| It all started when I was about twelve-and-a-half years old. I remember that I used to get terrible stomachaches whenever I got upset about something or nervous about tests at school. I thought that it was "normal" to get stomachaches like that. In time, the stomachaches became more frequent and severe. I developed skin lesions on the palms of my hands. These lesions looked like tiny little fluid-filled blisters all over my palms. They used to itch really bad and if I scratched or picked at them they would sometimes erupt, ooze a clear liquid, and become scabbed over. I also recall that around the same time, I had begun to develop skin lesions on my shins that looked very similar to the ones on my palms. I began getting terrible mouth ulcerations (which I thought were just a bad case of canker sores). They were so painful that even drinking water was difficult.
I was experiencing diarrhea on a regular basis for almost a year, but I didn't tell anyone until it became unbearable. The failure to 'tell' anyone was partially due to the fact that I was teenager and very modest about such things at the time. After this had gone on for about a year-and-a-half, I began to think that something was really 'wrong' with me. I finally told my doctor about the many, 'strange' symptoms that I had been experiencing. He just passed it all off as "nervousness". He said that I was too sensitive and needed to 'relax'. As time went on, things grew worse. The terrible burning, aching, sensation that I felt in my abdomen was becoming more intense. I altered between moments of intense stomach cramping and a tearfully painful burning/aching feeling that I would get in the center of my stomach. The pain was frequent, but not constant. So, at times I "looked" well, even though I was not.
By now, I had missed many days and even weeks of school, but I was persistent with my complaints to my doctor about these symptoms. This persistence in complaining finally led him to do some further investigation. He believed that I probably had ulcers due to anxiety, so he treated me with ulcer medication and mild tranquilizers to help me 'relax'. I remember him saying to me on one particular visit to his office, "If you don't stop complaining about all of this, I'm going to have to send you to the hospital for a bunch of tests that are NOT pleasant!" It was like he was threatening me! I thought to myself, "Well, if I don't start feeling better soon......I don't really care!" It was Christmas day in 1984. I thought that the discomfort that I felt in my stomach was because I had gotten so excited about the holiday festivities; however, the increasingly sharp, jabbing pains I was experiencing in my lower right abdominal area were beginning to demand my attention. I told my parents about this, and they decided
that we should wait a little while to see if things would improve on their own. After things didn't improve, my parent's decided that the best thing to do would be to take me to the emergency room at the hospital. This was to be my first 'hospital' visit that was related to Crohn's. My parents thought that I might have possibly had something like appendicitis, because the pain I was experiencing was in the same general area that appendicitis would be (lower right quadrant of the abdomen).
To make a long story short, after being examined and running a few unpleasant 'tests', I was discharged on that same night without a proper diagnosis. My physician finally came to the conclusion that further tests were in order. He then made arrangements for me to come back to the hospital for a two-weeks stay. During my visit, I had a series of tests done, including: upper GI, small bowel series, barium enema, my "first" colonoscopy, biopsies, x-rays, and lots of blood work. It was during this time and after receiving the results of the biopsy they had taken, that they finally diagnosed me with Crohn's disease. They had found it (the disease) in my ileum (small bowel) near the
ileo-cecal valve. They also saw thickening in several other areas of my intestinal wall which is another one of the manifestations that is suggestive of CD.
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Tami Brunner ©
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