So, how did all these problems start?! According to my mother, I had tummy pains/problems quite frequently when I was younger, but no one bothered to check it out saying it was probably just a bug, as there were lots in school... Fair enough!! Life went on..

The first proper "flare" was when I was 18.. I was staying with my Dad at the time. I had been having some problems in the toilet area, being sick and crippling stomach pains for a couple of days. The doctor said it was a sickness bug and It'd pass. Over the next couple of days, I was still throwing up and getting weaker and weaker with the day, and the pain was becoming a real issue. I was spending most of the time in bed or on the "throne" lol

In the middle of the night, I woke up in a pure sweat, in the worst pain I'd been in yet, which sent me into a full blown panick attack.. I tried to get out of bed to get to my dads bedroom as I was worried about how I felt.. The next thing I remember is my dad bringing me around in the hallway and telling me the ambulance was on it's way - I had collapsed. I was rolling around in agony with my stomach and still throwing up.

The paramedics arrived and calmed me down and took me to the hospital Emergency department. I had the usual blood tests, anti sickness drugs and some fluids to replace the ones I had lost and of course.. pain relief, at last!! After the urine tests they decided I had a bad urine infection (hmmmm OK then!) and I'd be fine to go home with decent antibiotics after a few doses IV until the nausea etc was under control..... And I was sent home...

I had a load more of these exactly the same "attacks" but they were usually only a couple of times a year, so I never went to the doctors with them unless I was needing something for the pain.. They though I probably had a stomach ulcer, so I was given my 1st Gastroscopy.... This showed severe inflammation in the stomach and a small ulcer in duodenum, which they put down to gasritis caused by helicobacter pylori, so I was treated for this accordingly and told I'd need to take omeprazole of lansoprazole every day to help with the acid. And that was that... Sent off on my way again!!

From 2006-2010 I gave birth to 3 babies.. During my pregnancies I was really unwell. I couldn't even keep water down so I was in hospital in drips alot. My third baby was born a month early due to me having a uterine rupture, after this birth is when things started to get worse fast.....

I started to get more crippling pain, sickness and all the other shenangans of the god knows how many other admissions! (At this point I was at a different hospital) I lasted as long as I could before my husband called an ambulance as he couldn't listen to me in that pain any longer. They came out, got me sorted on entinox (gas and air) so they could get me down to the hospital..
A surgeon came to see me who thought I probably had gall stones so he'd arrange a scan.. Turns out, there were no gallstones but the gallbladder was inflammed.. So they took it out! Inside they found inflammed bile ducts also.. So I thought.. YAY! That should be it...

NOPE! about 3 months later, I again had to go to the emergency room in crippling pain.. Alls I kept saying "Is how can I be in pain?! They removed my gallbladder!" my surgeon requested an MRI, then later came to say there was an airpocket where the gallbladder used to be.. He thought I may of had another stomach ulcer pop causing it.. Another gastroscopy and down to theatre again... what did they find?! Nothing but inflammed bileducts! This is when my surgeon first suggested he thought I had crohns somewhere. Started me in steroids to see if that had an impact, which it did! So off I Went for another few months... With admissions in between

September 2010 came and, I had been really unwell for a couple of weeks with symptoms, but I woke up in agonising pain (and I've had 3 kids, this was worse!) during the night an was again rushed in...
They did a full body CT and were being shady about the results, lots of whispering etc. In the end a group of doctors came over to say the CT had shown up some abnormalities and it needed to be reviewed by the whole Multi-disiciplinary team on THURSDAY (this was monday!) I asked why this was and I'd like to know what they will be talking about, what had they found? The surgeon got abit snippy at this stage with me pushing for answers and said "there may be a carcenoid tumour in your bowels, we need an urgent gastroscopy and full colonoscopy... So that happened... No tumour THANK GOD!! but a nasty case of crohns in the terminal ileum and a few random spots in my caecum.My biopsies from my duodenum and stomach also showed signs of inflammation .

Now we had the diagnosis, I was referred to Gastroenterology properly to talk through medicines... I had been on prednisilone since July and he started me on mesasaline and took some bloods. For the first time in ALL of my admissions did someone check my blood for inflammation markers (apparently not a standard test) at this stage I had haemoglobin count of 9.3 and was tired and having spectacular dizzy spells etc.. And my CRP was up to 178 so still current inflammation despite the full dose of steroids and mesasaline. Not good! He gave me a couple of antibiotics to see if would work to bring it down, which it did slightly.

Next admission.. Same old, same old.. Except my HB levels had dropped to 8.3 and they wanted me to have a transfusion and to start the azathioprine urgently. So I started them in January.... The only worry the doctors had was that my veins had been so abused from the constant hospital stays in my pregnancies and the crohns that they were unviable and wouldn't give blood. You need regular tests on it in case your white cells drop a lot. The last few times I was in hospital, I needed a femoral line putting in. Luckily, my consultant said he would take blood from my groin for me so I could start the Azathioprine.

Since starting this, things have improved a lot.. I've managed to completely wean of the steroids after a while, which my bowel had been dependent on since the July before!! Everytime I weaned to 30mg and under I'd start a flare when I was using just those and mesasaline, so that's one step in the right direction.

Welcome.... About me!

Well, where do I start?! I guess telling you a little bit about myself would probably be good..

I'm Terri, 28 years young (ha!) from England, UK. I am a mummy to 3 beautiful children.. Charlie (5) Matilda (4) and Oliver (2)  (yup, close ages... hard work! lol) I've been with Howard for nearly 7 years and married since November 2010 when we eloped totally alone to Las Vegas! It was amazing!

I work in a Buying team for a large retailer, a stressful, busy job which the crohn's seems to complain about a lot! I spend a chunk of my time at/in either hospitals or doctors surgeries

After NINE!! years of mysterious "flares" of stomach problems and misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis (we'll go into that later) we FINALLY got the diagnosis of Crohn's Disease in September 2010 (found by accident ruling out, ,what they thought was a carcenoid tumour in my caecum.. (all will be told later)

Having absolutely no idea what Crohn's actually was at the time, I needed to get myself clued up... When I read the symptoms, I almost couldn't believe what I was reading.. It ALL fell right into place.. The mouth ulcers, the painful joints, the excruitating pains, toilet issues, anal fissures, nausea, sore eyes! But worst of all, it was a chronic disease with no cure... But my consultants assured me that with the treatment, patients can go into remission for years... Here's too hoping one day it'll happen!!

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