What is so bad about crohn’s disease

What is so bad about crohn’s disease

http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-so-bad-about-crohn’s-disease

Crohn’s disease can be both painful and debilitating and sometimes may lead to life-threatening complication. MORE

Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

Question Regarding Crohn’s Disease and Medication, Please help?

Q: I have been on xanax for years now because of aniety and panic disorder. About a year or more ago the doctors told me I had crohns disease. I have lost over 40 pounds and I have developed a anolrectal abscess and fistula. The surgeon made an incision to drain it over a week ago but it is still filling up and drainging but not fast enough in my opinion (the draining). I am freaking out because I assume that the crohn’s disease is getting worse. I am suffering from such bad anxiety because I am so worried about my health. I went online and was reading about Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Clinics. They specialize in Crohn’s disease. My worry though is I could have sworn that years ago I read someplace that you can die if you take xanax with herbal medicine. I have been on the xanax for years and it will take about a year to ween off from what I was told by doctors because you have to go very slow. I know if I could get the Crohn’s Disease under control it will lesson the anxiety. I am alrealy taking medication for Crohn’s and the new medication they want to start me on is freaking me out. They want me on remicaid and from what I read about it I am so scared to take it. I read about one lady who ended up in ICU from it. It has a rat protein in it and from what I read everyone has some kind of reaction to it so when they give it to you (it’s goes in a IV through your vein) they have to give you benedryl before starting it and monitor your vital signs. There is so many bad things I had read about it that I am so scared. I believe my other option is 6MP but I havent read anything good about that either. So this is why I want to try the Acupuncture. Can someone give me any advise on remecaid or acupuncture. The Acupuncture clinic says they specialize in crohn’s disease and you will feel better after 10 sessions. I am just so torn because I really don’t have the money for the Acupuncture but am to scared to take remecaid or 6MP. I dont have pain in my stomach that people decribe with crohn’s but always loose stool and now the rectal abscess and fistula. Can someone please help!!!!!

A: I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2005 and have had problems with a fistula since around 2003/2004 which was when I was in high school either a sophomore or junior. I’m now 21 years old and have seen different doctors until now. I have found a doctor in the GI clinic and a surgeon that specializes in IBD patients who both work at Freodtert Hospital in Milwaukee, WI. My first piece of advice is to find a doctor that you’re comfortable with and that you think is doing everything in their power and trying everything they can to find a way to make you feel better. I know how painful a fistula can be and how much it can affect your life in SEVERAL different ways. Before I found my current doctors at Freodtert Hospital I was seen by a doctor that just wanted to find a way to get rid of the fistula and didn’t care at all about the source of the problem. That doctor ended up lancing/cutting the fistula to drain it which just caused more problems. After being at Freodtert Hospital and finding out that I have Crohn’s Disease, I had a surgery to repair the fistula. What the surgery does essentially is put a drain through your anus and out of the path in your fistula where it drains, and then after several weeks or a couple months of having the original drain in, they will change that drain that is the size of a round rubberband into a string. After the string has been in long enough the doctor will tell you it’s OK to take it out and then the plan is for the fistula to heal up and ultimately close and then you won’t have any problems with it. In regards to the chances that the fistula will go away completely after the first surgery, it’s about a 60% chance (I think) of you not having any more problems with the fistula coming back. I have had this surgery 3-4 times now and my last surgery was about a year ago and I still have the original drain in; as long as you aren’t having problems with the drain then I reccomend keeping it in. I HIGHLY reccomend this procedure, it’s relatively pain-free (just a little pain after the surgery and then NO pain afterwards). After about 3-4 days after having the surgery you won’t have anymore pain and you won’t even notice anything is different in that area. Even though I’ve been through the procedure 3 or 4 times, I still EXTREMELY reccomend it because without it I would still be in soooo much pain!In regards to the medications you’re asking about, I know a few people who are taking remicaid and who are feeling a LOT better since starting the medication. One of the people I know that goes in a gets the remicaid medication experiences a little fatigue and tiredness during the day of receiving the medication but he wouldn’t give it up for anything because of how much it has increased his quality of living. I had the option of starting the remicaid or trying Humira. I went with the Humira option and started taking it once every 2 weeks. At that point in time I was experiencing extremely bad pain after bowel movements that would last 4, 5, and even up to 7 hours and the cause was from ulcers in the lining of my anus. It was definately the worst part of having crohn’s so far. I was on Vicodin for a while because of this pain and that helped. But now I have been switched to taking Humira once every week. The Humira has gotten rid of all of my pain after bowel movements and when I eventually take out my fistula drain, I hope that it will help out that as well. To put it bluntly, it REALLY SUCKS having Crohn’s Disease and having to go through all of the different things associated with it. But the good thing is is that there is a way of getting rid of the pain and feeling better. Without the medication I use I don’t know where I would be with my Crohn’s Disease but I know that it wouldn’t be good. So in my opinion the first thing to do is to find a doctor that is knowledgeable and deals exclusively with IBD patients. Then go from there witht the medications that he/she thinks will benefit you the most. You have to trust this doctor, and even if the doctor doesn’t find anything in the first, second, or third attempt to make you feel better, DON’T get discouraged because you will find a way to feel better and live a normal life. You can go to ccfa.org (the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America) and talk to people with the same disease and learn a ton! Good luck and Hang in there!JoshYou can email me if you have any more questions at [email protected].

Crohn’s Disease/Colitis – A little upset?

Q: Alright so, my problem is that I might have Colitis or Crohn’s disease. Thursday I woke up with a stomach ache and it kind a little worse over the day but it wasn’t really bad, I’ve had worse. I had a little bit of cramps too. So I got a fever with it around 8:30 and my mom took me to the ER to get a check up, and about 30 – 40 mins being there my stomach ache was virtually gone but my mom wanted me to go through with the CT Scan they originally were going to do. So I did all the stuff they wanted me to do before it, drank some water with some weird stuff in it and got a blood sample and they gave me morphine and IV for some reason. After the morphine I felt like CRAP (Bad dizzyness and woosyness) then about an hour later did the CT Scan, they found out I didn’t have what they thought I did which was a appendicitis, but my doctor said I have a slight inflammation in my intestine which could indicate colitis or Crohn’s disease, then the next day I woke up with a bad stomach ache but I think that might of been from all the crap the hospital gave me because my arm was also in pain from the IV and stuff. I woke up today and felt almost 100% better but now have a little discomfort in my stomach (No pain at all, just feels kinda weird) and have a little diarrhea, but my doctor had prescribed me a stool softener (don’t need to take it now) and also gave me vikidin, which I have no idea why unless he thought my stomach ache was THAT bad but it wasn’t at all. So I’m going to take some medicine tonight (probably some diarrhea type like Pepto bismal) and see if my stomach ache is gone completely tomorrow (It’s been getting ALOT less worse over time) but basically my question is, what chance is there that I have Crohn’s disease or Colitis? And if it turns out I do is there any severity to it? I’ve been reading about it and said it’s not that bad of a disease, and it’s possible to have remissions(periods of time you have very little or no symptoms at all) for months/years at a time, and the worse thing you would experience is a bad flare-up, so if I do have it is there any real thing to fear? (I don’t mean like death or anything) Just like severe pains or anything? I’m kind of shakey at the moment and I know I shouldn’t since my doctor doesn’t know for sure, but how hard is it to deal with this disease with your life?I’m going back for a check-up maybe around Monday. And I turned 17 Dec 8 if that helps.My doctor didn’t say specific Colitis or Crohn’s disease, he thought I had appendicitis at first, but took the CT Scan and said I was perfectly fine (everything with me was including my blood and all that) the only thing was I had slight inflammation in my intestines, no blocking or anything. And he said it could indicate either colitis or crohn’s. And I’m going back for a check-up soon and I’m going to ask my mom to tell them to get those specific tests done for me to check if I do, and I don’t have to worry about my weight for now, and I’ve been eating alot lately (nothing has upsetted my stomach so far) Just to make sure. And no, I don’t have a bad pain in my stomach, as I said just a little discomfort like stomach ache feeling, but I think that’s caused from the Diarrhea since I usually get a stomach ache when I have it.And about the pain meds, yeahhh. My mom was really shocked when she saw the prescription, she doesn’t even want to give me the medicine (I’m not gonna take it) she said she’ll only give it to me if my stomach ache gets excrusiatingly bad, but if it gets bad enough to where I need vikidin I think I’d rather go the ER instead.

A: hi xx, I am a crohn’s survivor for many yrs. dxed at age 12.If you check out the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s site, they have all of the accurate information you are looking for such as treatment, diet, surgery, coping, as well as locating a local support chapter near you as well as a hotline, live chat, and an open forum where you can post questions to others who have IBD (crohn’s or UC).If you are in pain, you are entitled to be made comfortable until things are under control.Definitely check out the site. It’s worth it!! 🙂

I need all the information about Crohn’s disease?

Q: i just diagnosed with this today after my colonoscopy and i would like to know what it is and what it does to my system and stuff. also if this helps i am only 14.oh and what lead up to this is that i had very low iron and hemoglobin and high blood platelets. also i had bad diarrhea.thanks if You can help.ps i already posted this but no one was answering so i re-posted it

A: Sorry to hear that you’ve joined the club. We have what’s called IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). There is a lot of information on the web, but I’d recommend you go to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation website as a start.Crohn’s is an autoimmune disease where our bodies decide that something in our bowel doesn’t belong to us and begins attacking it. There is a lot of research going on, but no one is 100% sure what causes it. It may be partly genetic, partly due to a bacterium, and partly something they haven’t figured out yet. The result is that either the small intestine (ileum) or large intestine (colon) or both is inflamed and irritated. It can cause anything from bleeding – which may or may not show as red blood in your stool and is likely the reason for your low blood count – to cramps and gas.Luckily, there are a number of good medications now that help. I was on Asacol for years and it did pretty well. I’ve just started Remicade this year, and it’s a little too soon to tell how well it works, but it is expensive. Your doctor will probably start you with something like Asacol (mesalamine) or Azulfadine (sulfasalazine) if you can tolerate it. Also, you will likely need iron supplements till they get your blood count back up. I don’t tolerate the over-the-counter iron very well, but there’s a prescription version (Repliva) that works for me.Try not to let it stress you out, since the stress will only make you feel worse, but let the doctors experiment to see what medications help you best. They may try something like prednisone in a quick hit to get things under control, but you’re probably going to need to take medication for a long time. Stay consistent with it and you can keep the disease under control.Try searching the three websites below for information, and talk to your doctor openly – take my word for it, they’ve heard it all – so try not to be embarrassed.If you’d like to contact me directly, send a note to my yahoo account. I’ve been there and would be happy to help you through it. There are also support groups – for teens and for anyone, so check the CCFA site for information.Good luck. Hope you feel better soon.