[dogtanian]

i've been having major digestive issues for about 4 years - constant diarrhea, cramp etc, and i've been having to take around 2-4 imodium (anit-diarrhea) tablets every day to combat it. apart from being not healthy, this is really expensive! also, i'm beginning to find i'm immune to them, they just don't work as well.

i went to a doc and had some tests for this about 3 years ago but nothing showed up - they couldn't work out what was wrong. so the problem's been going on ever since, with the odd break of about 1-2 months where i'm ok.

in the meantime, my little brother has been diagnosed with crohn's disease, which is an inflammation of the gut, which leads to diarrhea, major tummy cramps etc etc. he has to take steroids for it. crohn's isn't hereditary, but it can run in families.

on friday i went to the hospital again, because i'm sick of living on diarrrhea tablets and not being able to go out for lunch or dinner without silently panicking that i'll get caught short. this problem has ruined many a day/night out.

when i said my bro was crohn's the doctor's ears pricked up, and he said he's going to run loads more tests. the main one i've had before, which is where they put a camera in you to take pictures, but i'm being put in for zillions of blood tests and so on. the doc said that my brother having it makes it much more likely (as the website said): "About 20 percent of people with Crohn's disease have a blood relative with some form of IBD, most often a brother or sister and sometimes a parent or child."

i have just been reading about crohn's online and came across this:

Quote:
Crohns can and often does, in more severe cases, cause other symptoms and affect other parts of the body. Crohn's can cause arthritis-like symtoms, with swelling and pain in the joints

People with Crohn's disease tend to have abnormalities of the immune system, but doctors do not know whether these abnormalities are a cause or result of the disease

could this be the answer? my immune system's been down for ages, as you lot know, and my joints are soooo bad at the moment, it's constant pain.

does anyone here have crohn's or know how it can affect people? any first hand advice would be really appreciated.

i did some more digging and it turns out that suppressed immune, constant aching, joint issues, inflammation and bowel disease can frequently all come under one heading: autoimmune disease" - basically where the immune system attacks the self rather than the foreign bodies. this is what CFS and ME are, as well as fibromyalgia which my mother had and the rheumatologist has said i don't have but do have something similar (as yet unspecified).

it looks as tho all these issues are linked, which would explain the frequent infections, the swollen joints, the perma-ache, the tension headaches, the tummy upset, the exhaustion and just about everything, so i'm amazed i'd not thought of this before.

and what's really interesting, is that all can be linked to depression. i'm bipolar but my rheumatologist has admitted that my aching is down to over tight nerves, and says this is partially due to depression, which is why it's hard to treat. (i'm not depressed at the moment, but it's caused it and now it's stuck!)

i bloody hope something can be done cos at the moment i feel like i'm on the way to the flu, everything's aching like mad

[dexter]

Hey dog... I've had ulcerative colitis my whole life, but in the past few years my GI doc thinks it may really be Crohn's, misdiagnosed. At this point it is inconclusive, so I'm still calling it "colitis". The two are similar. I went through my whole teenage years with diahrea, weight loss, "accidents", cramps, etc. They didn't have Immodium tables back then.

The good news is it is well under control now. Two factors contribute to this... one is some medicine I take... much easier on the system than the steriods I had to take when I was in bad shape. These are maintenance meds with no real side effects.

The other thing is through all of my teenage years with so much trouble, the first time I was able to wean off the steroids and remain symptom-free was when I went to college. When I came home from vacation I got sick again. Long story short, I learned that I had to stay away from the influence of my parents in order to remain healthy.

So yes, these "auto-immune" illnesses ARE linked to stress and can be effected by depression.

In the past few years I have developed rheumatoid arthritis, another auto-immune illness (it might be a symptom of Crohn's, if I have that, but right now they think it is separate but connected, being an autoimmune illness as well).

I definitely feel the pain in my joints fluctuate with the state of my depression. So yes there is a connection there as well. And of course the pain makes me depressed, so they feed off each other.

But there is hope. Once they figure out a proper diagnosis, there is help available. I think you should be able to get this completely under control with treatment. Taking care of your depression will also help.

I no longer ever have to worry about "accidents" because at times when I do have a flair-up, I have sufficient warning before it becomes uncontrollable. Actually I can usually get it taken care of before it gets "out of control" if I call my doctor right away.

So with treatment I think you will find a GREAT DEAL of relief from the suffering and worry you have been going through. Shame on the docs for not looking into this more thoroughly when you first reported problems. Same thing happened to me when I was young, but it was very severe... I couldn't eat, couldn't get out of the bathroom, pediatricians said there was nothing wrong, Dad thought I was faking... Finally found a new doctor, at that point I was 17 years old and weighed only 56 pounds, he put me immediately in the hospital (should have been done long ago) and repeated the tests the pediatricians gave me and discovered my colitis.

Good luck with this, take it slow and talk with the doctor... don't get overly worried because I think that you will find treatment will give you a new, freer life.

[dogtanian]

that's a really helpful answer, thanks

thing is it's kind of hard because i've had bipolar since my early teens and so the depression has always been a part of that - although it's definitely under control now, i'm ok mentally, at the moment (touch wood!) - although all this aching is making me a bit pi**ed off.

the stomach problem is nothing new - 4 years, it's hard to know if i have any other crohn's symptoms - the cramping has only started quite recently (within last year or so) , and i have a very very fast digestion, i need to go to the loo within about 4-5 mins of eating, on the whole. i can't tell if i've lost any weight, because lithium puts weight on me and so does quetiapine.

the weather here has gone really cold, almost overnight and the difference in pain is immense - i feel awful. i feel like i'm getting the flu, very very achey, slight fever, my glands are a bit swollen and i have a slight sore throat - but i categorically don't feel ill. just very under the weather. it's really frustrating.

i've jsut started uni again, and i've missed 2 weeks of lectures out of 5, and last year i missed about 1/2 the year. i think i'll have to talk to the disability office and sort something out, in case it all goes wrong. bipolar counts as a justifiable disability anyway.

i'm having physio tomorrow and it'll help but as it's only 30 mins she can only really do one area, which means the others will get worse as they're neglected for a week. it's so painful and there's nothing i can do about it

[dexter]

Sorry there are so many physical troubles going on along with the emotional. Yes the weather does effect my arthritis too... the cold and especially right before a storm, I am pretty sure it is the pressure drop that comes with changing weather. But there are times when the weather and temp are stable for long enough that I can tell it is just my state of mind effecting my pain. And it is dramatic changes... from knees and ankles so swollen I can't get dressed, to feeling overall very well with just a bit of stiffness. That's almost where I am now... "miraculously" the pain that was so bad that it partially put me into this relapse, now is only bothering me occasionally now that I am feeling better.

You started this thread with the title "linked" so I want to confirm your idea (since I've been rambling about everything under the sun ) and that does add to the problem in many ways. And also in some ways the solution is to work on everything you can... don't put off the bowel problems while trying to get depression stablized for example, which is hard to do. If you can find a sort of "zen" place of balance and think of it as one overriding problem, sometimes I can get myself in that place and it helps, rather than feeling overwhelmed because I had "this wrong, and that wrong, and this hurts on top of it, and...) if you know what I mean. Doesn't necessarily help with the pain, but it can help with the depression and anxiety, and if that can be relieved a bit maybe a bit of the pain can follow...

good luck and please keep us posted on test results.

[dogtanian]

i had physio this morning and i burst into tears! on the whole my depression is ok at the moment, apart from being utterly fed up about all the pains. i'm being tested for the tummy thing, treated for inflamed joints - another one has suddenly burst up, in the last few days, which is so painful - as well as constant infections and so on.

last night i was aching like hell and when i went to bed i couldn't sleep, i kept wheezing - i've not had asthma since my teens and now it's back, i had a temperature (slight) and my glands were up, it took me hours to sleep, and when i did it was partially quetiapine induced so i felt like being knocked out and not rested this morning.

i moaned to the physio, and she gave me acupuncture as it's a more holistic treatment and can be really helpful - only one way to find out really. it felt quite nice at the time, now it feels like everything's pulsing - it still hurts but in a slightly different way.

she wants me to see the rheumatologist again, as soon as possible, because this is getting ridiculous really

[dogtanian]

the acupuncture's really helped! the inflamed joints are still sore, i still have a low temperature and glands up, but the generalised aching, that feeling of having been run over, is much improved! yay!

[dogtanian]

it's fibromyalgia. i spoke to the rheumatologist today who has confirmed it. she is referring me to a pain consultant to try to work out the best way to deal with it - finally!

[dexter]

It is great to have something "solid" to work with. That's the best part about "labels" which are sometimes good and sometimes not-so-good. When a label can bring us peace-of-mind by giving us the knowledge that we are not alone, and that can steer us toward a treatment plan, that is the best.

Please let us know how you make out DT

[dogtanian]

thanks that's exactly how i feel. obviously i'm not entirely pleased it's incurable and that it could hang about for years, but at least i know how to go about managing it and i know the doctor believes me that something is up, because it's something notoriously ignored by docs, like CFS and stuff, they refuse to acknowledge it

[(JD)]

Sorry to hear this, but yes, glad you have something to work on (name) now! When Fibromyalgia was first 'identified" it was regarded as the latest "fad" disorder. My MD thought I had components of it, along with my chronic myofascial pain, but the rhemie said no... not sure he was correct as I have pain in both trigger and tender points. At least now the Fibromyalgia is becoming more accepted as a real disorder! Stress is a huge element in this, and I think that the stress is probably causing more of the intestinal difficulties you speak of. Sounds like you have a good doctor to help you with all this! TC

[dogtanian]

thanks sky most people seem to think FM is heavily related to lack of proper deep sleep, which is certainly something i'm partial to hehe. apparently the deep sleep is where your pain receptors refresh or something and if you don't have that level of sleep you don't get refreshed and feel unwell.

i seem to sleep many hours at the moment but i never sleep deeply, it's always medicated sleep. and, of course, stress is a large factor in not getting proper sleep - as is pain, so vicious cycle really