I've had Crohn's disease for over 13 years now, being diagnosed in October 1997. I thought it may help fellow sufferers, especially those recently diagnosed, if I blogged about my experiences.
I was 27 years old when I was diagnosed after having a few weeks of fairly severe abdominal pain and blood when using the toilet - I should warn you now that some of these entries might be quite graphic and not for the squeamish! Having Crohn's tends to reduce your squeamishness I can tell you!
I'd been an absolute picture of health until then, I'd probably taken fewer than 10 days off sick from work in the previous decade and never ventured into a hospital other than for the occasional broken bone.
However, I decided to go to the doctors after having stomach pains for a few days and he sent me to the hospital to have some tests.
The first test I had was a "digital examination" which sounded quite high tech to me, I work in IT and I was sure this would involve computers in some way, it was digital after all. When I got to the appointment I was rather surprised to find I was asked to lay on my side by the doctor who then inserted a finger into my anus - ah, digital! Digit being another word for finger of course.
The doctor soon told me that I had piles, albeit a fairly minor case of them and that would explain the bleeding. It didn't explain the pain I had been getting however and another few days passed before I couldn't bear it any more and so went to casualty at the local hospital.
The pains I'd been experiencing had been getting worse and now were stopping me sleeping, they were worst at night time and were centered around my navel. They were kind of dull achy pains that came every few minutes and lasted for 10 seconds at a time or so, on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is a mild head-ache and 10 is unbearable pain, they would rate an 8.
At the hospital I was examined soon after arrival and told I may have appendicitis and that I would have an operation within an hour.
To be continued!
