IBD

IBD is something I know next to nothing about, but I found someone who knows it well, personally. I'm sharing her story with permission.

I’ll just break the ice by starting with my personal story. For those who suffer either of the two, Crohn’s or Colitis, then you already know the hell. For those who don’t, or maybe know someone who does but still can’t completely comprehend, then this will help.

The fundamental cause of Crohn’s disease is unknown. Evidence suggests that a genetic predisposition leads to an unregulated intestinal immune response to an environmental, dietary, or infectious agent. However, no inciting antigen has been identified.

Chronic diarrhea with abdominal pain, fever, anorexia, weight loss, and a right lower quadrant mass or fullness are the most common presenting features.

Back to the Beginning

Around the age of fourteen, I began having abdominal pain during meals. Immediately after eating, I would have to rush to the bathroom where I spent 30 minutes doubled over with cramps, and having diarrhea. Initially, my mother thought it was a ploy to get out of doing the dishes. But as the weeks went by with the same symptoms, she finally decided I was indeed sick. It’s not easy as a teenage girl to admit to having diarrhea. little did I know just how bad things would get.

First my mother took me to an Internist. He spent thirty minutes asking me questions then barely poked around on my stomach for less than two. I had always had trouble with my periods, cramping so hard I would nearly pass out. My diarrhea episodes seemed to be worse around my menstrual cycle. The doctor in all his wisdom informed my mom this was all normal for a girl my age.

So off to our regular physician I went. He’d just taken in an Internist as his new partner and insisted I see him. Next thing I know, I’m on my hands and knees on the examining room table with a cold metal rod stuck up my rear end. It was painful to say the least.

He suggested I see a Gastrointerologist, a GI doctor. When i went to the specialist, he set up my first of many colonoscopies I would have. The prep was horrible. A gallon of the foulest tasting stuff, the nasty dreaded Golytely, and several enemas. It was painful and embarrassing for a young girl.

Not only that, but I was placed on a table, unmedicated, and a long tube was inserted. During the course, the doctor pumps air into the colon, causing a cramping sensation that rivals the worst menstrual cramps I’d ever had.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that I had to endure this with him, with the tube still up my butt and cramps gnawing at me, he leaves the room and gets his partner. I felt like it was some sort of open house. Why not bring in a few more doctors and nurses to have a look at my backside. Hey, the more the merrier. I felt like not one doctor knew what my face looked like, but if I pulled down my pants they’d say, “Oh hi, Laurie, nice to see you again.”

The next day I was admitted to the hospital. The initial diagnoses was Ulcerative Colitis. Ulcerative Colitis is similar to Crohn’s in appearance and symptoms, the only exception being that UC is limited only to the large intestine. And unlike Crohn’s, there is a cure for UC…the complete removal of the colon.

…to be continued at http://ibd.overfortyandlovingit.com