Living with Crohn’s

My name is Brian and during October 2015 I started getting cramps in my stomach. At first I thought not much of it as I never really get ill, but as the pain got worse I began to become slightly more concerned so I went to the doctors. Initially the first doctor that I saw thought that I had pulled a muscle in my right abdominal wall. The doctor just prescribed ibuprofen, no heavy lifting and told me to take it easy. The pain continued to get worse and more intense over the next few weeks so I went back to the doctors and this time I saw a different doctor. This doctor completely disagreed with the previous doctor’s diagnosis, and after describing my symptoms to him, he told me that he thought I might have Crohn’s disease. He immediately booked me in for further testing, to be followed by an appointment with a specialist, two months later, in December.

Brian very ill

Between the end of October and my appointment in December I lost 30kgs, roughly 66 pounds. I was in so much pain that eating and keeping whatever I ate down was almost impossible. One time I even ended up in A&E. After going back to the doctors at the beginning of December, I was put on a course of steroids to attempt to reduce the pain so that I could eat more normally. Shortly after this I saw the specialist, who confirmed my diagnosis as Crohn’s disease. He put me on medication to control the inflammation around my bowel and intestines but the medication wouldn’t be help anything for at least 6 weeks. The steroids worked well as a short-term solution meaning that I was feeling a bit better for Christmas. Through all of this, the church was praying for me, and the major cramping became less frequent and reduced around December time.

In January, I was taken off the steroids. I saw a dietician weeks later to come up with a solution to help me gain some weight; I’d begun having problems with eating after coming off the steroids and the cramping had begun again. I was put on a liquid diet for 6 weeks which stopped the cramping altogether after a while and helped me get to a healthy weight once again. The next good thing was that after a MRE they found that the Crohn’s was in the intestine between the two bowels which is the most manageable place for it.

Brian very much improved

Flash forward to June 2016 and I am back to a sort of normality. I still have the Crohn’s but it is under control. God protected me from a very bad and life threatening situation for which I am very thankful.