Hurdles

Today has been very exhausting, the morning was spent in the hospital at my appointment to see Dr Kahn my gastroenterologist and the rest of the day was spent shopping, spending time with my cousin and packing for cologne. To make things easier I will split these up into separate posts!

The meeting with Dr Kahn was overall quite positive, he started by asking if there was anything I was confused about and I told him I still wasn't completely clear about where my crohns was. He explained that the large and the small bowel are the most commonly affected, the small bowel is named that because it is very thin. This is the part that confused me as it is much longer than the large bowel! He told me my inflammation is all the way round the large bowel and then a small part into the small bowel - normal for someone with crohns. This was reassuring and didn't feel patronising at all which is what I like about him! He also said that despite the shingles, which caused a break in my taking of azathioprine, my blood tests were showing an improvement on inflammation! This means the steroids were still working (I love the way doctors say steroids, like stiroids). However he has upped the dosage again to 4 tablets a day for the next two weeks. Ideally I would like to come off steroids soon but hopefully this big hit of them will mean that I can.

He also explained about surgery in the future and that he would do everything he could to prevent me from having it and explained the next options if the steroids don't work. These come in the form of injections which I have heard some negative things about from other crohns patients so I'm hoping I can stay away from those! The next hurdle is going back to university and fitting in appointments at home with my work. I already face this in the next two weeks where I start university but have a hospital appointment an hour and a half away the next day! These are things to work out as I go along but I hope that it will settle down eventually.

Azathioprine and Prednisolone

This week I had my first post-hospital check up with my Doctor. I first saw the nurse who took my weight (I've finally managed to put on some!) and my height (I've grown 1/4 inch, i'm now a massive 5"2 1/4! I then saw a specialist Crohns nurse who my doctor had asked me to see. She was the most helpful person I have spoke to so far and gave me so much information. The blood test from a couple of days before showed I still had high inflammation and low protein. I have come off the steroids I was on as my symptoms had got worse and she suggested the dosage wasn't high enough so I have been put on another 6 week course which decreases my one tablet each week, this is called Prednisolone. I have also been put on Azathioprine which is an immunosuppressant to stop the cells in my immune system attacking my body and causing inflammation. These can take up to 6 weeks to start making a difference so as the steroids decrease these should kick in and start to work. 2/3 people are fine on this but the other third can suffer from side effects such as flu symptoms and joint pain which I need to be aware of. It also says a 'very common' side effect is anorexia which I cant understand! I will need to have blood tests weekly to check my liver function  and anaemia which start this Friday. I also had several questions to ask which she answered fully such as Can I give blood? Nope, I need it! Can I take paracetamol and codeine? Yes, anything but ibuprofen is fine. Can I drink alcohol? Yes, in moderation. My original doctor came in to visit during the appointment and said some words that have really helped. He said its up to me now I really need to own it and if I want to be better they will do everything they can to help like giving me the medication I need but its up to me to take it and look after myself and focus on getting better. It has made me realise that this needs to be priority now and everything else like University and other things can wait. He said that if the medicine starts to work I should be able to go back but if they don't then I wont be able to go on the Cologne trip so fingers crossed!