Crohn's Disease

[Black8261]

Almost a year ago my husband was working and very healthy.  Over the weekend he seemed to get sick and very weak.  He had constant diahrea and stomach pain.  He went through many tests and they finally diagnosed him with Crohn’s Disease.  We have tried several different treatments and nothing seems to be working.  However,  he also still has many symptoms that are unrelated to the Crohn’s Disease and they are now testing him for other diseases which may be Lupus, MS and or Rheumatoid Arthritis.   We are wondering if there are any recommended treatment for Crohn’s other than Prednisone and Align and if there is any other disease that it may be and how to get tested for it.  We have tried so many things and nothing seems to be working at this point.  We would appreciate any advice.  His symptoms are as follows:

Fatigue & Severe Weakness – He said yesterday that it is now hard for him to open a Gatorade bottle                     and he used to be able to lift at least 150 lbs and do hard labor.

Severe Stomach pain – The pain is so intense it sometimes will drop him to his knees.

Severe Diahrea – He goes to the restroom up to 30 times a day.  He can’t seem to keep much food down and is now having ensure and Gatorade go right through him.  Sometimes he will get through half a plate of dinner and have to go to the restroom since it is already going through him.

Kidney Pain – He says it feels as though they are going to explode

Dizziness
Lack of appetite
Bloody stool
Fever & cold chills
Groin pain
Joint pain
Muscle ache
Head ache
Back aches
Eye irritated and inflamed

[angiebaby78]

Hello, I had uncontrolled Crohn's back in 2006, ended up perforating my ilieum in 2007.  I was on Asacol, Entocort, and numerous other drugs.  Since my bowel resection, my symptoms went away...just as quickly as they came on.  I stayed on Azothiaprine for 2 years 2007 to Dec 2009 but have now stopped that too.  I don't know if this helps but I eat off the Maker's Diet, which is basically just eating raw, unprocessed foods, organic.  It tastes great and I feel better.

Everything I have read about Crohn's says that it effects your entire body, not just the GI system.  There is crohn's arthritis, it creates skin conditions (when I had flares, I would break out in patches of eczema on my legs) and even your eyes.  It is autoimmune, so it can attack just about anything.  I really liked Entocort and Azathioprine myself, but know that both drugs take time to build up in your system and you have to take them daily to work.  I hope things get better for your husband soon, I am sorry you are having such a rough time with all this.

[justjenny]

There are specific medications he can take that are not systemic and target only the stomach that you can ask for that are:
Entocort, a steriod only for stomach and
Xifaxin, an antibiotic for the stomach.

Has he tried any of the ASA drugs, pentasa, asacol? Also there is 6MP and Flagyl.. THese have been around for some time and it is lock and key, some drugs work for some people.  I agree, you should get on the crohns and colitus website, it will give you basic information in which to start and be able to ask your doc questions, be persistent.  Crohns is an auto immune disease like lupus, MS and rheumotoid, does he have any relatives with any of these?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
In your husband’s case the symptoms not related to the gut and those related to the gut can be explained by uncontrolled Crohn’s disease. There are many medical treatments and diet plans available to treat this problem. Surgery is another option. Please refer: http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/crohns/#treatment

Also irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis and functional gastrointestinal disease should be ruled out. Many a times these problems co-exist. Several trials are going on for finding better cure for the disease. Refer: http://www.livingwithcrohnsdisease.com/livingwithcrohnsdisease/clinical_research/index.html

Hope this helps. It is difficult to comment beyond this at this stage. Do discuss this with your gastroenterologist. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!