11 Days In The Hospital..

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lightxmyfire

Can't Leave
Jun 17, 2019
364
992
DMV Area
Welcome back! Glad you're doing better!

I too am a gastrointestinal sufferer, so I sympathize with how much all of that sucks.

I was having really similar lower abdominal pain in highschool, irritation in my colon, and lymph swelling. Went through the gambit of colonoscopies and endoscopies, didn't find any cancer or any major disorders, and was finally told I had very severe IBD and a "torturous winding colon" also my doctor's exact words ? that were being agitated by stress and acid reflux, so now I'm occasionally on some acid reflux meds and doing fine, I try to keep my stress levels down.

crohn's is no joke, I've got a buddy who was almost killed by it before he knew he had it and it ended his career as a Navy pilot. To his advantage now. He has a great job outside of the military and gets paid well there + his military disability checks. Gotta look on the bright side of bad :poop: literally.
 

Sloopjohnbee

Lifer
May 12, 2019
1,289
2,286
Atlantic Coast USA
Welcome back! Glad you're doing better!

I too am a gastrointestinal sufferer, so I sympathize with how much all of that sucks.

I was having really similar lower abdominal pain in highschool, irritation in my colon, and lymph swelling. Went through the gambit of colonoscopies and endoscopies, didn't find any cancer or any major disorders, and was finally told I had very severe IBD and a "torturous winding colon" also my doctor's exact words ? that were being agitated by stress and acid reflux, so now I'm occasionally on some acid reflux meds and doing fine, I try to keep my stress levels down.

crohn's is no joke, I've got a buddy who was almost killed by it before he knew he had it and it ended his career as a Navy pilot. To his advantage now. He has a great job outside of the military and gets paid well there + his military disability checks. Gotta look on the bright side of bad :poop: literally.
similar situation
 

bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,674
64,554
41
Louisville
Happy to hear the positive outcome. Not sure why you waited so long. On the bright side, you lost 40 pounds.
Im a bit stubborn and a five time world champion procrastinator.
I've seen several docs and a gastro in the last year+, but nothing short of full imaging would have revealed the truth. I also got fed up with the gastro they gave me because I felt like he wasn't really listening to me.

40 pounds too.. I looked like a deflated balloon!
 

Rockyrepose

Lifer
Oct 16, 2019
1,382
13,822
Wyoming USA
So glad you are back! I hope this is a lot of pain and suffering that is now a part of your past. Not hijacking your post but I know of a lot of people have been putting off preventive medicine this year and a lot of hospitals are forgoing elective procedures right now. This is, of course, a situation that is far from elective.

Everyone reading this who is 40 - 50, get your scopes too, I put mine off longer than I should have because like BGB I struggle with the entire thought of the process and usually assume the worst. I was relieved to find out my colon was in good shape. Never thought I'd share that with an entire community of people I've never met.

I've been in healthcare for 30+ years, DAMN IT, what's with the disclosures???
 

Sloopjohnbee

Lifer
May 12, 2019
1,289
2,286
Atlantic Coast USA
Im a bit stubborn and a five time world champion procrastinator.
I've seen several docs and a gastro in the last year+, but nothing short of full imaging would have revealed the truth. I also got fed up with the gastro they gave me because I felt like he wasn't really listening to me.

40 pounds too.. I looked like a deflated balloon!
Yes, well it happens to everyone - at the end of the day - you never know and sometimes doctors aren't even sure - best to follow your 'gut'(no pun intended) and get checkups from time to time - I'm not big on Big Medicine - but things usually work out and fall into place. All life is terminal - live your best one.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,835
31,582
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
I'll try to keep it as abridged as possible.
I've gotten a few inquiries in the last 6-8 weeks, mostly checking in on me because I've been damn near completely absent from the forums.

Ive dealt with debilitating pain in my lower GI tract since Spring of 2019. It comes and goes usually for several weeks at a time.
Very long story short, the pain made a vicious return about 7 weeks ago.
On the 10th of this month my doctor recommended I go to the ER.
A cat scan revealed a fairly large obstruction in my small intestine and some swelling in my lymph nodes down there. The initial prognosis was a rare neuroendocrine tumor.
Of course we wouldn't know for sure until they got in there and did a biopsy. I was put on full nutrition via picc line IV for 6 days before my surgery last Monday morning. I was severely malnourished and borderline dehydrated ( I had lost nearly 40 lbs in the prior 5 weeks).

Pathology returned Wednesday morning. My surgeon was beyond amazed. The "mass" was completely benign. In fact it wasn't a foreign mass at all.. it was a section of small intestine that had bunched up and become just "completely screwed". I have Crohns! In the surgeons words - " the most remarkably extreme case of crohns" she'd ever seen.

Sure beats tumor and lymphoma!

So I was discharged saturday evening and going forward I shouldn't have to deal with the pain that has been disrupting my life for so long.

This is all probably an unorganized mess of words but I wanted to share it with everyone. I'm looking forward to getting back in to my old swing of things. Y'all haven't gotten rid of me just yet.

puffy
that blows. Crohns sucks massively as you've noticed. Though it's not really what doctors say the advice that seems to help the most is to treat stress like it must be avoided at all costs. It's not the cause but it doesn't help and the only people I've known who seem to be happy and o.k. with their condition have made massive life changes to get rid of stress. Often getting a job that doesn't stress them out on a regular basis. That's totally anecdotal but it's worked for them. Sorry to hear that.
 
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