Paolo Gaspar

I have Crohn’s Disease. It’s an autoimmune disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract, and can cause extreme pain. There is no cure. For me, it’s usually anywhere from my stomach to my colon. It took several months before I was diagnosed. I lost about 30lbs from May to November in 2006 and I set a new personal record for the number of sick days I took off from work. At one point, I was taking up to seven drugs at the same time to cope wit the symptoms (that’s what happens when you don’t get diagnosed in a timely manner).

Aside from stomach aches, my symptoms include blood in my bowels, fevers, and extreme fatigue. I made multiple trips to the hospital at the suggestions of the people around me, but I’ve never been admitted because of my Crohn’s.

Since a cure has not yet been discovered, the only way to deal with it is through treatment. I’ve had success with two types of treatments; prednisone, and a drug which I’m taking in a clinical trial at the moment.

Prednisone is an immunosuppressant, and it’s quite potent too. It literally worked its magic in a matter of hours the first time I took it. My doctor prescribed prednisone to me to put my Crohn’s into remission. Prior to that, my aches would put me out of commission for about 10 minutes a time, maybe 10 times a day (and that’s just during work). I was told that I might get chubby as a side effect, but that didn’t happen (though I wouldn’t have minded since there was only about 120lbs of mass on my 5′11″ frame at the time). Prednisone is a temporary fix though, and my crohn’s came back about 3 months after going into remission in February of 2007.

The less temporary treatment that I’ve received is care of a clinical trial that I’ve decided to participate in. The drug is injected underneath the skin a few inches to each side of my belly button. It seems to be working as I’ve been on remission for about seven months now.

My symptoms are beginning to return. My coffee is making my stomach upset, I have to stop during work because of pain, and I seem to get fatigued quite a bit easier (though that could just be the recency effect from all of the studying I’ve had to do over the last week and a half).

So what’s the point of this post? Nothing, really. I just like to track my own progress and look back on it. I like to look back on this stuff when I get a bad day during remission so I can say, “well, it could be worse.”