I always thought of myself as a pretty healthy kid. I hardly ever had time off from school, and the worse I ever got was a 48 hour tummy bug or a heavy cold.
My first symptoms of IBD appeared when I was in the last term of my final year at University. Loose bowels and tummy cramps. I put it down to a dodgy kebab at first. But when it didn't stop I went to see my GP. At first I was asked if I had been abroad recently and then told to give a sample. I did this, and when the sample came back clear, I was told to take peppermint.
When symptoms still didn't go it was suggested that I had irritable bowel disease - probably due to stress. I was prescribed colpermin.
More and more symptoms began to appear. Diarrhoea, painful stomach cramps, loss of weight, sleeplessness, partial incontinence. My mouth was often sore and full of ulcers, and there was a weird red lump on my leg that looked like an insect bite. Symptoms all too familiar to anybody with Crohns' Disease.
By this point I had become a regular at the Doctors'. I knew that something was very wrong, and at the surgery the help I received was rather mixed. I am still very greatful however, that out of the whole practice, one of the Doctors saw my symptoms for what they were. He suggested Inflammatory Bowel Disease and referred me to a Gastroenterologist.
By the time I started having investigation procedures I was incredibly thin. The first procedure - a Barium Enema - gave a diagnosis of Colonic Crohns' Disease. I still remember receiving the diagnosis from the consultant. It was the one the whole family had been dreading. We knew someone locally who had it, and she was in and out of surgery all the time.
Somehow a weight lifted from me as soon as I knew what it was. Finally I could start getting the right treatment, and do some reading to get some answers. Funnily enough the best answers I've had, I've only just received in the past two weeks - from a book:
My diagnosis came 10 years ago, and since then I have had bouts of active disease interspersed with fairly good periods of remission. The disease itself has been fairly manageable, but I seem to have been very good at getting the periferral symptoms of the disease.
It is for this reason that I have begun this blog. I count myself very lucky as so far my condition has been what I would class as mild, when I compare it to others that I read about on the net. However, when some, slightly rarer symptom of the condition pops up, it is frustrating that it takes so long to get the correct treatment. I figure if I post my experiences on the web - someone else out there, looking for answers may stumble across what has happened to me, and is able to go to their Doctor or Consultant in plenty of time to get the correct treatment.
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