Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Crohn's disease

Anyone here have it as well?
How has it affected you?
Mine was stage 4 before my sore ass got to the right doctor. Mostly my fault, I thought I just had irritable bowel until I didn't just have that.
I'm wondering for real life, long term experience.

I had a gf that had it. She had to be careful what she ate...

I’ve been dealing with UC since the 80s. Finding out new things all the time. Hope the meds work for you, I’m still looking for the right combo, and new drugs/research coming all the time, stay positive.

I got to the point an abscess opened and left a fistula.
I'm still recovering.
I hope to get my gunsmith shop set back up. Nothing but a hobby, but I enjoy bringing old guns back. I get better and my VA disability claim is ever settled...

My brother had it for many years. Each bout doctors progressively removed part of his and intestines. He had to be very careful of any foods he ate, and had constant diarrhea.

Besides a lot of other things he died for 3 weeks ago.He had so much of his colon removed , they finally said he had to get a bag. is one side was mostly paralyzed from strokes and he could not change the bag out. He ended up that with out much of his intestines, his body could not get proper nutrients. one was potassium. His kidneys shut down and because of other problems they could not do the dialysis.

All in all, cashed out hard.

Do not underestimate what Crohns can do to you

Eliminate carbohydrates from your food, as carbs cause inflammation.

Try a carnivore diet.

UC here
12 years now
Daily meds and doing my best to keep stress to a minimum keeps it at bay.
Colonoscopy # 4 on tap for this spring.

Wow, that isn't all encouraging. I hope I get better than that. I'm on anti inflammatory steroids and some sort of thing I mix with water.

I suffered terribly from Chrone's back in 2020 at the tail end of a couple years of it nagging me in a relatively minor way, almost killed me when it finally went full bore. Finally got to the point where they re-sectioned about a foot of small intestine from the junction with the colon backwards. Two years now after the operation and life is normal, at least in that regard. Eating anything and everything now, stuff that would've (and did) put me in the ER a couple times during that terrible summer/fall two years ago. If such a deal is offered as a "cure", take it, as we can get by just fine with a foot or two of small intestine missing. No particular dietary restriction now, but I do inject myself with Humira every two weeks as an aid to prevention of a recurrence.

Chrone's has many levels of severity and can effect different areas of the gut. Find a good GI doctor and follow advice. Don't be afraid to seek out second opinions either. My first doctor was content to string things along and approached it with dietary restrictions. "You'll never eat pizza again. Deal with it", was one advisement. A second doc stepped in (during the third hospitalization contiguous with ER visits) and took a more aggressive approach and said "My advice- let me cut that sh*t out of you and we both get on with our lives." I said ok, she did, and life is good again.

12 years of being on meds and functional would be doable, compared to the last year.

Get your butt off of the steroids and get it fixed properly. My first doc had me eating them like jelly beans for six months in a vain effort to control it. They just postponed the inevitable, didn't actually cure anything, and had side effects that plagued me too. (My ophthalmologist theorizes that those massive amounts of steroids at least exacerbated the cataract that bloomed in my right eye that had to be cut out a couple months ago.)

I have seen a few youtubes by doctors saying that.

My Brother was diagnosed with it in 1968. They virtually new nothing about it back then. Other than the symptoms basically. He was used as a Guinea pig and test subject for a few years being transported to several hospitals around the country. He’s 70 now and has had to deal with it his entire life obviously. He almost died in ‘89 from complications stemming from scar tissue and blockage in his intestines. He’s had several surgeries over the years and has had probably 9’+ of his intestines removed. But remarkably he’s fought through it and is still going strong. One of the treatments that has seemed to help him a great deal is drinking aloe vera. I would recommend anyone with the disease to look into it and research it.

I don’t have Crohn’s but I can vouch for the low carb diet. When I am doing low carb, my time on the commode is drastically reduced. You sit down and it comes out in a nice firm form and you get up. No need for a book, barely a need to wipe.

If you ever wondered how primitive humans stayed clean without a lot of modern hygienic innovations, I think there is part of your answer. If they were following a diet without lots of carbs and refined sugars while being high in fat and protein, they just didn’t have to worry about it nearly as much.

The steroids have helped immensely. Drainage finally has let off and a lot of stuff drained that hadn't in almost a year of having the fistula. I'm not in constant pain / discomfort. It now is mostly toilet time related and an abrasive white "sand" when the Crohn's flairs. It's a med related thing. I very stupidly had chicken noodle soup and cereal yesterday. I'm still figuring this out.

My brother has Crohn's, he has very little of his intestines left. Twice he's had major surgery, to remove more intestines. I have a great deal of sympathy for people with Crohn's. He takes enzymes for digestive support, and a couple other pills. I hope you find a good Dr. and follow the Dr advice! He says diet is the most frustrating part. Becauze he has to eat constantly, and crap constantly. No bag yet, he's 69 and still very active!

Nessmuk, sorry to hear about your medical adventures. Good luck getting the problem addressed satisfactorily. And good luck starting up the smithing thing too.

Not Crohn's, but I've got lymphocytic colitis.

Started with a constant battle with the runs a few years back. The "Best Medical System in the World" did as someone else here mentioned, tried to treat the symptoms instead of trying to figure it out. Trips to the Docs with a try this "FODMAP" diet. Oh, maybe you're allergic to gluten. Scheidt in this and bring us back a sample, nope no parasites, no blood. Did that twice (I knew it wasn't giardia as I've had that. Twice)

Finally, after 7 + months of not knowing when it was going to hit, carrying TP or papertowels in my back pocket so I could just drop trou like I was living in a third world country (or a homeless camp) I was "allowed" (by the insurance companies) to go to the specialist that has done a few colonoscopies on me.

Fuggers, Not the gastroenterologist, but all them other fuggers. I even switched primary care over all that diet and "we don't know" scheidt. The new doc got the process started to get scoped.

That gastro dude took a biopsy, called me back a day later, told me what it was and said we have an easy fix. Budesonide, 3mg pills, start at 3 per day for a couple of weeks, then try two for a bit, then try one if that works. I've been taking one a day for awhile now. Back to my regular self with just that.

Imagine going to the auto shop because you have a wobble at 60MPH. And you get answers like this. "well, let's try inflating your tires a bit more" "well, that didn't work, let's try rotating the tires" " well, maybe we should rebalance them" " Hmmm, we're stumped, maybe just don't drive at 60 MPH, hit 58 and speed up fast to 65" And then you get the OK by the powers that be to put the thing up on a rack and check the front end parts and discover a bad ball joint.

Let's not look for a cause, let's just treat symptoms. That seems to be the way the "Best Medical System in the World" works most times.

Drinking more water and staying hydrated helps a lot.

no grains, no beans no carbs

Try a carnivore diet with some greens. Do intermittent fasting every day. Listen to your body

The quickest way to solve this is to do a fast with an elimination diet. Start back with bone broth and add glutamine for the stomach. The slowly introduce foods starting with boiled meat and drink the broth. Some real full fat yogurt, kefir, fermented veggies.

and like squidgy says drink a lot of water, broth every day. No sodas, milk, booze


Of course Drs won't tell you this

yep But people are generally lazy and want to keep eating crapthey ate their entire lives and rely on meds which can be very bad long term