Hello,
You have my sympathy. Crohn's disease is a chronic condition that can have a severe and debilitating effect on your life. It can become incredibly aggressive and completely overwhelm your life in a very short space of time. It can be years before a correct diagnosis has been made so you may have experienced some symptoms prior to this.
The effects of any flare-ups can be nasty. It can affect any part of the digestive system but it is often found in the small intestine. At its most aggressive, it affects the lining of the intestine. There are other side-effects in addition to the severe abdominal pain and constipation, you may find that you experience joint pain and rashes too among other things. When a severe flare-up occurs, it can suddenly seem as if it is becoming aggressively worse.
It is often known as the relapsing and remitting disease and this means that the symptoms can just suddenly disappear, giving you some much-needed breathing space. At this moment in time, it is not possible to cure Crohn's disease, so symptoms can suddenly appear again. But there can be quite long bouts in between. It is not restricted to one area either, as fast as one part of the bowl settles, another area can flare-up.
It's so important to seek out professional medical help because there are medicines that can help to at least reduce the symptoms or have the potential to reduce the aggressive flare-ups.
It's easy to get stressed out about the condition too and then worry about when the next bout will occur but stress may well be a trigger that really makes it worse.
If you have support from friends and family then I would make the most of this as otherwise, it can make you feel quite isolated, certainly whilst you are in the grips of the worst pain and discomfort.
I'd be really interested to know how others cope with the intensity and aggressiveness as although it affects people individually, certainly the more you know about it, the more you can understand what will work for you.
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