"Hi. I am new to this..but hear is my story....After 15 years of being told it was stress, I was eventually diagnosed with Crohns. Because of the delay, I had an emergency op and ended up with a permanent Ileostomy. It took a while to get used to this mentally & physically, but more than anything I was just glad to be alive and away from my prison cell...aka the toilet......I thought lthat was it after having a stoma bag, how wrong can you be!!! In the intervening years, I have been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoporosis and Fibromyalgia. I have had to learn to deal with taking a cocktail of drugs, some having made me very ill indeed. Throughout all this, I never thought about Crohns Disease. My Stoma worked properly, and I thought all the extreme tiredness, and painful joints, were all down to Rheumatoid and getting onto the right drug. Last Sept 2017, we had a Stoma Nurse come to my GP’s, and I was invited to see her, just for a routine check. This lady checked me out, looked at my Stoma, and straight away, told me I had active Crohns. Since then I have had MRI’s, cameras down and up through my Stoma..not pleasant! My diagnosis....I have 18 inches of diseased small intestine, Crohns in my Anus and a blockage just inside the Stoma itself! My Consultant and his team will have a meeting at the end of this month to decide what to do with me, but it is almost certain it will involve more surgery, and I am terrified, and have started to really suffer with the debilitating effects of this Disease. Any words of support and encouragement would be greatly received.x"