My condition was diagnosed by a colonoscopy in May 2021 after quite a few months of symptoms that started in the autumn of 2020 (abdominal pain, constant toilet trips, joint pain, fatigue, blood etc). At the time they diagnosed it as Ulcerative Colitis but have since said it may be Crohn’s disease. I was put onto mesalazine tablets to stabilise my condition. While I was on mesalazine my condition was never stable and I was in and out of flare. After a while my condition got worse and I was put on steroids (my first course of many) -these seemed to work wonders and I felt like my normal self for the first time in months.
Unfortunately after I finished the course of steroids I went into a horrific flare and nothing was helping me this time. I was severely dehydrated, my kidneys were failing and I was loosing a lot of blood to the point where I collapsed and hit my head in the middle of the night. I ended up being admitted to hospital.
My experience in hospital wasn’t very nice. It was my first proper admission and I originally thought I would literally only be in overnight. With no visitors allowed and as someone with an anxiety disorder being somewhere so unfamiliar and being so unwell triggered constant panic attacks. I was on constant drips of various different drugs, some days I was completely unable to move and had to be cared for like an old lady which was extremely hard. After lots of X-rays, ultrasounds, ct scans and a colonoscopy the doctors decided I needed to have a drug called infliximab. That hospital admission genuinely changed my life!!
A few months went by recovering at home on infliximab and it didn’t really show signs of working. My IBD nurse decided to give it one last shot (before I would of had to have surgery) of a strong dose and started me on azathioprine tablets a long with it. Since then this dual medication method has worked wonders and put me into remission (wooohooo)
Over the last 6 months I have lived in remission, getting some bad days or weeks here and there. There are still parts of my old body that I grieve and I’m still getting used to life with a chronic illness- but I’m so thankful that my body responded to the treatment it was given
Georgia’s Rushworth IBD Story
@georgiaibd
