Should I just admit myself to the hospital?

I think I'm getting the run around, but let me start off...

For the last year and a half, I had been seeing a gastro for my Crohn's. Nice enough guy, but he wouldn't ever prescribe me anything as far as treatment. He'd tell me to hang in there just a little bit longer. Then we'd do a colonoscopy and he'd say there was some inflamation, but we need to wait a bit longer.

He was a newer gastroenterologist, so I just gave up on him. Decided to go with another gastro, one of the highest recommended I could find that specialized on Crohn's cases. I made the appointment to see him on May 2nd. Mind you, this was days after my last colonoscopy with the prior gastro. The earliest he could get me in was July 21st. I figure I'll be fine till then. Come the end of June, I get a letter from the new Gastro, telling me that my appointment has been rescheduled till September 25th. I'm rather ticked, thinking that I've been suffering for a while and end up having to wait almost 4 months for an appointment. But I continue to wait.

Fast forward to this week, wake up tuesday morning in the middle of the night. Vomiting blood, running a fever, and having bloody bowel movements. Thinking this isn't quite right, I go ahead and worry a bit, but go on to work. Leave work about half way through the day and admit myself into the local ER. At first I thought I was just having a flareup. They run a ct scan, find that a large portion of my intestines are inflamed. Want to admit me, but I won't let them. They send me packing with a couple of scripts for 8 days of pred, azulfidine, and lortab. I immediately call my new gastro and try to get them to move up the appointment. They won't budge. I'm told the soonest I can get in is Sept 25, still. Any problems I have, I need to go to the ER each time, regardless of the severity.

Now to my question. Anyone else been in this boat? My old gastro has dismissed me. My new gastro is dismissing me because he can't make time to fit me in any time soon. And I really, really, don't think short term pred and azulfidine is going to help me. Going to the ER is going to get tiring, and I think I need to be on some kind of steady dose of something in order to keep this under control.

Should I just admit myself this weekend and get it over with? I'm afraid to miss work, and I'm guessing that until I get some decent care, I'm up poop's creek without a paddle. This is by far my worst bout of crohn's I've had thus far, and I'm not sure what I should do.

Edit: Let me add a few more things too. The ER doc who saw me said that the condition that my crohn's was in was once of the worst cases he had seen. I've lost 12 pounds of the course of two days. The main reason he wanted to admit me was to send me up to the on-call gastro and talk about possibly surgery (which really scared me, tbh). I don't know what to do, and I don't want to miss work as I don't have vacation time and I can't swing my bills without it.

I really sympathize with you as far as the predicament you are in. However, I am really worried for you. I have never vomited or pooped blood before so that alone would scare the hell out of me. You must be in such misery. I don't know what I would do in that situation but I do think if they admit you to the hospital you may wind up spending more than a couple of days there. I can't believe you would have to wait so long for an appointment when your symptoms are so severe. Have you considered trying yet another GI who would be willing to see you any sooner? I think if possible that would be my first choice. Also, I don't think 8 days of medication is going to help you much at this point. (Although I would take them all regardless, something is better than nothing.) Anyway, I am starting to ramble so let me wrap this up. Try another GI, take all the prescribed meds, and PLEASE, if things get worse, go ahead to the ER. I would really hate to see you have emergency surgery because that would obviously be way worse than just a couple of weeks in the hospital "resting your bowels" and getting heavily medicated. I sincerely hope you get treatment as soon as possible and that you start feeling better soon. Please, please keep us posted on what's going on with you. My prayers are with you right now. Big hugs to you and good luck.

Hi Jm Pred. can work very fast for me and I would try low roughage or soft easy foods to digest .Put your health first bills can be caught up on. Hope the pred. has kicked in and if you have to be admitted they will get you a specialist . Take care and let us know how you are doing. Sounds like you will be needing meds for awhile so if you run out try to get back to get some more meds at least that will help better then nothing. lol gail

I agree with all the above and just wanted to say that while the ER doc may have jumped the gun with advising surgery, the ultimate decision is yours.

I do want to say that the few times I've been admitted via the ER, I was assigned a resident doc, and have never been disapointed by one. The residents seem to have more time to spend with you, will run all the tests needed, listen to you, get you on the drugs needed (including pain meds) and generally treat you better than the GI's with a practice who have no time.

Also, I think a short course of prednisone may be exactly what you need to see if you can overcome this acute episode.

Good luck, keep us posted.