I AM SO SCARED....................

by Mia
(Queens, New York)

Hello, I am 35 years old and just found out a few weeks ago that I possibly have crohn's disease. After having 8 children and having to deal with Anxiety disorder and Panic attacks (after my father passing away over 10 years ago) I finally felt like I was able to go back to college to get my nursing degree.

I started school over a year ago in the fall and at the same time I started having diareaha. I didnt think to much of it because I thought I was just nervous about going back to school in my 30's and plus like I mentioned I have anxiety. Well, it never stopped and then there were times when there would be blood with the diareah that would sometimes last up to 2 weeks (but it would seem to only happen when I was under a lot of stress). I tried to ignore everything being that I am very scared to find out something is wrong with me. I never had bad stomach pains or fever or anything else for the 1st year (just the constant diareah). Well, these last few months it appeared to be getting worse and I would just live my life around what I was going through. I couldnt eat anything if I was leaving the house because it started getting so bad that as soon as I ate I would have to doing a running dash to the bathroom. I dont even think the food would digest. I started feeling really uncomfortable wearing jeans because it would hurt or feel uncomfortable around the belt area.

Well, Im trying to make a long story short expecially because I have a question. Anyway, I finally went to see a doctor and they ran blood test and stool samples. My blood work looked good and they didnt see parisites (sorry for any mispelled words). Well, a week later I started running a fever. I went to the doctor and they felt a mass on my right lower stomach and sent me over to the emergency room for a CT scan because it was a friday and they didnt think we should wait untill Monday.

While I was in the emergency room drinking contrast for my CT scan I had to unfortunatly witness a man pass away which freaked me out and put me into a full blown anxiety attack. I did the CT scan and the doctor came to me and told me that they needed me to stay because my colon was very inflamed. I was in the hospital on two different antibiotics and Asacol. They didnt let me eat ANYTHING for 9 days and had some stuff going through the IV that was feeding me. I had so many doctors telling me so many different things that my head was spinning. I finally went home after 9 days and they just told me to eat a regular diet (which to me was strange because I hadnt ate in so long). I dont think the inflamation was fully down and I was suprised my doctor told me to eat what ever I want. Well, I wasnt eating to much because I was scared but just this saturday (dec. 22nd) I decided I wanted some fried chicken and french fries from the chinese resturant (which Im not sure if it was a good idea). I was also doing a lot of cleaning and playing with the kids (which is more then I've done in months).

Unfortunatly, that night I started feeling pain in my pelvic area but I thought it was just gas because it was like sharp shooting pains going back and forth. I went to sleep and at 2:57 a.m. woke up running a low fever. That started on Sunday morning and it is now Friday December 28th and I am still running a fever. The highest that I have known it to go to is 100.8 . During the day my temp is about 99.4-100.1 but at night it goes up and nobody will tell me why. I saw my primary care doctor and she doesnt understand and then I went to the GI clinic yesturday where they scheduled me for a colonoscopy for Jan. 23rd. He told me to stay on the Asacol (3 pills 3 times a day) and to discontinue the Flagel because I had been on it for almost a month (but my primary care doctor wanted me to stay on it and these two work together). I am just so confused, scared, and frustrated.

I am so sorry for such a long story but if anyone could tell me if it normal to continue to run a fever because of the inflamation in the colon I would really love to know whats going on. The GI doctor also doesnt want to start any new medications untill after the colonoscopy is done.