My Life with Crohn's

My name is Erica and I am 34 years old. My journey with Crohn's Disease began on Easter Sunday of 2015. I was coloring eggs with my friends and family when I had a rapid onset of abdominal/rectal pain. I thought I could push through it and continue coloring eggs, but I was wrong. I ended up being rushed to the emergency dept. by my husband and I was quickly brought back to a room where they dosed me with heavy pain meds and asked a ton of questions. I was admitted to the hospital and while still under the influence of the heavy pain meds, I had given consent to have "exploratory surgery" on my abdomen. Thankfully, my husband arrived just as they were wheeling me out to the surgery center. He stopped them and told them absolutely not and requested I be transferred to a larger hospital (we live in a small community). I was transferred to the larger hospital without incident (pain, yes). There they did a colonoscopy and MR Enterography to confirm that I had inflammation in my terminal ileum, which indicated Crohn's disease. My official diagnosis didn't happen until May 1, 2015.

Short lived remission

I had multiple hospital stays throughout 2015 and 2016 until I achieved remission in 2016 while on Remicade infusions. I had been in remission for 3 years when I needed to stop my infusions due to a new job I began in February of 2018. In July of 2019, I began having severe abdominal pain and having other symptoms associated with active Crohn's Disease. It took me 3 months to get put onto a new medication, Entyvio, due to insurance issues. I am currently taking Entyvio and and I am still having symptoms of active Crohn's Disease.

I had my yearly colonoscopy recently and it still shows inflammation and ulcerations in my terminal ileum. I deal with abdominal pain daily now and have a multitude of other symptoms that go along with my Crohn's. I talk to my GI team regularly now, as I have had little improvement while on Entyvio.

This 5-year journey has been a huge rollercoaster ride for me and I assume my life will feel like this forever. I know it's possible to achieve remission, as I had before, but at this point in time, I am skeptical I will achieve it again.