One of my biggest fears since diagnosis was that my Crohn's symptoms would negatively affect a big event in my life. When we were preparing for marriage, I started noticing horrible abdominal pain and my symptoms were only getting worse. This was June. I admittedly had not been in to see a doctor in a few years and my medications weren't working anymore. I thought I was fine because I felt fine, until I didn't.
In June I called to make an appointment with the GI specialty clinic in my area. I couldn't get in until August 5th and my wedding was August 22nd. Not exactly my plan... I accepted this and waited, and waited, and waited. My husband noticed that when I got home from work I couldn't do very much besides lay on the couch and he was worried for me.
Finally August 5th arrived. I went to a new doctor and she told me that they needed new pictures of my colon. It was actually very cool because they could see my pictures from 10 years prior at my first colonoscopy because of the health system they were using, but obviously a lot can happen in 10 years and I scheduled a colonoscopy for August 10th, 12 days before my wedding.
My dad very kindly drove me to my appointments that morning. The prep work had been just as bad as I had remembered it. I went into the colonoscopy that next day and afterward they told me that my gut was so inflamed at the small intestine/large intestine connection (where my Crohn's is most prevalent) that they couldn't get their scope where they needed to go. They also told me that they needed to schedule a gastrointestinal MRI that same day because they had to see my small intestine too. Since I had already fasted, they wanted to do it that same day.
I didn't eat for 40 hours because of these multiple tests. For the MRI I drank 3 pints of barium so they could get images of my gut. It was a long long day. My dad took me to Perkins to eat but my stomach was still churning from the MRI that I spent more time in the bathroom throwing up the barium than I did eating real food. I had a follow up appointment a day or two later.
At my follow up appointment they told me that my inflammation had gotten pretty bad, which explained my abdominal pain and the fact that they could not get their scope where they needed to go. I was put on Prednisone, a steroid, that same day in order to immediately decrease the swelling. My levels of Vitamin D were insanely low too so I was prescribed some supplements for that as well. He also walked me through treatment options, including an every 7 week IV OR a every-other-week injection. I am on the injection now and I am also on a pill that I take daily.
I had an insane amount of doctor's appointments the two weeks leading up to my wedding. I was incredibly thankful that they accommodated my needs and when I told them I was getting married and needed an answer immediately, they were very understanding. I will forever be grateful that things went smoothly and on my wedding day I felt amazing and did not have any Crohn's issues the entire day!
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