Leading up to My Diagnosis of Crohn's Disease in December of 1994

It was December of 1994. In the few months previous I had lost about 30 pounds. The occasional sickness I had as a child had gotten worse. It turned from occasional to frequent. I stopped eating, and my social life was non-existant. I was just too tired to do much of anything. Typically I weighed a good 155 or 160. Now my weigh was lingering around 130-135, and dropping even lower. I have a large body frame, and I'm 5'7. For me, loosing 30 pounds made me look like a skeleton. I had to get smaller clothes, and I didn't mind wearing a bathing suit, or a 2 piece! Everyday I felt worse and got sicker.

December 19, 1994 I was in the school choir and we were preforming our Christmas concert for the public. Everyone in the choir was on stage, standing on the different levels of the risers, singing our selected songs. We were singing the very last song. During the entire concert I had started feeling sick to my stomach, and feeling warm all over my body. My friend was standing right next to me. As I was singing everything infront of me started to get darker..and darker. I was passing out. As my vision turned to black I told my friend that I was passing out. The girls next to me helped to hold me up so I wouldn't fall. My chorus teacher, and some of my friends assisted me in getting to a chair to sit down. Boy, did I have everyone's attention in the auditorium or what??? (It was weird watching the video afterwords). My grandma took me home, and I told my mom what happened. She wanted to take me to the doctors to get checked out, so I agreed. I hadn't been feeling well, and it was time to figure out what was wrong with me!

December 21, 1994 I went to my pediatrician. He really didn't know where to start. He ordered a battery of tests to be done, including CT scans of my head, and heart tests. These kinds of tests went on for a month, and turned up nothing. By this time I was even more sick. The doctor feared that if they didn't find out what was wrong with me, and soon, my future wouldn't be that good. He didn't know how much longer I could hold on. My body was in such bad shape. He decided to send me to childrens hospital of Pittsburgh. We were informed that a message was left with the reception desk, and a call would be returned with the date of my appointment in a few days. 3 days later my appointment date was set, and my doctor was very angry. Childrens hospital said that they couldn't see me till February 12th, 1995 !!! We couldn't believe it!! My doctor called the hospital back and stressed to them how bad my condition was, and that I didn't have that much time to wait. The return offer was that they could see me 2 weeks earlier than February 12th. That date still wasn't good enough. Frustrated, my doctor called a doctor that he went through residency with that was now a pediactric gastroenterologist. My doctor explained to him that it was absolutely neccisary that I be seen as soon as possible because my condition was quickly deminishing. The pediactric GI doctor agreed to see me in 4 days, on January 13th, 1995.