Coping with Crohn’s

“I was in eleventh grade and suffering from severe abdominal pain.” So begins the saga that sounds familiar to so many. “My pediatrician suspected appendicitis ” continues Josh * “and I was hospitalized and scheduled for surgery. But then the surgeon visited me and said ‘Your appendix is fine go home.’ We were sent to a GI doctor and he quickly diagnosed Crohn’s disease. They gave me meds and within twenty-four hours the pain was gone. I had hardly eaten during those weeks and I’d lost a lot of weight. I remember clearly when I was able to eat the first thing I asked for was a corned beef sandwich!”

Not Just the Stomach

That corned beef sandwich was twenty years ago and Josh has been living successfully with Crohn’s disease ever since. Yet he has suffered from psoriasis and aching knees — symptomatic of the inflammatory complications that accompany Crohn’s. Those and many other accompanying symptoms such as recurring canker sores cause Josh to claim: “Crohn’s affects me from top to bottom.”

Josh has taken steroids from time to time to manage flare-ups. He has been on and off medicines depending on insurance and his symptoms and he has visited with top doctors who are on the forefront of promising new medical treatment available. Josh’s mother also suffers from Crohn’s and she almost died from a particularly devastating bout with it. Crohn’s is part of the dinner conversation in his family a steady visitor who has moved in and almost never leaves. And yet when you talk to Josh you don’t get the feeling that Crohn’s is that major a factor in his life. He talks about how lucky he is how it could be a lot worse and besides how does he know that creaky knees aren’t just because he’s getting older?

Dr. Robin Baradarian MD FACG chief of gastroenterology at Beth Israel Medical Center and regular contributor to Mishpacha’s health column has seen literally thousands of Crohn’s patients in his career.