A little backstory here. I’m 34 and for as long as I can remember I’ve had bowel issues. As a kid when my parents brought it up to my doctor it was brushed off as IBS and I managed with Imodium.
I learned how to manage it as my urgency for a restroom really only appeared in the short period after eating. So naturally if I was going out, I’d eat as little as possible to prevent any issues. I still had my bad days where it didn’t matter if or how much I ate but it wasn’t terrible. Fast forward to 2018/2019 I started getting random fevers. They’d last about 24-48 hours and go away. Since the fevers didn’t last long and I was deployed at the time, I figured it wasn’t environment related and never thought anything of it. The fever came back almost at an annual basis until last year where I started getting them on a quarterly and then monthly basis to start this year.
I had a fever for most of the month of March this year. I ended up in the hospital with sepsis for about a week and then had a couple more weeks of antibiotics through IV after I was released. In the hospital while looking for the source of my infection, they found inflammation in my abdomen and upon a colonoscopy they said it appears I have Crohn’s based on the biopsy they did and with my GI follow up, she recommended biologics for treatment due to where it’s located in my small intestine.
I know I’m not a doctor but I’m having a hard time accepting this as a diagnosis. Aside from frequent use of the restroom, I don’t have pain or blood or anything. I get that I have inflammation and my most recent labs showed high levels for my calprotectin so clearly something’s wrong. It just felt so quick to diagnose and jump to treatment options. I have an MRI scheduled next week so maybe that will tell more of a story too.
I’ve lived like this for so long that the frequent trips to the restroom became my norm. I haven’t dealt with any serious health issues before so I think it’s just overwhelming to accept this and start medications when I don’t feel any different than I have for most of my life. Aside from the fevers, of course. Those haven’t come back since my hospitalization luckily.