Where The Hell Have I Been!
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Don’t worry I’m not dead, not yet anyways! I’ve just not had the time to run this blog as I’d like to over the last months. However I’m back in black and no doubt you people would love to here the rest of my story.
So I’ve just had my Colonoscopy completed and its time to discuss the next course of action. After going over the results my specialist consultant decided it would be worth trying me out onAzathioprine. But before I could be placed onto the drug a series of blood tests were needed to see if my system would accept it.
You can imagine my situation, I can’t take any more steroids due to being on them for so long and so Azathioprine looked to be the next option. I was really hoping the results would come back fine and I could being taking the drug to see if it would cause the Crohn’s to fall back into remission. The results came back and I was given the all clear to being taking the drug.
I turn up at hospital to speak with the specialist nurse about this drug. It turns out in some patients it can cause the pancreas to fail so I had to watch out for any sharp pains around my belly, which was pretty difficult as I was having sharp, stabbing cramp pains their all the time! My prescribed dose was 200mg per day, that’s 4 tablets. However, just like when weaning off steroids the idea was to wean myself into the Azathioprine taking just one tablet and building the amount up over the next week to the full 4. I was advised to take the tablets just before I go to sleep as they cause massive headaches, which is fine, but when they tell you to look out for sharp pains which indicate your pancreas is about to blow up I decided to take them during the day, haha. I guess when you weight it up, having headaches is nothing compared to your pancreas exploding leading to one disgusting death 
Jumping forward a few months………..
Azathioprine has been a Godsend. A wonder drug if you will! I have minimal side effects (from a very long list of possible ones) only suffering from the headaches. I do have some issues with Azathioprine and the fact its listed as a carcinogen (cancer causing agent). Its something I need to discuss with my consultant the next time we meet.
I’m goign to keep this blog updated with my current postion as of today, no more back stories as they are basically fully covered in old posts now.
My immediate current position is one of suffering from a very slight inflammation in my lower bowel, the question is has the Azathioprine stopped working or has some other factor caused this recent inflammation?
Ulcerative Colitis blamed on ‘leaks’
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The BBC has a new report up on the results of a new study into just how Ulcerative Colitis is caused and its impact on the digestive system. Its worth a read! You can find the article at the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8358863.stmdigestive
If you would like to discuss the article please comment on this post.
In for a Sigmoidoscopy out with a Colonoscopy!
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By now I was coming to the end of my treatment course with the steroids. All was going well and the signs of inflammation were dropping off. my bloods were coming back with reduced levels of inflammation markers and my body was moving back to normality. I for one could not wait for the condition to yet again be under control so I could get back to my life.
I was placed on 40mg daily oral steroids, which eventually I was weaned off by reducing the dose by one tablet (5mg) per week.
After being off the steroids for close to two weeks the symptoms started to slowly come back. Was it my diet causing this fluctuation in my condition? As soon as the inflammation starts to drop off I’m a bloody sucker for piling in the food, so I was thinking this may have caused the spike in inflammation?
A week later after cutting back my diet things were getting worse, I was forced to contact my IBD nurse.
The first signs of Crohn’s inflammation
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So going back to April this year is when all my recent trouble began. Prior to this the only trouble I’ve ever had off my Colitis was during the time of my initial diagnosis in August 2007.
Once I had fully recovered from my initial flare up in August I simply went about life as usual. The Mesalazine sachets I was placed on did the trick and kept my Crohn’s at bay for almost 2 years. I was taking 4mg per day at 4 hour intervals of the Mesalazine, sachet variety.
My life was absolutely normal. I kept on eating all the things I liked, irregardless of the impact it may have on me. I attended football 3 times a week and lived up to my normal active lifestyle. During my stay in hospital when I was first diagnosed that’s all I could think about, was the Crohn’s going to prevent me from leading a normal life?
This went on for 2 years almost…..
Is it Crohns? Is it Ulcerative Colitis?!
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First of all let me apologise for the lack of posts on this site since the very first one way back in June. I’ve had a lot happen to me over the last few months and over my next posts I’ll break down just exactly whats been going on.
Just to keep you guys up to speed I’ll give a quick summary as to what exactly has been going on.
- Back in April this year I was having the first major flare up I’ve had since my diagnosis almost 3 years ago now.
- I was placed on steroids.
- They did the trick (just as they did when I was hospitalised upon my first diagnosis).
- Towards the end of June I started to show signs of inflammation yet again, having not fully recovered from the inital active disease period back in April.
- Had a Colonoscopy.
- My condition was seen to be more in line with Ulcerative Colitis that Crohn’s (I’m only showing active disease in my bowels).
- Doctors decided I was steroid dependant so placed me on Azathioprine 200mg.
That pretty much quickly brings you up to date with whats going on with my IBD.
Look out for my next few posts where I’ll go into more detail!
Welcome to OurCrohns.com!
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Welcome to OurCrohns.com 
First of all let me quickly introduce myself,
My name is Tom Stewart and I have had Crohn’s Disease (lucky me ) since August 2007. I’m currently moving back into remission after a pretty nasty flare up which luckily is being controlled by oral steroids and mesalazine.
I won’t go into anymore details just yet, I’ll save that for my first official blog entry!
I decided to found OurCrohns.com to help people communicate with other people in similar situations. The main homepage of this fantastic site will operate as blog. This means we need people to contribute to the blog!
User accounts will be set-up by myself upon request and I’ll personally show people how to use wordpress to publish articles to the website. If you would like to contact me directly then please use the contact form on our contact page, which can be found here
The goal of the site is to act as one massive community driven blog with as many authors as possible all speaking about their specific experiences with IBD. Crohn’s, Colitis and all other IBD related problems are mainly anti-social in their very nature. So whats better than trying to combat these issues by starting up a new community driven website where people will be able to contact each other and discusses the problems only people with IBD disease can really understand.
Also the site will feature news updates that relate to Crohn’s, Colitis and IBD community.
I have some other ideas of where to take the site, but for now the main focus will be getting a solid foundation of writers to keep a good flow of content on the main homepage.
Remember to spread the word about OurCrohns.com and add us to your RSS reader!
