
So i will start at the beginning, so be warned, this might be a lengthy article :) im sorry in advance....lol
so it all started in november 2007, i was visiting my then boyfriend in manchester, and we where just getting reeady to go out for dinner with his family, when all of a sudden i started getting a VERY sharp pain in my left side...i thought nothing of it, and thought it might be period pains or something related...although i had, had D a few days before...
so we went out to dinner and i couldnt really eat anything because i kept getting really bad pain...little did i know, this was the start of crohn's...so i thought nothing of it...
the pain came and went, i never saw myself as being sick, so i hated going to the doctors...
January 2008 my boyfriend was very worried about me, and told me to go to the doctors, my weight had droped and i wasn't eating much, i hadn't told my family up until january...my mum just thought i was making a big deal out of nothing.
so i went to the doctors, and they told me it sounded like i had IBS and they would referr me to hospital to see a gastro.
so i was referred to see a gastro at chelsea and westminster hospital...they sent me for an MRI scan...which took MONTHS..i was still in constant pain, they gave me gaviscon...which did nothing but make me throw up more.
so i went into the hospital for my MRI scan, but while drinking the prep, i kept being sick and couldn't handle it, and they told me i couldn't have an MRI without the drink...so they sent me home! and forgot about me completly...
my symptoms then went away...in june 2008 i had the odd tummy ache...but nothing i couldn't handle...
then january 2009...it ALL started again, and it seemed like it had made new symptoms up on the way! i was being sick 3/4 times a day, going to the toilet 8-10 times day, not sleeping, not eating, my legs where so weak i could barely stand, i often had a high tempreture, i was doubled over in pain alot...and AGAIN i went to the doctors, and they gave me gaviscon AGAIN!
my mum had, had enough and spoke to my uncle who offered to pay for me to have privated tests done...that way i wouldnt have to wait on the NHS.....so i went up to harley street in april, and he said straight away he thinks it might be crohn's or colitis...as soon as he told me that was a possibility i started researching what the symptoms where and it all seemed to match mine...
i was then sent to have a colonoscopy, i was really scared, but it wasn't a big deal and felt stupid for being scared afterwards lol.
he told me that i had patchy inflammation in my colon...and that i would need an MRI...
thats when i got VERY scared, because my previous attempt at having an MRI wasnt very successfull...so i explained to him what had happened, and he reassured me and said i could just drink a litre of water instead, which i managed, and he told me my small intestine was VERY badly damaged from crohn's and started me on steriods straight away.
I was the referred back onto the NHS because the private doctor was only giving me the tests, not for a long term treatment. But he was nice enough to referr me to one of his friends on the NHS who deals with teens with crohn's and i was seen within 2 weeks.
then i was giving more medication and started on a liquid feed.
the liquid feed started of really hard, i was only managing to drink 2/3 glasses a day and my stomach pains started to come back, so i was addmitted to hospital. where they discovered that the drink was pooling at the top of a blockage and that i was very dehydrated, so i was hooked up to an IV and then was told i would need an NG tube fitted, so that feed could slowly be put into my stomach....
i was then taught how to use my NG tube at home, and was discharged...
this all happened within a month of being told i had crohn's
i am now hoping that the NG tube will work and i will soon have it out and be in remission hopefully :)
that is my story so far