small bowel and the obstruction was about the size of a softball. Ever since then my symptoms changed completely, I haven't had a hospital visit since. My bathroom schedule changed from extremely constipated to having kind of controllable urgency. Insurance is something I worry about to, I had to get my surgery right away because my insurance was going to end the next day. If you have anymore questions let me know!