Newly Diagnosed With IBD .. scared, upset, & shocked

Hello and welcome, ! While I am so very sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis, I am so very glad that you've found (and joined) our community here. Getting a new diagnosis can bring with it a whole host of emotions -- which is sounds like you might be feeling -- so the tears and feeling rotten and anything else are you're going through are valid and understandable. Please, please, know that this community is here for you!

What an ordeal it sounds like you've been through! I just want to say that my heart goes out to you, both with the physical symptoms and emotional stress, as well as the diagnosis your mom is currently dealing with. That sounds like it would put a lot of emotional stress on you as well!

It certainly is a lot to take in, and please be gentle with yourself, if you can. It's okay not to feel positive all the time, especially right now as you're adjusting to this new diagnosis. The good news is, is that inflammatory bowel disease is treatable and, while people do live with it life-long, many people can experience remission given the right treatment (whether that's with medication or dietary/lifestyle changes or something else). Of course, I should include that treatment is highly individual so what works for one person won't necessarily work for another, so it can take some time to find the best treatment option.

I hope it's okay with you, but I do want to share several articles from our community with you. This first article was put together with some of the advice our health advocates have for those newly diagnosed, https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/living/advice-newly-diagnosed. I also want to share this article written by one of our health leaders with her advice, https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/living/newly-diagnosed-uc-advice. (She specifically talks about ulcerative colitis, but the advice applies to any inflammatory bowel disease.) And finally, as far as newly diagnosed advice goes, this one has five tips for the newly diagnosed, https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/living/5-essential-tips-for-newly-diagnosed-patients.

I also wanted to link some information on treatments. This article from our editorial team goes into a brief overview of different types of treatments, https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/treatment. And this article, https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/treatment/treatment-type-ibd, goes into a little more specific based on types of IBD.

Okay, hopefully I haven't bombarded you with too much information. But please, please, reach out if you have other questions, or need to vent, or could use some support. (You can also search for articles an information in the search bar in the upper left corner of the website.)

Hopefully some of our community members here can also share any tips with you, and/or share their support with you as well. We have some great community members here!

Sending you gentle hugs! -- Warmly, Christine (Team Member)

Hi . On top of all the excellent information from Christine, I just want to note that, as overwhelming as getting the diagnosis may be, it is also an opportunity to start to make things better. There have been a lot of advancements and, as you will see from the articles Christine shared on the topic, there are quite a number of treatment options. Hope is real.
I also want to acknowledge that it is clear that you have been under a lot of stress, particularly dealing with your mom's condition. As a friend with a different autoimmune condition says, stress doesn't do a body good. Our patient leader Stephanie wrote about IBD and stress here: https://inflammatoryboweldisease.net/living/stress-ibd. While it is of course understandable that you want to help a loved one, it is important to take care of yourself in order to do so (kind of like the instructions on the airplane to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others). Hopefully you can find a treatment to start make things better. Please feel free, if you like, to keep us posted on how things are going and to ask questions - there are plenty of people here who have been where you are and this community is here for you. Best, Richard (Team Member)

Hi, boy does this sound familiar. 10yrs ago I was diagnosed with Crohns. After getting side pain which I assumed at the time was appendicitis I went to hospital and had ct and colonscopy showing fistulas and possible blockage. I was put on prednisone and an all liquid diet, which sucked as it was christmas time. Really i believe now was the best thing as i am on inflectra and it helps immensely and i hope you read up more about crohns as you will find as time goes on that it isn't as much a death sentence as you originally thought. Yes it is incurable. life long and sometimes exhausting but stress is a big flare up starter and as you feel better and possibly get remission you learn what you can have and can't, what works for you and ways that life goes on, not to let it stand in your way. You are past the hard part of not knowing now, or being misdiagnosed with ibs as I was many years prior to diagnosis. I couldn't stop crying when diagnosed and prednisone made me cry all the time which is completely opposite of me usually. I am a plus sized woman so the disease knows no size barriers. You are definitely not alone. I hope bring positive helps but know it is tough not being depressed over your situation. I am positive you will do well. I suffer with crohns. Pcos, ocd, anxiety and a few other things but make a point not being hard on myself. Good luck!

I have had bowel problems for 12 months. Today I finally had the camera up rear. The found 10 polops hat have been sent for biopsies. 12 no one could give me answers to diarrha I was ripping my hair out and so scare. Still have to wait 2 weeks for biopsies