PC546 Crohns Disease ? 5/11/09
Uploaded Photos
- I organised Mum and Dad's photos and backed them up onto a DVD. I uploaded the best ones here stewgreen.com/family

Crohns Disease
- Thu 28/10/09 Had my endoscopy .. I think I remember shouting "fuck fuck fuck" cos of the pain, but I am not sure cos of the sedation... The prelimary result was ulcer scarring in the lower and middle bowel probable Crohns disease (which is a catchall term for bowel scarring) ... I have to wait for another meeting with a specialist who might prescribe some drug.

Specialist appointment 3 months !
- I just got the letter my appointment is the 1st of December. What the hell thats a month from now !
- My problem with blood coming from my stomach started at the beginning of September I went to the doctor 1 week later then again
.. then waited 2 weeks for an examination
... then another 3 weeks for a endoscopy .. and they said they will get me an urgent appointment with the specialist ...

- Now after 5 weeks is not urgent is it ?
... the pain is not great, but my life and work are on hold so I have to get an earlier appointment.
.. I rang up to tell them I can take any cancellation .... She told me that they are a doctor short hence the delay. ...I should tell them I can go to any other part of the country
- Yes, You can go to any hospital under NHS rules, but you have to go back to the doctor and get referred again so since that takes time that defeats the object. So in my case I could try Lincoln or Grimsby, but it probably won't speed up my treament.

- Bloody hell they have a systematic problem surely ... The Crohn's disease website says people are usually back to normal within a week of taking the drug (cortizone ?). So It should have been possible that I got to see someone who can prescribe me the drug within a week of seeing the doctor so I only had to suffer for 2 weeks not 3 months. I only hope that whilst left untreated my stomach is not getting damaged in an irreversible way.

- No diet advice - Since first seeing the doctors I got worse. I don't think the first advice was good I was told to eat fibre, but then there was more blood and mucus ... I think the more fibre was scarring rather than soothing my stomach. I had starting taking 2 loperaide/day to stabilise my stomach, but now that I have cut out harder food like fruit skins, coffee, tea and normal meat and switched to white rice, white bread, fruit juice and tinned fish and my stomach is moving much slower.

- I'll try the Crohn's disease charity forums to see if they have any tips.
- The Grimsby group didn't reply yet
- crohns-disease.org.uk/forum
- ulcerativecolitis.org.uk/colitisforum more active
- www.crohns4youngadults.co.uk waiting registration mail
- http://www.wearecrohns.org has podcasts

- Diet research - "Addenbrookes low fibre" - all is OK meat, dairy except fibre like wholegrain and alkali fruit, beans, peas etc
- Check for NACC’s booklet ‘Food and IBD’.
supposed to be good : an article published in Nature, Gerard Eberl and his Lymphoid Tissue Development Group at the Institut Pasteur (CNRS, URA1961)

Thu - Went to Doncaster - as a new bus connects Scunthorpe to the world - walked to the Don Gorge and then Conisbrough Castle
- This part of the country is not really linked to the rest of the world; without a car you can't just go to an event in Sheffield or Manchester etc. Of course there are trains from the train station, but trains are very expensive and anyway I'd have to get to the station which is 10Km away. A new bus service just restarted to Doncaster it's £7 return and 80 minutes so that's not too bad.

- So I went to Doncaster which isn't a proper city really. I popped into the museum some of the shops which are mostly pound shops and versions of pawn shops like Cash Converters. I walked 2.5Km to Cusworth Hall which is a stately home overlooking the town. It's now a museum ..free but nothing amazing.

- I planned to visit Conisbrough Castle and the Don Gorge so I walked there. So I walked across the fields to Sprotbrough village then along the river and through the Don Gorge, which is no longer so pronounced cos the limestone cliffs have been largely quarried away. It was OK it's river with nature reserve ponds with bird hides etc, but it was raining. At the 28 arches of the old Conisbrough Viaduct the path turned right up there, but I continued straight to a bridge which crosses near the castle. Except it doesn't exist anymore.. so I had to walk through the wet grass to cross the bridge near the Earth Centre and railway station. The Earth Centre is now all closed down ... It was supposed to be a museum to teach kids about ecolology, but I can't think of anything less ecological than using a lot of resources to build a huge complex and then leaving it abandoned.

- By the time I reached the castle it was 4.15pm ..I wasn't going to pay the £4 it now costs so I walked around the outside. Just after that it got dark. I took the bus back to Doncaster and got back to Brigg after 7pm.

- The walking made a pleasant change of enviroment but it wasn't amazing.

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