Some of you know that I have been in pain for several years. Often to the point where I am stuck in bed on my side because the pain is so intense. I started having problems with my stomach in high school and had really bad stomach aches and mysterious pains in my side often. My doctor ran several blood tests and never found anything. When I got to college it got a lot worse. I was eating so much fried shit and getting sick all the time. I went to several doctors about this horrible pain in my right abdomen right below my belly button. They all said I needed to eat more fiber and that is sounded like irritable bowel. I also had this horrible pain in my side that would prevent me from eating solid food for days at a time. That was attributed to the irritable bowel. I never really bought that and kept searching for a doctor who would actually run tests.

I went to this one doctor in the later stages of my undergrad and into my first job who constantly said (even after weeks of chronic pain) that it was irritable bowel. She even told me she didn't think it was severe enough to see a G.I. Finally during grad school when this fucking pain just wouldn't go away I decided that she needed to go fuck herself and found myself a G.I. This man actually explained why I felt nauseous in the morning (I have acid reflux disease) but didn't know much about the colon pain. At least the meds help my stomach even out. I went several months, almost a year without my symptoms of the colon pain. Then it came back with a vengeance. My doctor at school put me on this smooth muscle relaxant. That didn't work. I then went through 2 ultrasounds in the period of 9 months. Nothing found there. I called my G.I. about the pain and made an appointment. Soon after I almost passed out from a pain in between my chest and stomach. I thought I was having a heart attack and was scared to death. It was this twisting pulling severe pain, I went black, lost my hearing and was sweating like a pig. Scared Mike half to death.

I called the G.I. the next day and was given an appointment right away. It was then that tests were ordered to see what was going on. He figured he would do both an endoscopy and colonoscopy (to figure out what the pain was). The procedure was probably one of the hardest things I have gone through. The prep was just disgusting. I felt so sick and could not stop crying. When you already feel sick and you are forced to drink liquid that tastes like rancid milk every 15 minutes, it is a fucking nightmare. And the stuff was supposed to clean you out within an hour, well, guess what? I didn't even start going to the bathroom until 7 hours later. I was so physically ill, I don't think I have been that sick for a really long time. I was so dizzy and just ill. The colonoscopy didn't go well either. I was ok at first but then I remember being in severe pain and screaming for him to stop, that it hurt. It felt like a snake was ripping my intestines apart. I remember how much pain I was in. Never again unless I am totally out.

Afterwards, he said that everything looked ok, but there was some inflammation in my lower intestine, so he took some biopsies. He was absolutely shocked to get a call from the lab saying that I had Crohn's disease. He actually went up to the lab to look at the cells himself. At least I know. Crohn's is not a good thing, but explains why I feel like I am going into labor with this freakin pain. I have a mild case. People with extreme cases can suffer from their colon fusing together, from ulcers developing in between their anal and vaginal walls. So, in short, I am lucky so far.

But I am pissed. It took 7 fucking years. 7 years of hearing I should eat more fiber, when in fact people with Crohn's should be on a low fiber diet. And I am still in pain. The medication I am on helps, but it makes me extremely constipated (which was one of the problems in the first place). It kinda sucks. Now in addition to the mint, chocolate and gum I am not allowed to have, beans aggravate this condition. Telling a vegetarian not to eat beans is like telling a crow not to eat dead squirrels on the roadside. Good luck. I can only try. My feelings about this are mixed. In one sense I am relived that I finally know what the hell is going on in my body and that people can longer think I am a hypochondriac, that the pain I feel is real and can be extremely disabling. On the other hand, a Crohn's diagnoses means increased risk of colon cancer and very serious health problems. My life insurance will go up, I will now have this pre-existing condition looming over my head.

You know what, if you feel sick and you feel like you aren't being taken seriously, find another doctor. It is so sad that just because someone is young, or doesn't fit the profile, they cannot be taken seriously. I would rather pay to have tests done than to be in pain and not know what the hell is going on with me. If your doctor isn't taking you seriously, find another one, because in all honesty, doctors don't know everything, even the ones that think they do.

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