In the past few months, I've lost 35 pounds and have to stay so close to a bathroom that I can barely leave the house. The VA doctors are sort of shrugging their shoulders and haven't been very...
Wow, I'm so impressed that you'd just walk into a funeral home! The cleanest bathrooms I've found have been in car washes (which stay spotlessly clean, since almost nobody ever uses them), urgent...
I had an ileal resection in 1999, during which I lost a foot of intestine. I've had diarrhea pretty much nonstop ever since. Nobody warned me that removing a foot or more (and you've certainly lost...
Are you in the U.S.? If so, get onto healthcare.gov and get your fiance enrolled immediately in the Affordable Heathcare coverage. He's exactly the person that this law was passed to protect! He...
You may want to ask the members here for a recommendation for a GI doctor in your new area. I did that when I moved to a new state, and I got three excellent recommendations, researched them, and...
I get the exact same symptoms from time to time. My GI doctor has diagnosed bacterial overgrowth, and he's put me on flagyl (ugh) twice. As awful as flagyl is, it's been worth it, because the...
Good for you, Beck. Just remember that there will be both ups and downs on your way--and try not to get too discouraged and demoralized by the downs. And keep us all posted on how things are going,...
When I was first diagnosed with Crohn's, I spent a lot of time on the internet--and it scared me almost to death, too! That's probably because many of the people who post of the internet are...
I-85 from the airport to Lilburn. Ideally, you'd be looking at 35-40 minutes, but the I-85 can be hell in Atlanta's very long rush hours. I-85 is like any other highway through a major city: you...
You may also want to post a new topic, giving your city and/or state of residence and asking if anybody on this forum can recommend a good GI doctor in your area. That's how I found my current...
Before my Crohn's diagnosis, I had severe pain up under my right ribcage for months. My doctors diagnosed gall bladder problems and removed it--but it didn't lessen the pain at all. My idiot GI...
My doctor gave me a free sample of Align, too. It gave me cramps and nausea. My adult daughter, who doesn't have Crohn's, tried it, too, and had the same reaction. When I told him that Align hadn't...
Definitely TMJ. I've had it for most of my life. When I open my mouth wide to yawn, or when I'm chewing something hard, you an hear the clunks from across the table. It doesn't hurt, though, unless I...
Calmoseptine is the only thing that works for me--and works immediately. It's non-prescription, but your pharmacy may not carry it, so you'll have to ask the pharmacist to special-order it for you....
I've had a permanent fissure for 10 years now, one that I've been told will never heal. (They could do surgery on it, but the surgeon explained that I would then be incontinent--which seemed like a...
Reactions to any of the more powerful drugs that are prescribed for CD are remarkably individual--and it also very much depends on how high a dose he puts you on. I'm on a pretty minimal dose. I was...
What?! You're walking too fast to be sick??!! She's a moron....
Coconut has a lot of fiber, making it harder for some of us to digest. When my Crohn's doctor decided (mistakenly, it turned out) that I also had celiac disease, my diet was so restrictive that I...
So sorry that you're going through such a tough time, especially with a job and young children to care for. Gumby's right, though--the first year after your diagnosis can be really really difficult....
Ugh. It took five years. First they took out my gallbladder, which only made things worse. Then they said that it was all in my head. Then my (substandard) GI decided it was costochondriasis (an...
Right. They're not supposed to leave any messages that include personal health information on an answering machine unless you've signed a specific permission for them to do so. If they did leave a...
Before I had any iron infusions, I had a bone marrow biopsy--which revealed that I had zero stored iron. My doctor was worried about anaphylactic shock, so she gave me comparative small doses of...
The colonoscopy and endoscopy that I had before my diagnosis showed nothing--because my Crohn's was restricted to my terminal ileum. It took five years and a CTscan to discover that I had CD and...
I had the surgery in 1999, when there wasn't a laparoscopic option. I understand that recovery from laparoscopic surgery is much, much better than the old cut-your-abdomen-open kind. Even with the...
There's some great stuff that you can get (or can ask the pharmacist to get for you, if they don't normally carry it) called Calmoseptine. It works very quickly, when the pain just afterwards is so...
All my good thoughts are for you tonight. May it all go well....
It was surprising to read my reply above, which I wrote three years ago. I'm now on a minimal daily dose of omeprazole for the acid reflux; I've just been on flagyl for the second time to correct a...
Thank you. This was a really valuable post....
Go for it, NCOT. I wish you everything good, including an uncomplicated procedure, a quick and easy recovery, and a much improved physical (and therefore emotional) status afterwards. You'll be in my...
Are they doing it laparoscopy or the old-fashioned way? Pain, recovery time, etc., really depend on which type they're planning for you. In either event, don't worry. And yes, insurance will cover...
I'm very glad that the Ferinject seems to have helped. I don't know what to tell you about the Humira--except that I don't think you're supposed to stop it cold-turkey. My only suggestion is that you...
Let us know, Danni, OK? Electronic hugs from all of us....
One word for you, NCOT, learned after 14 years of experience: Calmoseptine. It has saved my life more times than I can count, those times when, after yet another attack of bilious diarrhea, the...
After my first colonoscopy, when I followed the prep instructions diligently--and wound up having to be carried into the facility after spending the night projectile vomiting--I realized that there...
I hope so, too. Poor guy!...
Well, this was ten years ago, so maybe things have advanced since then. It wasn't a bad experience, though. Spending an enforced 90 minutes each week sitting in the company of chemotherapy patients...
I was told to avoid all live virus vaccines. I'm so sorry that your daughter has had such a miserable time. Hope she feels much, much better!...
Many doctors--even GI doctors--hope or assume that you'll be just fine after a resection. But a solid percentage of us are left with "short gut syndrome," also called "bile salts diarrhea," that can...
I try to avoid all raw fish and shellfish. I never heard about avoiding shellfish, but I understand that many of them are scavengers, feeding off creatures/plants that may be contaminated. If they're...
Don't wait until you're literally at death's door to go to the ER. If you have ANY feeling that the flu is winning and that you're no longer able to fight it effectively, GO NOW. You can work it out...
My doctor was worried about anaphylactic shock, so she divided my ferrlecit into 16 weekly doses. I eventually had to have 32 doses, over 32 weeks, but it helped, and it was extremely gradual (and...
It took me five years to get diagnosed. I had sore joints, nausea, and crippling pain up under my rib cage. A colonoscopy and endoscopy showed nothing abnormal, and my blood tests were within normal...
NCOT has it right. With a stricture caused by active inflammation, there's some chance that it will respond to treatment; with a stricture caused by scar tissue, that chance is gone and the only...
I was getting an annual flu shot for a while, and then I stopped. This year I asked my pharmacist whether it would make any sense for me to get a flu shot while I'm taking 6MP (which I've been on...
Maybe you can persuade him to wait for a few weeks/months to see how you're doing before he increases the dose. If you continue to do well, maybe he won't have to increase it. Talk to him, if you...
Your blog is beautifully written, full of useful information and strategic hints for college students, and demonstrates a maturity beyond your years. I know that writing a blog is often therapeutic...
I've been on mercaptopurine since 2004, and it's kept me in remission since then. The reason that they want you to keep alcohol consumption to a minimum is that, like other immunomodulating drugs,...
Although flagyl can be very effective, it also makes many of us feel awful when we take it. It also makes me nauseated and gives me a bad taste in my mouth--both of which contribute to a major loss...
Although you may not have celiac disease or a gluten allergy, you may have a gluten sensitivity. (For example, although my daughter's blood tests don't show a latex allergy, she's extremely sensitive...
Hi, Virgogirl85. I, too, am a Virgo girl, and I had bowel resection surgery on October 19, 1999. I had 13" taken from the end of my ileum, along with my appendix and caecum, and I haven't had a...